I'm in the process of getting everything together to begin developing and hosting sites for customers. I had a couple of questions about dedicated hosting.

If I purchase a dedicated hosting plan (you can recommend some of them ) and I begin to resell my space and bandwidth, whos responsible for support to the server? Do i have to apply patches and all that good stuff. Its not that I don't want to, its just that I'll be consumed with everything else, that I'd like to keep maintenance on the server as little as possible. Am I going about this the right way? Are there better solutions? Should I stick with affliate sign ups? Any advice would be great, Thanks in advance

mysta

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If you are referring to getting a dedicated server, there are a few routes you can go.

You can get an unmanaged server. This means that after the datacenter sets it up and gives you access, you're pretty much on your own. Their job is to keep it connected to the internet, your job is to keep it running.

You can get a partially managed server. Normally they will support the software that comes installed when you get the machine and everything else is up to you. You do the day-to-day maintenance.

You can get a fully managed server. You have a problem, you contact the datacenter. They fix the problem.

You can hire a server admin. This would be someone who does not work at the datacenter that can take care of problems for you. Would likely work out to be similar to a partially managed server in that you wouldn't want to pay (assumption) for an outside admin to do everything, that could get very costly.

I only have personal experience with partially managed servers through www.theplanet.com and www.servermatrix.com and can highly recommend them.

As for if that is the right way for you to go, you're the only one who can judge that. If you don't have a lot of linux server admin experience I would recommend getting it professionally hardened before putting any sites on it. You can find that service under $50 from several companies. Getting it setup properly upfront can save a couple hours of admin work a day. Running the server yourself is time consuming, paying someone else to do can be expensive. You have to judge if it is worth it to you.

There are a lot of people who rant and rave about VPS solutions. I am personally against them in most situations and would recommend a reseller account instead. With a VPS you get a set fraction of the CPU/RAM/Ethernet whereas a reseller has access to the full amount.

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If you want to own the equipment, you can look into co-locating as well.

This may be a dead thread, but I have a dedicated server through Cari.net and I love it. I had a bunch of sites on shared hosting but it's just so unreliable. It's kind of nice now that my sites don't break unless I break them

Anyway, once you go to a dedicated server, you'll never go back.

Also, WinSCP a *really* good app for synching files between your local computer and your server. It's way faster than manual FTP, and way faster than Dreamweaver built-in FTP also.

if you want support with your server get a Managed Server but if you or your friends can handle it get an Unmanaged one..

I would say don't even think about starting with zero knowledge. Even managed servers need you (the one footing the bill) to have knowledge of administering.

Try with a reseller account.

Ummm, what about it? Please state what your question is and you will get an answer. We are not mind readers.