Dedicated Hosting 101
This is a guest post by Corey Weimer.
In today's increasingly technology focused society, very nearly any online entrepreneur can profit from opening a blog and generating an online income. With such a large number of website hosts to choose from, and with such a great amount of technical terminology to deal with before they can even to start to comprehend what they are getting tied up with, picking a hosting set up can appear an overwhelming undertaking.
One of the best options for anyone hoping to generate an income from their blog or website is to choose dedicated hosting. This is due to the large number of benefits associated with this type of hosting including security, reliability and speed.
In this article, I hope to give you a general idea of what dedicated hosting actually is, what characteristics matter and which do not, so you can settle on an educated choice about where (and how) to host your blog and/or website.
Different Kinds of Hosting Accounts
Not all types of hosting are considered equal. There are various different types of hosting available including Shared, VPS and Dedicated. Each have their own advantages, and even although we are most interested in dedicated hosting it is useful to understand what each type actually is. Here is an overview of the more popular hosting methods:
- Shared: A hosting system through which different websites are provided space dedicated for their personal use on a solitary server. This option is the cheapest, slowest, and least customizable hosting option available, which is an ideal option for novices or beginners.
- VPS: (Or Virtual Private Server) is a hosting technique in which a client has access to a part of a server that is dedicated solely for their use. Multiple clients share this single server, yet each has their own access and resources allotted to them. An optimal choice for businesses and organizations that want greater freedoms, and fewer restrictions, than those offered by shared hosting options.
- Dedicated Web Hosting: A hosting system where clients buy access to a whole server that is solely for their own use; it is the most adaptable of hosting alternatives, with the least restrictions. Additionally, websites have the ability to handle far greater traffic with this type of hosting.
Bandwidth and Disk Space
Bandwidth is the means to measure the upload and download activity that takes place on a website over the course of a month. Websites that are heavy on graphics, downloads offered, or uploads possible on a site can determine how quickly your bandwidth is used. Disk space is the measure of space a site's holder leases from their host.
Both of these characteristics are imperative to think about when beginning a site. When looking at purchasing a site from a hosting company, it is important to know ahead of time, how much bandwidth you foresee yourself needing for your site, as well as how much disk space you will need. Lacking of bandwidth and disk space can cause numerous issues with the functionality of your site.
When choosing dedicated hosting you will not be sharing your server or bandwidth with anyone else which often makes it much easier to increase your bandwidth and disk space allowance if required. If you feel that your website needs some room to grow then this really is your best option.
Managed vs Unmanaged Servers
The majority of dedicated server hosting can be divided into two different categories: managed servers and unmanaged servers. If you opt for fully managed dedicated hosting then your hosting provider will take care of general maintenance tasks including running backups and installing software updates and patches. If you have unmanaged hosting then you will need to take care of this by yourself.
Why Choose Dedicated Over Shared Hosting?
So is a dedicated server much better than shared hosting? With a dedicated server, you will have complete administrative access to your server. It is not shared with another company and you can use it to host as many website as you wish. You will also find that a dedicated hosting server will perform better than a shared one, especially if you need to use PHP or ASPX for some of your applications. Cloud hosting can often do everything that a dedicated server can, but it is generally accepted that dedicated servers can handle the tasks far better.
In the event that you are thinking about starting your own blog or website, then dedicated hosting is something that you are going to want to consider. Hopefully you now have some idea of the basics of this type of hosting service.
Image courtesy of renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
About the author
Corey Weimer is a web hosting enthusiast writing for hosting provider Singlehop.com. One of Corey's specialist subjects is dedicated server hosting by Singlehop.
8 comments to "Dedicated Hosting 101"
I have some Question here which are What are the best services available on web for dedicated hosting services and How much they cost to start a blog?
Do they provide me WordPress C-panel or I have to hire some webmaster for their management.
Actually, I want to raise my blog level from novice to intermediate and right now, I am in Blogger platform which works good for me. But, some times it becomes a pain in my ass. So, I think it is a right time to transfer my blog in WordPress. So, can you help me?
I have read the whole article and found this is very very informative and useful for learners like me. I am very thankful to you for this kind of articles.
Hi author, as you tackle about server I'm wondering, if I buy dedicated hosting, How many percent will it improve from a blogger hosting(those who just use custom domain with free hosting of blogger) can you give some idea like it will speed up, up to 50%? 90%?
thanks if you'll reply
Hello everyone, thanks for your comments.
@Gaurav: I would suggest to take it one step at a time. This means that if you have a domain.blogger.com website, the next step is to go to shared hosting as your traffic rises and then dedicated.
The cost varies per company. I would suggest contacting Singlehop for more information on c-panel and pricing.
Apart from this, in most cases Wordpress with shared hosting or dedicated hosting (not domain.wordpress.com) is better than blogger. Wordpress with share/dedicated hosting has more options available than the free version. However, the needs depend on the blog/website and where the webmaster wants to go with it.
@Mc Dewey this really depends on the website, their plugins, how "heavy" it is and other factors. However, its speed will definitely be improved. The best way to test it, is to do a split test from webmaster tools and check before dedicated hosting speed and after dedicated hosting speed.
However, as I mentioned in my first reply, the change should be gradual. This means as traffic, content volume and earnings rise, so should the hosting from free, to shared, to dedicated.
This how I would and have done it.
Hope all this helps. For more technical questions and pricing, I would advise you to contact Singlehop.com directly.
Thanks for your comments!
Correy
@Correy Weimer Thanks for your response, I think i need to learn more about C-panel first and hosting.. i guess newbies will not be able to do it on their own, Hosting your site, I think the Most Advance and technical part of a Blogging career.
Thanks for this tutorial. I was looking for this a while. Keep blogging
In fact, and want to raise the level of my blog to intermediate beginner, now, I am in the Blogger platform works better for me.
Thank you for a good tutorial!
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