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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Legend
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Hi.  My website is growing and we have outgrown our shared server and need to move up to a dedicated server. Does anyone have any experiences or recommendations for a hosting company ? Looking for a good deal on something not too wimpy. I also prefer cpanel, but it's not gonna kill me if they don't use that. I also prefer live 24/7 chat for support.. (My current host spoils me, but they don't have dedicated servers) I need to move pretty quickly before my current host gets unhappy. We are really beating on their box.
Last edited by EveDawg; 06/14/10 10:12 PM.
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Legend
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I used to use 1and1.com for this site.
Had I not had additional needs aside from this site, it would have been well more than adequate.
They also started to upgrade the hardware for their dedicated servers just as I started to build this machine (we're a Colocated Private Server now, instead of a rented Dedicated Server).
Of all the Ded. Servers I looked at, they had the best prices going. Some (Speakeasy.net) didn't even want to talk to me unless I was going to also sign up for a bunch of add-on services.
I take it that you've outgrown a Virtual Server already? If you haven't tried that route, it is a fairly cost-effective alternative to having a dedicated server.
Just now looking at their site, they have some interesting offerings, including a new Cloud Server offering, which allows you to dynamically configure a server to fit your needs.
Depending on what you are coming from, that may well be your best bet... particularly if you don't need lots of storage.
Their dedicated server offerings are decent, but to get some really big iron, it's going to come with a really big monthly price...... that is the biggest reason I finally decided to build my own and Colo the hosting. I had a massive outlay of cash upfront, but the monthly hosting fees are barely more than their cheapest dedicated server, while giving me more power and performance than their 2nd best server offering.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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I had bad experiences with 1and1 in the past so I probably wouldn't use them again. I was thinking about a VPS, but in the long run we will outgrow that too. My site is a SIM game that leans heavy on the DB and CPU. Eventually I will code some other games, so might as well get a server that can host those as well. I mainly only want to move us once if possible because the users will be unhappy while there is downtime. Money isn't a huge issue, I just want the most bang for my buck.
Right now I'm looking at GoDaddy only because I don't recognize the names of any of these other companies I'm googling. I don't know who is good or bad. Hm.
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Legend
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Legend
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If you want the most bang for your buck, built it yourself to your specs and go with a colocation service.
You could then ensure that your server could handle whatever your users threw at it without having to worry about anyone else's services gumming up the works.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
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Legend
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Legend
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Rackspace is a solid name in the hosting world, though I have no idea what their pricing is like. Being that this is for your sim game, and Uptime is of major importance, you may want to investigate the Cloud Hosting a bit more.... it is eminently scalable, so as your needs grow, so can your server. http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_products/serversp.s. Out of curiosity, what was your development time for that game? Did you contract out the graphics aspect of it?
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Quote:
If you want the most bang for your buck, built it yourself to your specs and go with a colocation service.
You could then ensure that your server could handle whatever your users threw at it without having to worry about anyone else's services gumming up the works.
I don't have those kinds of skills. I'm a programmer, I don't know hardware stuff. I need a server were the sys admins take care of everything, I just do the webmaster type things. (and yes, I know this will be more expensive)
Last edited by EveDawg; 06/14/10 10:45 PM.
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Quote:
Rackspace is a solid name in the hosting world, though I have no idea what their pricing is like.
Being that this is for your sim game, and Uptime is of major importance, you may want to investigate the Cloud Hosting a bit more.... it is eminently scalable, so as your needs grow, so can your server.
http://www.rackspacecloud.com/cloud_hosting_products/servers
p.s. Out of curiosity, what was your development time for that game? Did you contract out the graphics aspect of it?
Alpha version was coded in 3 months. And adding on features ever since then (1 year). And yes, I have a contractor that does graphics for me.
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Legend
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Another company to look at is http://www.theplanet.com/ Quote:
I need a server were the sys admins take care of everything, I just do the webmaster type things.
Then a regular dedicated server may not be what you're looking for, as you own and are in charge of the operating system and everything on a standard dedicated server, including setup and configuration of the web server, mail daemons, etc...
Perhaps a Managed Dedicated Server? I think you may be able to get that with the cloud computing as well..... but that is where it may be best to talk to a sales rep with one of the companies.
As for 1and1 - I have heard of some folks having bad experiences with 1and1, but perhaps that is just for the smaller hosting packages?
I had us with them for well over a year and I had VERY few issues, and every time something came up, their response was very quick and spot on.... I *never* got brushed off and I rarely waited more than a minute or two to get someone on the phone. Again, perhaps that just comes with being a different class of customer, however, which you'd be if you got the dedicated server from them (you also go into a different support queue if you have issues).
