Dedicated Server versus Shared hosting

Hey Guys,

I am rather un-informed when it comes to servers. I know most of the time a shared hosting plan is fine if your simply running a smaller site or portal.

But at what point do you want to begin looking into having a dedicated server? Also what are the benefits of having a dedicated server versus a large account on a shared host. Having a dedicated server is quite a bit more than even just having a larger shared plan.

I am in the process of starting something that is going to be rather large and I want to make sure I have all my bases covered. Thanks for the input.

[bsgjunkie]

There arent many private sites I can think of that need their own server. Some of the large message boards (4000+ members) use dedi servers because of the volume of users online at peek hours (300+). It all depends on what your new site is going ot offer. Another thing to think about is how many sites do you currently run, and what would the cost difference be to run them all from one dedi compaired to the shared hosting you have now. The last thing to look into is local server farms. Some times you'll be able to rent 1u or 2u space (the server space) for relatively cheap every month. You'll have to purchase and maintain the server, but it can be done for a lot cheaper then renting a dedi.

I have a slight (make that huge) hang over so this post is probably pretty messy. If you need help, PM me with the your projected bandwidth, users, and content and I can help you out.

Chris

[Ritch111]

Jeremy,

I used to run a network that had 5 web servers each dedicated to its own site. This was way overkill for the web traffic. The servers took a lot of hits. It ws the database backend servers that took the load. Is your new site DB driven with a lot of transactions? A regular REDUNDANT server would be just fine for a regular site that takes a lot of traffic. It's what happens when you have DB's and such. I run a web server out of my house that could probably handle your site , however you need redundancy drives, power, etc... I've used both Verio and Rack space before, but can't really help you from there since it's been a long time.

Ritch

[BobbyD]

Hi Jeremy,

Great site, i've been a lurking for a while, great info here.

I have a dedicated and I barely use 10% of its resources and Im running 20+ sites with decent trafic. As the above post mentioned, its good if you have a resource intensive app running such as a message forum.

I you plan on puuting all your poker sites on the same box, make sure your provider can give you ip addresses with different Class C's. That way if you cross link your sites or do multiple site link exchanges with others, you'll get the credit.

BD