Looking for a Dedicated Server

[helmuc]

Hello guys... let us see where this thread may go to..

So, I am looking for a dedicated server and at the moment my favourite is this 59.99EUR beauty: http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-md2k14

the only option that isn't showed here is = you can choose to have 2x120gb ssd hdds instead (I would go for that)

and now the question: can you match the same offer?

I would prefer to work with the UK hosting company - especially with a smaller one as small business owners get along better

The server will be used to host 1 website only: outlived.co.uk

Yes, 1 more thing - I have a ssl certificate (purchased from godaddy) and will have to use that as well.

Looking forward to grow together
Helmuts Meskonis
Media Tower Limited
Outlived Classifieds

p.s. feel free to send me your offers

 

[ldjames]

Hi Helmuts,

Online.net is a 'bottom of the barrel' sort of budget provider, so I think it is unlikely that anyone here will match that offer.

However, I can offer you an SSD virtual server on our OnApp Cloud system within that budget. Something like the following:

40GB SSD RAID10
2GB RAM
1TB Bandwidth
2 IPs
UK-based with KVM and OnApp Cloud
£49/month

We can also take care of the management, security and optimisation for you and help with the migration at no extra cost.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. As you mentioned, we're a small company and we have the time to get to know our customers individually

 

[helmuc]

However, I can offer you an SSD virtual server on our OnApp Cloud system within that budget. Something like the following:

40GB SSD RAID10
2GB RAM
1TB Bandwidth
2 IPs
UK-based with KVM and OnApp Cloud
£49/month

We can also take care of the management, security and optimisation for you and help with the migration at no extra cost.

Thank you for your offer. It will be considered.
Helmuts

 

[10032012]

why do you want a UK host? You have a lot of american listings for a .co.uk classified website!

 

[helmuc]

why do you want a UK host? You have a lot of american listings for a .co.uk classified website!

well... I would like to work with UK hosting company for a number of reasons (just too lazy to start listing them this Friday evening).

Yes, we have quite a number of US related ads and many of them are real estate ads in the USA, that are advertised by the UK company that is targeting UK real estate investors

At the moment I am using HostGator (US servers) and just want to move my main website here.

have an awesome evening,
Helmuts

 

[it-comms]

Hi

We can offer the following Virtual Private Server based on VMware

2 x vCPU
100GB Raid 10
2GB DDR3 ECC Ram
Unmetered bandwidth @ 1Gbps
2 x IP Addresses

Plesk 11 Unlimited Domain Licence with Centos 6.4 (64 Bit)
14 day Free Trial (no credit card required)

£45.00 per Month plus Vat

 

[10032012]

Avoid Plesk on Linux.

 

[it-comms]

Why

Avoid Plesk on Linux.

 

[10032012]

Plesk is one of the worst control panels.

The last time I had a CENT OS server with Plesk the low-traffic website (server bandwidth logs) exceeded so much bandwidth it not only exceeded the included bandwidth (10TB) but ended up costing triple the monthly fee. I had checked whether the server had been compromised.. it had not, the transfer can only be due to Plesk. Plesk was up to date, why so much transfer? CPanel/WHM never had this issue.

The server in question was used only for light email. Either a Plesk problem OR my host taking the ****.

 

[it-comms]

Plesk has been around for years and we have not had many issues.

Cpanel seems a mess in the way it's laid out etc. for example the DNS zone records are all over the place.

There must be something wrong with your server for it to use that much bandwidth on a low traffic website.

 

[10032012]

Well to be fair, CPanel has its issues too and security is a bigger concern. Its the better of the main control panels but for a significant websites I think its best not to use a control panel at all.

 

[ryedale]

I much prefer WHM/Cpanel and find it much easier to work with on a daily basis, particularly for server administration but I guess it comes down to what you are used to.

 

[helmuc]

As for me - I will be fine working with most panels and don't expect to have cpanel as that will add an additional (significant) price to the hosting package.

