Plenty of first time Plesk (and dedicated hosting) users are often confused when it comes to adding users to a new MySQL database.  They can create the MySQL database with no issues, but adding a user can be a little trickier.

The option to create a MySQL database user should become available after you click on the database name from within Plesk.  As you can see sometimes it is the obvious issues that get in our way the most.

Plesk offers a powerhouse of tools and services to use to manage our dedicated hosting servers, but as with anything it pays to read up on it before you jump in with both feet.  All control panels are pretty much the same, they just have different ways of getting these jobs done.

One of the best ways I often recommend for people to get around the GFoC (Great Firewall of China) issues is to move towards Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated hosting.

On a shared hosting server where you might be sharing your hosting setup with anything from three hundred to four hundred (or maybe even more).  Your chances are higher that somebody on one of those dedicated hosting servers will get caught by the GFoC.  It is a simple math issue.

Now on a dedicated hosting server, you are on a server with fewer people.  Sometimes you may be the only other one on that machine.  So in turn, as far as the GFoC goes you are a needle in a proverbial haystack. 

Virtual Private Servers have become a great resource for semi-dedicated web hosting and for webmasters who have simply outgrown the shared web hosting market but for whatever reason cannot afford or are not ready to upgrade to dedicated server hosting.

So what is a Virtual Private Server (VPS)?

VPS web hosting is simply a dedicated server that is split into smaller shared web hosting sections. It differs from a shared server in that in shared hosting, you could be sharing the server with upwards of 500 different webmasters, which means that you get 1/500th of the server’s CPU. This is normally divided into less than 1% of the CPU and if you go over, your account is likely suspended from the web host until you fix the cause of the usage or upgrade to a plan that can support that kind of environment.

For virtual private server hosting, you are normally guaranteed a set portion of the server’s RAM and in some cases, you can go over this amount if the others sharing your server space don’t use their portion. The best VPS hosting providers will only put 25 people or less on your VPS web hosting plan with you – this gives you added freedoms to install applications and run more resource-intensive scripts which could have been potentially dangerous in a completely-shared environment.

VPS web hosting plans are normally much cheaper than dedicated web hosting plans. You can plan to pay anywhere between $40-80/month for a basic virtual private server web hosting plan.

**UPDATE: Lunarpages Web Hosting is offering a HUGE discount on their Windows VPS Web Hosting Plan. Normally priced at $69.95/month, they have lowered the price to $39.95/month, a complete bargain in this industry. This is a limited time promotion and no coupon code is necessary.**

VPS or Virtual Private Server hosting is often known as training wheels for dedicated hosting and a dedicated server setup. 

A VPS hosting plan is like a mixture of the shared resources of a shared hosting plan and a little more of the freedom of a dedicated hosting plan due to the fact that you are put on a server with a less amount of people on it.

Many will often use a VPS plan as a testing ground to see if it is enough for them to keep their site stable (after moving up from shared hosting) and later on find it much easier to move into the dedicated hosting environment.

If you need more server resources, but you want to learn more about managing a dedicated server before jumping in with both feet a VPS hosting setup might be right for you.

You can think of your hosting needs as a meal, a lunch a brunch even.  As meals comes in different shapes and sizes, so do your hosting wants and needs.  Knowing the right meal to pick when your hungry is the difference between if you will need a doggy bag or if you paid too much for something you might not need. 

Shared Hosting

You can think of this as the fast food of the hosting world.  It is smaller, quicker to setup but if your looking for a deluxe fancy lunch with all the trimmings you had better look elsewhere.  Sure, it might feed your hunger - but I am a big guy with big needs.  I might want a baked potato on the side, smothered with butter.  That would be your real world equivalent to more RAM or CPU usage.

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server hosting is the in-between.  This would be your TV dinner that is made to look like it came from one of those fancy "high-class" eating establishments.  Once you pop it in the microwave it is almost like eating at your favorite expensive restaurant - but it still doesn’t delight your pallet as much as a real meal would.  VPS has everything your dedicated hosting would have but it is trimmed down some as far as your limits go.

Dedicated Hosting

Now dedicated hosting would be putting on your suit and tie and going to that all you can eat buffet.  You get your server resources, your bandwidth, your disk space and you can do whatever you need to do with your hosting (as long as you stay within the rules of the web host).  This type of hosting both fill you up and won’t leave you hungry for more.

If you are just starting out as a webmaster, most reliable dedicated hosting companies will tell you to start off with shared hosting and move into dedicated server hosting when your website outgrows the shared server. When this time comes, your web hosting provider should alert you or, if you have server monitoring tools, you can see when to upgrade yourself.

Either way, there are several things you should take into account as you look into upgrading your web hosting account to a VPS or dedicated hosting plan.

* Price – this is a big requirement for most. Ask your web host what the new charges will be. Will they prorate a refund for you if you’ve already renewed your smaller plan? Do they offer discounts? Can you try it month-to-month? Do you still have a money back guarantee?

* File transfers – does your host offer to move the files for you? Normally, they will offer this only if you are using the same control panels, so if that’s an extra cost, you should factor that in to assure your files are transferred smoothly.

* Support – do they offer Dedicated or VPS technical support? Is that support 24/7?

* Managed Hosting – is your web host going to take your money and force you to manage the server yourself? Make sure they offer managed hosting solutions so you’re not all alone.

Are you interested in becoming a Web Hosting Reseller? Reselling web hosting to customers is actually easier than you might think, and sometimes, the only thing you’ll need to take care of is the billing for your clients! As you resell the web hosting space issued by another provider, you can make quite a bit of money this way.

But should you choose Reseller Web Hosting, VPS Web Hosting, or Dedicated Server Hosting?

* Reseller Web Hosting

This option is best if you would like your customers to each have a set amount of storage space, bandwidth, emails, etc. Their accounts will be the same and are most likely quite small, but they work out best if your clients just need a simple webpage or two for a small personal website. Reseller hosting can be very cheap, and you can mark up the prices as high as you’d like to make as much money as you’d like.

* VPS (Virtual Private Server) Web Hosting

Despite what you might think, it’s not a good idea to resell web hosting space on a VPS hosting plan. As you are still sharing the server resources with others, reseller hosting on a virtual private server can be draining on the server and can bog it down for everyone else. We wouldn’t recommend you use VPS as a reseller hosting option.

* Dedicated Server Hosting

This is the best option for webmasters who need various web hosting options for their clients. If one client needs 1GB storage and another needs 10GB, you can divide the total storage space amount as you see fit. The more clients you have, the bigger the dedicated server you’ll need. This is the most expensive option, but it is the most beneficial for managing multiple websites and clients – the best part is, you’ll get your own domain nameservers, so you’ll be as legitimate a company as anybody else!

VPS web hosting or Virtual Private Server web hosting has become one of the most popular alternatives to dedicated server hosting on the market today. But if you have never heard of VPS web hosting, you’re likely to just skip over this extremely effective type of web hosting plan!

So what is VPS web hosting? Simply put, Virtual Private Servers do the same thing shared web hosting servers do – they split up the server space to provide many websites with access to web hosting. However, there’s one major difference; while shared web hosting can incorporate as many as 500 customers on one single server, the best VPS web hosting provider will only put 20 websites at most on one server. This allows you to have better CPU and processor performance, and you can also have SSH web hosting access to the server, whereas with Shared web hosting, any reliable web host will not provide this, as it is a danger to your website.

VPS web hosting can really mean the difference between your large website running slowly or your website being optimized for success. If your website has large bandwidth needs, CPU or RAM resources, you’re going to be better off with a VPS or Dedicated Server Hosting plan, because these types of web hosting plans will be best for your needs.

Having a large amount of RAM is important to any web hosting server but especially to any Dedicated Server Hosting plan.  RAM (or Random Access Memory) is basically computer data storage that allows a user to access any “memory” on the server.  The more RAM, the faster your server is going to run and the quicker your website will load.

So how much RAM do you need?  That depends what you’re planning to host.  If you require a Dedicated server to resell space like a Reseller and the sites under you are small or don’t require much CPU or bandwidth, you’ll likely be find with the default amount, while if you’re planning to become the next Myspace or will be on the front page of Digg often, you’ll want to look into adding more – remember, you can never have too much RAM!

If you’re looking into Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Lunarpages offers 512MB RAM guaranteed, which means your site is going to experience optimized performance from a Shared Server.

If you’re planning to go Dedicated, you should take the following things into consideration in choosing the amount of RAM you add to your server:

* How popular is your website bandwidth-wise?  High bandwidth sites require more RAM.
* Are you running a large database?
* Are you running CPU-intensive scripts?

When searching for website hosting, you need to know what kind of hosting plan to purchase.  There are shared hosting plans, windows hosting plans, VPS hosting plans, and Dedicated Hosting Plans.  While it’s easy to tell the difference between Shared vs Dedicated Hosting, it might not be as simple to see what the differences are between Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Dedicated Hosting.

A Virtual Private Server hosting plan is aimed at users who require SSH or root access to the server and users who need a guaranteed amount of RAM and processor speed.  You are still sharing the server space with a VPS plan; however, you are only sharing the server with 20-25 other people.  Be cautious in choosing the right cheap VPS hosting provider, as many unknown hosts will attempt to pack too many customers on one VPS server.  Our recommended Dedicated hosting provider offers VPS hosting plan for under $40/month and offers guaranteed 512MB RAM.

A Dedicated Server Hosting Plan is aimed at customers who not only require SSH access and guaranteed RAM but who do not want to share the server space and processor with any other users.  Dedicated server hosting is best for bandwidth intense, high storage, and extreme resource websites.  Game servers, websites that make the front page of Digg or other popular social networking sites, resellers, web designers, and even web hosts.

A word of advice:  look for cheap Dedicated Server Hosting!  There are many providers who will charge a fortune for the same services as an experienced, affordable host, so go with a recommended choice.

Overall, check out the kinds of resources you’re going to be demanding of your server and that should provide you with further insight into your needs and help you understand if you need a VPS or Dedicated server.