Dedicated Server Shopping Tips

July 27, 2010

When shopping for a dedicated hosting solution, there are a lot of things you should make note of and watch out for. here are a few dedicate server shopping tips next time you decide to toss one in your shopping cart.

Review the Legal Documents – Make sure you check out the terms of service or acceptable use policy for the dedicated hosting in question. This way you can be sure of what you can or can not do as well as what might happen if you run into any related problems.

How is Support – Also make sure that you check out the support options they give to you and make sure it is “enough” as far as what you need. You might also want to check into to see how managed the hosting plan you have you eye on is to see what level of “hand holding” you might get with server issues.

Additional Fees – Most web hosts will lay things out on their web site if there are any additional fees for additional services. Others like to hide this fact though. Be sure that all the additional fees that might be needed are laid out in front of you before signing on the dotted line so you know what costs might or might not be involved later down the road.

Dedicated Server Limits – Be sure to ask about server limitations too. With dedicated hosting you should have access to more than enough CPU, RAM and more. Also check in to see if the bandwidth and disk space can be upgraded for the plan and if so – then how much it will cost.

As you can see picking the right dedicated host can be a tricky situation. Review Lunarpages Dedicated hosting solutions to see how many of these tips are done right. You have to know what to watch out for mostly, and have in mind the type of hosting setup you will need. With that basic idea before you start, there is less likely of a chance you will get sold anything you do not need.

Linux Vs Windows

June 17, 2010

In the Dedicated Hosting environment, you are able to choose your own server operating system, which for some webmasters is a tough decision. If you are familiar with Linux and Windows operating systems, you should already know which one best suits your website’s needs. If you’re new to working with Dedicated Servers, however, you may be interested to know the difference between working in Linux and Windows environments.

It is extremely important to note that you do not have to run Linux on your home computer to run it on your web hosting server. The same goes for Windows – even if you have Windows XP on your home computer, you can use Linux for your Dedicated Server OS.

The biggest differences you’ll notice between a Linux and Windows platform is the cost – where Linux is an Open Source (or free) operating system and can thus be offered by your Dedicated Hosting Provider for free, the many different Windows systems come direct from Microsoft and thus carry a licensing fee for any server that runs them.

Another rather large difference between Linux and Windows is the kind of databases and website scripts they work with. Linux servers tend to work with most capabilities you may be interested in, but if you need ASP, ASP.net, MS Access, Frontpage, Windows Streaming Media support, and/or MS SQL integration, you’ll want to take a look at a Windows Server. As a rule of thumb, anything that has a license through Microsoft will generally need to be on a Windows server, but you’ll want to double check with your web hosting provider as well to see if the applications or programs you want to run will work through Linux as well.

Overall, though the two operating systems are unique and may require further knowledge of programs you need to run, both Linux and Windows Dedicated Server hosting plans do about the same thing and can be used for the same purposes.

Our recommended hosting provider, Lunarpages Dedicated Hosting, is available to give you a custom quote and can help you decide which OS is best for your website

Adult Hosting with a Dedicated Server

May 26, 2010

Legal adult web hosting requires specialized hosting services and using shared resources with a basic web host just won’t cut it?

Chances are, you are finding it almost impossible to locate a web host who allows adult content and most likely when you do, the cost is outrageous.

These are all common problems for businesses running adult websites and looking for an adult web host.  The most challenging part of running your adult site is often finding a reliable, affordable dedicated web host to host your adult business.

So what is allowed and what is not?

* STACKS 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% – you want your site online always, especially if you are running a paid business.

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

* IP Address – you will require this for SEO (search engine optimization), your secure certificate to allow you to process online payments

Ask these questions:

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

As mentioned earlier, you want to be/are required to be hosted on a Dedicated Server Hosting plan if you are running an adult website.  Be sure to check out our recommend dedicated host for quality adult webhosting at an affordable price.

VPS Versus Dedicated Hosting

May 5, 2010

Why choose dedicated over VPS?

  • VPSs (Virtual Private Servers) allows hardware to run at a higher utilization rate.
  • Management issues as VPS requires more Ethernet cables, networking and switches.
  • Hardware can run at a higher utilization rate with VPS.
  • Disk I/O performance may back up due to additional disk frags.
  • Vulnerabilities are more common and involved with VPS.
  • It is time consuming and not efficient to manage many IP addresses.
  • There are sometimes software licensing advantages when running VPS.
  • It can be challenging to make backups of one or two versions of less mainstream software and programs.
  • They are cheaper since usually they have less power costs than one physical server.
  • VPS need costly drivers like multi-port network adapters.
  • VPS are more affordable requiring less power than one dedicated server.
  • It is difficult to manage large number of IP addresses, MAC addresses etc
  • VPS overhead is less than 5% on some modern visualization software like Virtuozzo.
  • Maintaining a VPS is still more costly and patching all virtual servers with various operating systems on many physical servers requires their own maintenance.

It looks like the answer is Dedicated Web Hosting!  Check out LPDedicated.com, Lunarpages Web Hosting’s brand of dedicated affordable solutions :)

Top 10 Dedicated Server Security Tips

April 8, 2010

You can never be too safe when it comes to online dedicated server security.  Here are 10 things to consider when it comes to keeping your dedicated server secure when hosting on the Web.

1. keep software patched and up to date
2. disable unused services
3. enable and audit system logs for suspicious activity and errors aon a regular basis
4. configure a firewall, block IPs that attack for a finite period of time (like a month)

Read on…

Web Host Manager Administration Guide

February 2, 2010

Guide to Web Host Manager

The book, the Web Host Manager Administration Guide, is a great reference book for any dedicated server admin to keep handy at all times. 

WebHost Manager is a package used by web hosts to manage their servers and the individual user accounts they hold. It is part of the same package as cPanel, so the host uses WebHost Manager while the client uses cPanel. WebHost Manager is at the core of many web hosts’ business. Using web host manager, you can keep track of the accounts on your server, monitor their bandwidth and disk space usage, and much more.

Read on…

Top 5 Important Dedicated Hosting Features

November 4, 2009

When it comes to dedicated hosting, and getting your first dedicated web hosting server, you have to watch out for a lot of various things.  Here is our list of the top ten important dedicated hosting features to look for.

  1. Free Setup – Setup costs can sometimes be a hidden catch, check to see if you can get the setup to be done for free.
  2. Managed Hosting Options – If you need help, be sure to check and see if it can be provided.
  3. Processing Power – Ask to see if the processor on the server can be upgraded down the road if more power is needed.
  4. RAM Usage – Be sure you know how much RAM usage is acceptable, and what will happen if you run short.
  5. Enough Disk Space and Bandwidth – Absolutely check to see what your limitations are in disk space and bandwidth and what they can be upgraded to if needed.

Know of any more?  Feel free to share them in the comments.  Dedicated web hosting can often be a confusing mess, so it is always best to come to the situation fully prepared and know what you should be looking for as far as features go.

How to Disable Direct Root Logins

November 2, 2009

Allowing the root user to login directly is a major security issue, we’ll show you how to disable it so you can still login as root but just not directly, reducing the security issue.

This will force a hacker to have to guess 2 separate passwords to gain root access.(you do have 2 separate passwords for admin and root right?) What happens is you’ll first need to login as your admin user in SSH, then switch to the super user with the su command to get root.

We also will be forcing the use of SSH protocol 2, which is a newer, more secure SSH protocol. Just a couple more ways to help your server stay safe from the bad guys. If you’re using cPanel make sure you add your admin user to the ‘wheel’ group so that you will be able to ‘su -’ to root, otherwise you may lock yourself out of root.

Read on…

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Dedicated Hosting

September 7, 2009

How much do you know about Red Hat as it pertains to dedicated hosting?

Red Hat is one of the largest and most recognized companies in the Open Source community, probably best known for their enterprise-class operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The advanced platform really eliminates the costs and complexity of enterprise-class virtualization, high availability and storage management.  Here is more about the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 server from the developers:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available in two variants for servers. A base Red Hat Enterprise Linux server is designed for small deployments while Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform is designed for mainstream customers and provides the most cost-effective, flexible, and scalable environment. Both versions are based on common core technology. Both include a comprehensive suite of open source server applications and virtualization capabilities.

To learn more about Red Hat as a dedicated hosting OS of choice, be sure to check out this link:

For dedicated hosting needs, Red Hat is one of the best of the best.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Dedicated Hosting

How much do you know about Red Hat as it pertains to dedicated hosting?

Red Hat is one of the largest and most recognized companies in the Open Source community, probably best known for their enterprise-class operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The advanced platform really eliminates the costs and complexity of enterprise-class virtualization, high availability and storage management.  Here is more about the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 server from the developers:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available in two variants for servers. A base Red Hat Enterprise Linux server is designed for small deployments while Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform is designed for mainstream customers and provides the most cost-effective, flexible, and scalable environment. Both versions are based on common core technology. Both include a comprehensive suite of open source server applications and virtualization capabilities.

To learn more about Red Hat as a dedicated hosting OS of choice, be sure to check out this link:

For dedicated hosting needs, Red Hat is one of the best of the best.