 

[Bart Simpson]

Hello guys... let us see where this thread may go to..

So, I am looking for a dedicated server and at the moment my favourite is this 59.99EUR beauty: http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-md2k14

the only option that isn't showed here is = you can choose to have 2x120gb ssd hdds instead (I would go for that)

and now the question: can you match the same offer?

I would prefer to work with the UK hosting company - especially with a smaller one as small business owners get along better

The server will be used to host 1 website only: outlived.co.uk

Yes, 1 more thing - I have a ssl certificate (purchased from godaddy) and will have to use that as well.

Looking forward to grow together
Helmuts Meskonis
Media Tower Limited
Outlived Classifieds

p.s. feel free to send me your offers

Hi,

In the above mentioned plan the price does not include everything. If you order it then you would have to add up 20 euros only for the basic monitoring of the server and the support is also limited and you have pay for full support.

You can check out what we have here http://www.eukhost.com/dedicated-server-hosting.php.
We offer 24x7 free support via phone, email, ticket and Live chat. So you can get along quite well
You can choose a server and we can work on the pricing. PM me or for more information or you can use Live Chat on our website as well.

 

[leemason]

Why do you want to go for a dedicated server? In almost every case a virtual server is superior. Not only can the system be flexed up and down in terms of CPU, memory, & disk very quickly, but because it is virtual it can generally be moved between host systems quickly if hardware failure occurs. With a fixed physical server you are generally restricted in terms of in box upgrades and because hardware changes are physical they require a lot more manual intervention and downtime.

 

[10032012]

Why do you want to go for a dedicated server? In almost every case a virtual server is superior. Not only can the system be flexed up and down in terms of CPU, memory, & disk very quickly, but because it is virtual it can generally be moved between host systems quickly if hardware failure occurs. With a fixed physical server you are generally restricted in terms of in box upgrades and because hardware changes are physical they require a lot more manual intervention and downtime.

Some might argue with this reasoning, however, I think the OP needs a virtual server at this stage - a dedicated server is a little overkill for one website with relatively little content in the grand scheme of things (i.e. not millions of database items and pages etc.).

Like Lee says above, virtual servers are more flexible. The complicated thing is not all VPS platforms are stable and some have issues. I hope a lot of this is a thing of the past.

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

Isn't online.net based out of Germany? What the others said about it being a budget bottom of the barrel provider though; they truly are.

We come in a little more expensive for a quality product at http://www.webhostingbuzz.co.uk/dedicated-servers.php if this is within your budget.

We're also offering a double bandwidth promo on all servers at the minute. See http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/t...e-uks-favourite-web-host.316849/#post-2360983 for more.

Matt

 

[ryedale]

What volume of traffic is that site getting now and what platform is it currently on?

 

[simoncrabb]

I recently moved from a dedicated server to an SSD based cloud thing from LiquidWeb and it's brilliant, fast, light, amazing service. And a fraction of the price!

 

[helmuc]

I think I should make some points clear...

I am going after the dedicated server as that will provide Outlived Classifieds the fastest loading speed and it will not share resources (as ram) with other websites >> I am after the maximum performance.

Another very important component is >> SSD drives.

For most websites it is important to have good loading speed. For me, loading speed is very important, BUT even more important is the speed advertisers can post ads and upload images to the server as that is the point where I have already lost some advertisers.

As for the traffic: my target is to get 5 thousand visitors a day (the industry average for top 7 UK classifieds is much higher).

Existing traffic is around 100 visitors/day - was 250/day (lost traffic when removed adult related ads).

@Prakash aka "WebHostingBuzz - Matt" >> online.net is a French company.. in Germany we have the giant Hetzner (my 2nd favourite).

Why am I looking to work with a small UK hosting company?

