VPS Guide

Contents

VPS-9

Radified

Forums

Blog

Radified Guide to Virtual Private Servers | Upgrade to VPS from Shared Web Hosting: Page 8

VPS Guide

Contents

VPS-9

Radified

Forums

Blog

Radified Guide to Virtual Private Servers | Upgrade to VPS from Shared Web Hosting: Page 8

Web Hosting Options: Outline of Categories

• Shared Web Hosting » Apartments of the Web Hosting world: cheap, high-density living. Up to 500 customers reside on a single server, where "landlords" impose considerable restrictions over your living space.

The biggest advantage of Shared web hosting » it's cheap. You get a lot for what little you pay. Long as you don't try to use everything they offer, you should be fine.

• Virtual Private Server » Condos of the Web Hosting world: low-density living, at a price considerably less than Dedicated. You have 99% control over your "living space." The page you're currently reading is hosted on a VPS.

Normally VPS clients can install any software they like, with the possible exception of changing the version/distro of Linux, which is sometimes used by all clients on a particular server, depending on the particular virtualization software your server uses.

Best VPS Web Hosting Provider

WiredTree uses Virtuozzo, which does NOT support different operating systems for each client. (WiredTree uses CentOS 5, which some folks claim is based on Redhat, but CentOS makes a point of denying any such connection.)

Note: several flavors of VPS hosting are available, as dictated by the specific virtualization software employed (by the company who owns your physical server)...

.. such as Virtuozzo (what WiredTree uses), OpenVZ (open source version of Virtuozzo), and the hypervisors: Xen (cool name, open source) and VMWare (most mature, pricey). Each have their own pro's & con's. Many people continue to debate the relative advantages of each in discussion forums online.

• Dedicated servers » Single-family homes of the Web Hosting world. No sharing at all. You have 100% control over your entire server (Woohoo!), tho these luxuries cost considerably more than what you typically pay for a VPS. Dedicated servers represent the ultimate web hosting solution.

Shared Web Hosting vs Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

As previously mentioned, Shared web hosting is likened to living in a big apartment building. Similarly, you share the physical structure (building/server) with many other tenants.

You don't actually own the unit, so you can't modify it to suit your needs .. beyond minor cosmetic changes, such as arranging the personal items (files/furniture) that you bring in yourself.

Most people launch their web sites with a Shared hosting provider because they a lot for what little you pay. But if you actually start using what they claim is available, your host will deem your usage "excessive," and pressure you to upgrade, (to either VPS or a Dedicated server) .. cuz they really don't want you to move (like I did), which would mean losing a customer.

Long as your site doesn't place many demands on the server (doesn't use many resources), you should be happy with a Shared hosting account. (And they'll be happy with you.) But, what if your site starts growing? What if traffic grows? And you start using more than your "fair share" of server resources?

You'll receive a nastigram .. claiming you're hogging server resources .. and that you need to either:

  1. Reduce your usage of server resources (which you most likely CAN'T)
  2. Upgrade to a more expen$ive plan (either VPS or a Dedicated server)

They may even CANCEL your account outright (tho probably not), or transfer your site to a so called "Stabilization server" (like they did with me). But once you get a bad taste in your mouth with a particular host, it's hard to stay with them.

I must say, I did not appreciate the way Lunarpages moved my site without even first informing me. I mean, I would've liked to at least have received a notice saying, "Heads up. We'll be moving your site..."

Nor did I appreciate the tone of their warning notification, which insinuated I was somehow a derelict .. because the site was experiencing healthy traffic (something obviously beyond my control, and normally a good thing).

On the next page, we take a closer look at Shared Web Hosting, and see how providers continue to offer unrealistic amounts of disk space and bandwidth, far more than they can reasonably deliver. (Fraud, or mere dishonesty?)

NEXT » Realities of Shared Web Hosting | Providers Offer Unrealistic Amounts of Disk Space & Bandwidth

For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query » web hosting options categories shared virtual vps dedicated

This page was created with Dreamweaver, using XHTML 1.0 standards.

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional