Well, being the smart person I am, I like to plan ahead. Way ahead. So, after watching my site blossom recently, I see traffic going nowhere but up. And with so many people sending donations and buying merchandise, I feel I need to provide them with better service.

So, my shared hosting contract expires the 1st of February. So, as of now I'm still within my bandwidth allotments, and storage allotment, so I SHOULD be able to make it that long before getting a new server.

So, I have already narrowed down to a few dedicated companies with hours of searching on webhostingtalk.com, so finding the right company isn't an issue. But I had a couple questions with dedicated servers in general.

I know a lot of them are called "managed" when infact they aren't really managed other than making sure the hardware is functional. So, in terms of me being completely in control of the server, I just wonder how much time I will be putting in maintaining it?

Like, it comes with RH 7.3. Would that come preinstalled with MySQL, php, etc etc.. or would I have to install those myself? I have some experience with linux, and run mandrake 8.2 at home right now just to tinker with, but I don't know how much actual work I'd have to be doing on the server myself, as I don't have a huge amount of time.

Also, how much does SCSI benefit the server, even if the site isn't super popular? Would I notice a difference in performance really?

So, just wondering what others have experienced on dedicated servers, how much work it is compared to a shared server, etc. Also, does anyone do reselling on the side on their server as well?

We struggled with this several months ago.

While price was important... reliability and support were more important. I've got a full time job and need to do my site stuff in the wee hours of the morning and on weekedns. I need support when I need it... and having a dedicated server isn't as "dummy proof" as shared hosting.... this I have learned.

We settled on RackSpace and I would highly recommend them to anyone.

I am on our site ALL the time..... like almost 24x7... between the other admin and I we are almost always on...refreshing every minute on the who's online page if not reading/posting. The site has never been down... except for a 20 minute scheduled maintenance thing where they upgraded their power backup systems at their facilities and had to reboot everyone. We knew about it ahead of time...and it was a short outage.

When we switched our members commented on how much faster the site seemed. We were no longer "sharing" with a server or database. It just zipped along.

They claim they have "fanatical" support, and they DO. You can call them up at 3 am on a Sunday evening....and usually in 2 or 3 rings... you can speak to someone. Yes... a LIVE person... no touchtone maze! And they aren't just "dummy" people answering the phone... they can answer the questions and do tech stuff.

I've never really had a "service" issue... other than there were things I didn't know how to do. Like I needed to adjust the filesize in the php.ini and didn't know how. I opened a trouble ticket... and within like 5 mintues there was a response that my request was transfered to "Support Team B" (which is my team). Then like 15 minutes later (20 minutes total) I got a reply that the change was made. Simple. That was it.

If I get confused as to how to set up a domain or something... they have walked me through how to do things on the phone.... and/or have walked me through where to find the step by step instructions.

So I can't speak well enough of their 24x7 Fanatical Customer Service. They mean it. I'd bet the farm on their support in a heart beat.

They probably won't be the "cheapest" source out there. But then with cheap you never know if you've got some kid in his basement hosting your site. LOL

For us a decent dedicated server started at around $200/mo. We have added some extras to it very recently.

You can visit their site and build a server and get a price. Ours came with Unix (you can choose OS) and MySQL, Apache etc.. installed. I've only installed stuff for threads and photopost and neomail and myphpadmin which were no big deal. Everything else was there.. ready to use from a great "Webmin" interface that lets you do everything.

They offer "burstable bandwidth" which was important to us. Sometimes we get mentioned in an article or on TV or Radio and the traffic goes 20 fold in like a day... they can handle the extra bandwidth. They also have a 2 hour hardware replacement guarantee.... so if anything "breaks" they will be able to get us running fast.

Check them out. As I said... probably not the cheapest. But you wouldn't be disappointed. Their number is 1-800-961-2888... check it out... a HUMAN will answer!

Good Luck with your search!

Thanks Josh. I have been researching many companies for months.. rackspace has been one of the ones I'm considering.. but I won't know 100% who I'm going with until around christmas. I know its between that and one or two others, after reading all of the talk on WHT I know who's good and who isn't.

ANd you're right, support is key for people like me/you who aren't available all the time during the day and such.

Also.. how much control do you have on the server? Like how "managed" is it? Do they keep your software up to date, or is that up to you? Stuff like that.

We control the stuff that we installed... obviously.

If there's an apache upgrade or OS upgrade and such.. they usually notify us... and if we want them to do it, we just need to fill out a support ticket requesting it.

I'm not a "server tekkie". They take care of all I don't know how to do. I have lots of control (even root access) through the webmin panel. This has been useful when trying to install some stuff (like photopost/Imagemagic or neomail).

They can support other things... some for a fee and some is included. If you wanted them to tinker with threads... they would charge you. if it were PHP adjustments etc... they wouldn't.

Hope that help.

Let me know if you've got any other questions.

Who else are you considering Msula?

Nocster.com or Fastservers.net

Pros and cons of both, but price is decent... its so hard to ever decide. I'm going through a mini-fundraising campaign on my site right now, we'll see how much I bring in by the end of the year and I'll see what I can afford.

Also, a buddy of mine works in the server industry, and can probably get me compaq and HP servers AT cost. He's running some price checks for me today, so if I can get one cheap, I may just co-locate as well.

So many choices

msula,

I use Rackspace myself.... And Josh is correct.... You gotta go with them... It's amazing how friendly they are in tech support if you have a problem. It's like COOL! We get to help another person! hehe My site has never been down either. I have tried others and they have been the best and I doubt I would ever switch. I haven't checked their co-located prices but that is a good idea and I've been considering going that route lately. With prices dropping on servers it's a definite option. Although with co-location if something goes wrong with your server better have yer wallet ready 'cuz they aren't fixing it for you. At least for free.....

Yeah that 2 hour part replacement for free guarantee... plus credits for down time as a result of hardware failure.... that sorta offsets any savings of "owning" your own machine.

I like leasing my car for the same reason. I'd rather wear out someone elses "investment".

Right On Josh! How's their affiliate program? Ever sold them to anyone and got a commision?

They have a great affiliate program. We rotate their banners on our site... but have never had any signups.

It's kinda tough gettin' someone to sign up for 200+ a month.....hehe Ya know....I gotta figure out a way to get more people to my site.... Not havin' much luck with search engines as you can imagine..... Too many chatsites..... Wantin' to grow my site a bit and figure out a way to generate a little income to pay for the server.....