Many webmasters who utilize dedicated server hosting use it for media servers or, more exactly, for streaming video servers. It might be helpful for those of you in the market to run the next YouTube.com to be aware of what you’ll need to accomplish this.

Firstly, you may be wondering what the heck streaming servers or streaming video is! A streaming video server is just a dedicated web server setup to stream videos on demand. Your dedicated server needs to be configured to stream media effectively, by offering a compressed file version that can be easily viewed and listened to by your customers, fans, or regular surfers at the same time that it’s being delivered and processed on the server.

Methods of Streaming Media

You can use a true streaming method, which means your video is almost constantly streamed exactly while it’s being downloaded. Think of YouTube.com for this example. In true media streaming, the dedicated server and streaming video software does all the work, which produces a great end result for the user but which can also be very costly for management! Oftentimes, adding streaming media software to an already existing dedicated server is the most affordable option.

The other option is downloading, which we’re all pretty familiar with. This is far cheaper because the entire video file is downloaded and saved as a temporary file on the computer. However, this method is not suitable for a YouTube.com type dedicated server.

There is a plethora of free streaming media software available on the internet for your perusal and use.

Why Stream Media Live?

If you are running any of the following server types on your dedicated server, your visitors will appreciate live streaming of video or audio for their convenience:

* A YouTube.com clone
* An adult website (make sure you choose an adult web host)
* A video-sharing website
* A podcasting server
* Silverlight media server

What kind of dedicated server do I need?

Go with something BIG because you will need it! I would recommend the following features:

* Dual or Quad Core Xeon Processor
* at least 2 x 1024 MB RAM
* at least 2 x 500 GB SATA Hard Drives
* Raid 4 or 5
* at least 3,000GB bandwidth

Please take a look at our dedicated hosting coupons for the best dedicated server deals you can find, which are sure to knock down the primarily steep price for you!

You’re thinking of ordering a brand new, shiny dedicated server. You’ve got your domain name, you’ve chosen a reliable dedicated hosting provider like Lunarpages, and you’ve found the best dedicated hosting coupon available. So…now what?

Have you decided what kind of dedicated server you are going to be running? Look over these fun options to find the best solution for your dedicated server hosting plan!

Media Server Hosting

This is becoming a very popular choice for dedicated server hosting, as media websites like YouTube.com or social network sites like MySpace.com utilize media in incredible ways. With media server hosting, you are running a website primarily to serve streaming or live media content to your audience. You can store music and video files to stream on the web using Flash Media, Windows Media, or even Microsoft Silverlight, the hottest technology for media server hosting.

Make sure you choose a dedicated web hosting provider who allows media server hosting and can offer competitive amounts of storage space and data transfer bandwidth. This way, you’ll never have to worry.

Game Server Hosting

Do you like multiplayer games? Need to host your game for players around the world to be able to join in? You can create a whole world and community on your dedicated server by running it as a game server. Depending on the popularity of your game or games, you may need to cluster or join many servers together to create a network of interlocked dedicated servers. These servers provide the massive amounts of bandwidth necessary to have game players from all over the world connecting to your website! Game server hosting is extremely popular and you can make a ton of money through advertising and player upgrades.

Social Network Server Hosting

If you like MySpace or Facebook, you can create a website of your own to match them or even make a better site. Imagine creating something as popular as Myspace…right on your own server!! This means you have control over membership payments, you can deploy advertisements and sell ad space, and you can collect the revenue from partnering with other companies, etc.

Hosting a social networking website means an incredibly heavy load on your web server, so make sure you choose a reliable dedicated hosting provider who can handle the CPU resources, bandwidth, storage space, and even features necessary for these massive web hosting accounts. You should choose a dedicated server hosting company who can allow you to grow as your website does and who won’t limit you to ordering 10 servers if and when you need them.

Other Dedicated Hosting Options

Chat server hosting, forum server hosting, blog web hosting, personal web hosting, and even adult web hosting are all options for your dedicated server. Remember, you can also run your dedicated server as a web or database server as well, so if your aim is just a simple, clean, dedicated server hosting solution for your business or ecommerce website, you can’t go wrong.

Dedicated server hosting can take many formats, from simple web servers designed just to showcase your products and services to complex ecommerce or social media streaming servers that are clustered between several powerful dedicated servers. Really, it’s ultimately up to you what you want to do with your dedicated web hosting server – just make sure the technology you are paying for is supporting your dedicated hosting ideas.

So what is a media server? And what is media server hosting?

A media server is really exactly what is sounds like – a server that houses media and can stream live content for video, audio, or any media format. Media servers are useful for adult web hosting, social network web hosting, game server hosting, popular band web hosting, or trendy podcast web hosting. If you use your server as a media server, you can stream your videos in live feeds or offer your podcasts on demand! Media servers are useful for ecommerce websites as well, to put you ahead of your game.

What can you do with media server hosting?

* Run Windows Media live and Microsoft Silverlight instantly
* Stream Flash Content
* Stream Quicktime Content
* Real Networks Streaming
* Live Event Video/Audio Streaming – perfect for adult websites, television stations, radio shows, bands or orchestras, religious organizations, or any other live event website

Adult web hosting is hard to find in a shared web hosting environment. Because adult web hosting can use up a lot of server resources and requires a great deal of physical bandwidth on the server, most adult hosts choose a dedicated server when they’re creating their adult websites. Shared web hosting is very limited in this regard.

There are a couple things you’ll want to look for in an affordable dedicated hosting provider, though.

Bandwidth & Storage

Hosting an adult website is going to eat up your web hosting storage, so get plenty of it. If you’re just starting out, plan ahead – come up with a feasible allotment and add 5-10GB to that to be prepared.

As you can imagine, adult websites also eat up a lot of bandwidth, because so many customers and potential customers are viewing your website. So like the scenario above, add at least 50-100GB to your target in case your site gets more popular than expected. Better safe than sorry!

Support

24/7 Technical Hosting Support is great! Then again, a web host can have great support but not allow adult hosting. So ask that first and foremost. Does your dedicated web hosting support adult web hosting?

Price

It always comes down to the price of your dedicated server. Look around for the best dedicated server prices and then ask for dedicated hosting coupons and discounts.

Support for Growth

Does your dedicated hosting provider support the growth of your adult website? If they don’t have multiple dedicated plans for you or cannot support a customized dedicated quote for your website, then you should look elsewhere.

Support for Media

Your adult website is going to have pictures, video, music, and audio, right? If your dedicated host doesn’t compliment a media server, you’re in trouble!

Are you planning to run a legal adult website?  Are you finding that it’s extremely difficult to find a web host who allows adult content?  Even when you do find a host, is your adult server too expensive?

These are all common problems for businesses running adult websites and looking for an adult web host.  The most difficult part of running your adult site is often finding a reliable, affordable dedicated web host to host your business.  The next step is understanding what is allowed and what is not.

What You Need:

* Plenty of hard drive space and bandwidth!  If you are running a successful adult website on a dedicated server, you are going to see a great deal of traffic and you cannot exist on a shared server.

* Uptime – 99.9% uptime is standard.

* Managed Hosting – make sure your site is taken care of 24/7/365

* IP Address – you’ll need this for SEO (search engine optimization) and to process online payments

What You Should Ask:

Make sure you ask your future provider the following questions:

• Do you allow legal adult content?
• What are your rules on adult content?
• Do you charge extra to host adult content?

You will definitely want to be on a Dedicated Server Hosting plan if you are running an adult website.  Try our recommend dedicated host for quality adult webhosting at an affordable price.