First of all > small companies (startups) could throw in an occasional technical support, update the server software and solve server related problems (if they would occur) free of charge. Therefore I am saying that I will host 1 website only (decreases the possibility of errors and problems) as well as that I don't need cPanel as most startup hosting companies can't afford it. + having local/regional business friends always helps growing your customer basis for both sides.

I would be happy to pay more - but I am realistic about my financial abilities running this long term project + I have 4 daughters and a wife to take care off ... married guys will understand what I'm talking about

So, if you are a small hosting company I would be happy to grow together with you and keep working together in the future. ... please call or pm me if you are one (even if your price is a little higher).

Thank you all for participating in this discussion and have a great Sunday,

greetings from Maidstone, Kent
Helmuts Meskonis
Media Tower Limited

Outlived Classifieds
Tel. 07473668353 (Outlived) or 07735175777

 

[helmuc]

We come in a little more expensive for a quality product at http://www.webhostingbuzz.co.uk/dedicated-servers.php if this is within your budget.

well.. this is what I see:

Yes - you offer 2x more hard drive space, but then the ram is 4x less (I agree that 8gb ram is more than enough in my case).. but the price? ... even if I have missed something else - there is no way I can afford that.

anyway, thank you for your offer.

Regards,
Helmuts

 

[leemason]

Unless you want a really high performance system (much higher performance that the DL320 mentioned initially) a virtual machine could easily outclass a simple hardware based system. If you go for someone like www.vmhosts.co.uk they also used SSD based storage on their VMs and their VMs run under VMware which is highly stable and runs major infrastructure for some of the biggest companies in the World.

 

[mzone]

I would be happy to pay more - but I am realistic about my financial abilities running this long term project + I have 4 daughters and a wife to take care off ... married guys will understand what I'm talking about

So what is your proper budget for that server with good support and 2xSSD disks?

 

[helmuc]

So what is your proper budget for that server with good support and 2xSSD disks?

I could stretch my budget to £100/month...

Good support? ... well, any hosing company should provide a good support disagree?? :?

omg guys - are you saying that nobody can match the prices offered by online.net or Hetzner?

hummm...

have a great and productive Monday,
Helmuts

 

[ryedale]

The likes of Hetzner buy servers in huge bulk amounts and can therefore sell them at far cheaper rates but without the level of support that you get from a small company as they expect you to be able to do everything yourself

For us, and for most other people on here that are providing hosting I'm sure, our prices may be higher but we know our clients personally, work with them and help them get the very best from their solutions

We can't possibly compete with the sort of prices they offer and we don't try to. Instead we focus on providing the best level of service possible to clients and making sure they get far more value for money that way.

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

I could stretch my budget to £100/month...

Good support? ... well, any hosing company should provide a good support disagree?? :?

omg guys - are you saying that nobody can match the prices offered by online.net or Hetzner?

hummm...

have a great and productive Monday,
Helmuts

Most of us focus on delivering a better product instead of rock bottom prices and a mediocre to poor product.

Are you looking for a Lada, a Ford or a BMW?

 

[Optegris]

I could stretch my budget to £100/month...

Good support? ... well, any hosing company should provide a good support disagree?? :?

omg guys - are you saying that nobody can match the prices offered by online.net or Hetzner?

hummm...

have a great and productive Monday,
Helmuts

As Matt has said, I would rather concentrate on giving a high level of support on rock solid hardware than becoming a bargain bucket host. You are of course more than welcome to take a look at what we offer but I have a feeling we will be out of your price range...

 

[KM-Tiger]

I am going after the dedicated server as that will provide Outlived Classifieds the fastest loading speed and it will not share resources (as ram) with other websites >> I am after the maximum performance.

Do you have any metrics to indicate where the bottleneck is on the existing site/server? CPU, disc, or memory?

Not a perfect analogy, but it would not benefit to get a more powerful engine if the real problem is that the brakes are stuck on.

 

[helmuc]

why do I have this feeling that it is my fault

Most of us focus on delivering a better product instead of rock bottom prices and a mediocre to poor product.
Are you looking for a Lada, a Ford or a BMW?