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 28,300
Legend
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Legend
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 28,300 |
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 17,438
Legend
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OP
Legend
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It is mostly PHP. Nothing too complicated to code. ThePlanet looks interesting. Looks like they will do all the server mgmt for me. I will have to call them and GoDaddy tomorrow. I'm not sure on the cloud computing one, my site has huge bandwidth (right now we are averaging 50,000 pageviews a day (not including the forum), during off-peak time of the month). I need to find something tomorrow as we are maxing out db connections on the server sporadically and the host will kick us out soon, I'm sure, as this will impact other sites. My beef with 1and1 was that I had a small site a while back, and cancelled it, and they continued to charge my credit card for a year (which I didn't notice). Then I got a new credit card and they still kept my account accruing costs until they finally sent a letter asking for money. And I was like WTF I cancelled a year ago ! And had to fight with them to get the charges removed. 
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And random fun fact about the artwork in that game. The horse portraits weren't individually drawn by the artist as there's mind boggling number of color combinations. They are layers of colors dynamically combined on the fly based on the horse's genetics to produce the final image. My artist produced all of the layers and I wrote the code to combine it. It was rather neat.
Anyways.... I digressed from server issues.
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Dawg Talker
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Dawg Talker
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Stupid question time. (what else could you expect from me  ) What's on your website??
LET'S GO BROWNS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ![[Linked Image]](http://www.dawgtalkers.net/uploads/OldSixty-Two/new0400001.jpg) [b]WOOF WOOF[b]
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Legend
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Quote:
It is mostly PHP. Nothing too complicated to code. ThePlanet looks interesting. Looks like they will do all the server mgmt for me. I will have to call them and GoDaddy tomorrow. I'm not sure on the cloud computing one, my site has huge bandwidth (right now we are averaging 50,000 pageviews a day (not including the forum), during off-peak time of the month). I need to find something tomorrow as we are maxing out db connections on the server sporadically and the host will kick us out soon, I'm sure, as this will impact other sites.
Yeah, that was the one area where the Cloud seemed pricy as I get 2TB of data transfer per month with my colo... that would cost nearly $1000 in a Cloud.
50,000 views.... We had that here early on (it has dropped off dramatically the past year or two) and the Dedicated Server that we had was generally able to handle it just fine.
I'd expect that if you got one of the middle of the road servers, it would be more than good enough for now while giving you the room to grow a little.
What sort of hosting are you on now??
Quote:
My beef with 1and1 was that I had a small site a while back, and cancelled it, and they continued to charge my credit card for a year (which I didn't notice). Then I got a new credit card and they still kept my account accruing costs until they finally sent a letter asking for money. And I was like WTF I cancelled a year ago ! And had to fight with them to get the charges removed.
Ouch, that sucks.... but don't forget to put a little "shame on me" in there as well. Not all of that is on them 
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Joined: Mar 2008
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Legend
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Legend
Joined: Mar 2008
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I use ipage and hostmonster, hostmonster i think has the best control panel, but ipage is right there with it.
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. -John Wayne
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I'm on a hostmonster shared server right now. Their cpanel is da bomb. I like their hosting services a lot. I really like that they have 24/7 chat support so that if you need anything at all you can just click and chat with someone. They are very responsive. I am sad that they don't offer dedicated servers, but oh well. ThePlanet looks good. I didn't get to call them today because my PC's hard drive died twice today. And had to be replaced twice.  And now I am rebuilding everything. *cry* Hopefully soon I can get us moved. I know we are being rude by staying on that server and need to move up asap.
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Legend
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I didn't realize that there was differences in CPanel.... except perhaps across versions. I always thought CPanel was CPanel (although there are different products that provide the same functionality).
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 17,438
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Could be, I don't know. It is probably like anything, they can configure it how they like, but I'm just guessing because this is the only cpanel I've encountered. I like it very much compared to webmaster tools I've seen on other hosts.
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Purp, hope you got my PM. I never know because for some reason sent messages never show up in my sent list. And I went with ThePlanet, they gave me a decent deal. We are moving this weekend. I am nervous about it. I let my users know and they are actually excited. I will be excited AFTER the site is moved. LOL
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Legend
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I feel for ya... a server move is always a nervous experience. Ensuring that the new environment is set up correctly is always a pain in the butt.... then, if it uses a different version of PHP, you may have code tweaks, etc... It's well worth it when it's done and things are smooth again 
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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