Dedicated servers?

[Kcs5]

Sorry, I was unsure as to where to ask this question.

I need to get a dedicated server (Linux, not Windows) but am wanting to get opinions on co's that offer them. If you have one, please tell me who you have it through and if you like it, etc.

Thank you.

[incrediBILL]

Depends on whether you have real money to spend or are looking for the cheapo server with no frills.

Beware as the cheapy deals aren't all they're cracked up to be and a real dedicated server web hosting company will charge you for tech support and bandwidth. If they don't charge a reasonable fee, don't expect them to be around too long as the dime-a-dozen hosting businesses go broke every day. Anything less than $250 would raise my eyebrows, and I'd expect to pay about $500/month for decent service and reasonable bandwidth. I would actually opt for my own box at a co-location facility, but that's just me.

Tale of horror to learn from:

One of my cheapo customers got a cheapo server on BrandXXXHosting for $100/mo and they only set it up, end of story. You then take full control of the box and have to pay them to do ANY maintenance @ $90/hour, including OS SECURITY UPDATES. Therefore, being a cheapo he never updated his OS, and I'm not sure he even knew he needed to update his OS but was too cheap to pay for it anyway. The web hosting company certainly didn't do it for free and cheapo didn't pay for maintenance on the box so it stayed AS-IS, and then it got hacked, hacked and hacked again.

You get what you pay for and he didn't pay and got hacked, go figure.

Hope this helps a little!

[wheel]

One thing you might consider is finding a local company to colo. That way you can use your own hardware, and get hands on with the server when you want to install, test, compile the kernel, etc.

To continue Bill's point, there is a tradeoff between a managed server and a straight colo that you may want to consider. If you're not up to administering and securing a server, something managed might be better. I colo my servers because I want the control and don't want to be dependent on others, but administering them is a real drain on my time and money (it cost me $3-$4K in December to move and upgrade, and I'm not done yet). Then you have to worry about backups, and hacks, and traffic monitoring. I'm getting depressed just thinking about it :).

[mack]

At Webmasterworld we can't allow web hosting company reviews. I understand that you are looking for honest oppinions, and so far this is what you have received. It does however become a problem when people start using this sort of thread to promote their own interests. When it comes to web hosting everyones needs are very, very different. What works great for one user may not work so well for another. The only true way to know is to do your own research.

I suggest you use a search engine to research your options.

Thanks.

Mack.