Are you saying that my original choice is Lada???

It doesn't mean that you have to insult me, my intellect or try to convince that I have to pay 3x times more for the same product/service if you can't provide what I want and can't compete with global offers.

----------

Mods - please lock this thread. Thank you.

wishing you a productive day,
Helmuts

 

[10032012]

Do not get too caught up on SSD disks. Its all the rage, they are expensive and much faster (enterprise class ones especially) than standard desktop hard drives. However, do note (on a good setup...) the CPU and RAM of a server is superior than a typical desktop... and (assuming you are using a proper host) you aren't talking about any 7200 rpm drives either.

It does depend on what you want the SSD disk for... personally, a faster reboot speed for a server is no major deal after all you would hardly restart it. If you are just hosting mostly static files or reading (executing) dynamic files... AND the configuration is a true cloud platform an SSD solution isn't too bad.

If you operate a server where you are constantly writing to disk (like myself), its highly probable the SSD will fail. Its no big deal on a true cloud server and not so big on a standard VPS (although will bring downtime).

You have to be conscious of so many hosts breaking ranks for purposes of being green and cheaper... so many of these hosts are now using the entry-level SSD drives you get down PC World/Maplin for around £50 (obviously they buy at wholesale). They are also largely implementing Atom processors. A recipe for disaster. Stay well clear.

Improving speed (which is a big factor for Google now) can be done by following good design tips (Google and various others have tools for this) basically avoiding blocking resources, utilise a CDN, use gzip, expires and the like.

On a budget you might prefer utilising two VPS - one being the backend (i.e. the web server) and the other a caching server holding frequently accessed files in RAM (much faster than SSD). You just have to be careful of bandwidth costs. A poorly configured set up would mean the caching server would always fetch from the backend which would actually delay the speed - so must be done properly.

Working out the bottleneck is important. The network (if poor) can suffocate a rather decent server; especially if being used with SOHO-class switch or routers. So can networks which don't do anything about DDoS attacks.

 

[helmuc]

Do not get too caught up on SSD disks. Its all the rage, they are expensive and much faster (enterprise class ones especially) than standard desktop hard drives. However, do note (on a good setup...) the CPU and RAM of a server is superior than a typical desktop... and (assuming you are using a proper host) you aren't talking about any 7200 rpm drives either.

thank you for this information - I didn't know it.

Helmuts

 

[Optegris]

It's not a case of being your fault at all, it's simply the difference between service and hardware only.

If you got a quote from 10 builders for a house extension I could guarantee you would get ten wildly different quotes...

 

[it-comms]

Hi, We can do the following

Quad Core E3-1230V2 3.3Ghz Xeon CPU
4GB DDR3 ECC Ram
2x 240GB SSD (Crucial M500)
RAID 1 Hardware
OS: Linux Centos 64Bit

2 x IP Addresses
10,000GB Bandwidth Per Month with 100 Megabit Port

£154.00 + VAT per month

or £140 without SSD Drive but with 2x 500GB 10K Velociraptor Drives

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

why do I have this feeling that it is my fault


Are you saying that my original choice is Lada???

It doesn't mean that you have to insult me, my intellect or try to convince that I have to pay 3x times more for the same product/service if you can't provide what I want and can't compete with global offers.

----------

Mods - please lock this thread. Thank you.

wishing you a productive day,
Helmuts

Certainly not trying to insult you. We're comparing apples to oranges, and I used the car type as a measure of this. Good luck with your choice.

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

Do not get too caught up on SSD disks. Its all the rage, they are expensive and much faster (enterprise class ones especially) than standard desktop hard drives. However, do note (on a good setup...) the CPU and RAM of a server is superior than a typical desktop... and (assuming you are using a proper host) you aren't talking about any 7200 rpm drives either.

It does depend on what you want the SSD disk for... personally, a faster reboot speed for a server is no major deal after all you would hardly restart it. If you are just hosting mostly static files or reading (executing) dynamic files... AND the configuration is a true cloud platform an SSD solution isn't too bad.

If you operate a server where you are constantly writing to disk (like myself), its highly probable the SSD will fail. Its no big deal on a true cloud server and not so big on a standard VPS (although will bring downtime).

You have to be conscious of so many hosts breaking ranks for purposes of being green and cheaper... so many of these hosts are now using the entry-level SSD drives you get down PC World/Maplin for around £50 (obviously they buy at wholesale). They are also largely implementing Atom processors. A recipe for disaster. Stay well clear.

Improving speed (which is a big factor for Google now) can be done by following good design tips (Google and various others have tools for this) basically avoiding blocking resources, utilise a CDN, use gzip, expires and the like.

On a budget you might prefer utilising two VPS - one being the backend (i.e. the web server) and the other a caching server holding frequently accessed files in RAM (much faster than SSD). You just have to be careful of bandwidth costs. A poorly configured set up would mean the caching server would always fetch from the backend which would actually delay the speed - so must be done properly.

Working out the bottleneck is important. The network (if poor) can suffocate a rather decent server; especially if being used with SOHO-class switch or routers. So can networks which don't do anything about DDoS attacks.

Agreed on your SSD comments. We only use Samsung 843 Pros for this very reason.

 

[helmuc]

just in a case if somebody is following this thread and is interested on switching over to dedicated servers, but is afraid to ask questions (to all the eyeballs in the dark), you can get a managed server with Xenon processors (I will personally ignore all the offers that offer servers with desktop processors), loads of ram and more than enough disk space at 1&1 for £59.99 (or £71.99 with vat) here http://www.1and1.co.uk/managed-hosting:

Actually - I will give them a call tomorrow as I have some questions like: running a ssl certificate, guaranteed bandwidth and few more.

have a great week everybody
Helmuts

p.s. love this quote by Woody Allen: "What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet."

 

[it-comms]

I thought you where looking for a UK Server? 1and1 servers are NOT UK based. also you seem to have changed the spec now from SSD disks to Sata

Quick Run down of 1and1

1. Server Up time - very good
2. Support - Not bad, they do a good job - Accounts Department are a nightmare.
3. network speed - you will get around 40mpbs download speed from their network

just did a speedtest from a 1and1 box and got 36Mbps. via our own servers 483.4Mbps

just in a case if somebody is following this thread and is interested on switching over to dedicated servers, but is afraid to ask questions (to all the eyeballs in the dark), you can get a managed server with Xenon processors (I will personally ignore all the offers that offer servers with desktop processors), loads of ram and more than enough disk space at 1&1 for £59.99 (or £71.99 with vat) here http://www.1and1.co.uk/managed-hosting:

Actually - I will give them a call tomorrow as I have some questions like: running a ssl certificate, guaranteed bandwidth and few more.

have a great week everybody
Helmuts

p.s. love this quote by Woody Allen: "What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet."

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

What is server grade about an AMD dual core?

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

just in a case if somebody is following this thread and is interested on switching over to dedicated servers, but is afraid to ask questions (to all the eyeballs in the dark), you can get a managed server with Xenon processors (I will personally ignore all the offers that offer servers with desktop processors), loads of ram and more than enough disk space at 1&1 for £59.99 (or £71.99 with vat) here http://www.1and1.co.uk/managed-hosting:

Actually - I will give them a call tomorrow as I have some questions like: running a ssl certificate, guaranteed bandwidth and few more.

have a great week everybody
Helmuts

p.s. love this quote by Woody Allen: "What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet."

And check they are using ECC RAM and Enterprise grade hard disks, too.

 

[it-comms]

don't forget they also use Software RAID on most of their servers to keep the cost down.

And check they are using ECC RAM and Enterprise grade hard disks, too.