What to look for in a Dedicated Server :

Nothing is more frustrating to a business website owner than the server being down. This happens occasionally, but if you cannot get in touch with the server provider, it can prove to be disastrous.. Imagine not being able to have customers reach your website for days! The revenue that you lose could be astronomical.

One of the most important things to look for in a dedicated server is good customer service from the provider. You will notice that there are many providers online that offer dedicated servers. Some of them seem to be very inexpensive. While an offer for a cheap dedicated server may be tempting, you certainly do not want to sacrifice quality for price.

If something goes wrong with the server, you will want to know that someone will be on call to help you with any problems. By having a dedicated server, you are, in fact, hosting your own website. Unless you are a computer whiz, or have an IT team on hand, chances are that you will need help from time to time. This is why it is so important for a dedicated server provider to have good customer service.

You will also want to check out the space available on the dedicated server as well as the space allotted for your website. One of the reasons why most businesses choose to have a dedicated server is to increase bandwidth. Bandwidth is what allows customers to visit your site. When you have a dedicated server, you do not have to share bandwidth with other websites. The bandwidth and server are all yours.

If you are looking for cheaper dedicated servers, you should be careful while choosing the right specification and package. Things to consider are operating system, data backup and monitoring service, hardware options, space, bandwidth and technical support. Ask the hosting providers to give you a few websites for references, read hosting reviews before you sign up and be sure that the price is affordable.



By: Shawn Burgy

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A dedicated server is a type of web hosting system where the client leases a web server for themselves only, and no-one else shares it. Having a secure private network can give great peace of mind, particularly for firms who have sensitive personal and financial information concerning their clients.

This also means that you can be assured having full access to the data processing power and memory of the server whenever you may need it, as opposed to being at the mercy of other users on your server who may decide to take up a lot of power or memory just when you need it most.

Many suppliers of dedicated servers will let you have unlimited bandwidth, which means that you can have as much online traffic as you want to your dedicated server without being charged any extra fees.

A major advantage of leasing dedicated servers is that you can always have the latest top of the range hardware for your business applications, just like when you lease a car and change it after three months to another newer model.

The suppler will have access to the latest technology and you will not be stuck with equipment that is getting more and more out of date. Similarly the dedicated server supplier will be able to save you money. For example they will be able to broker advantageous licensing deals for associated services like control panel access.

Another major advantage of dedicated servers is the ability to choose your operating system, for example Linux or Windows, so you can have the kind of operating system that fits the needs of your business.

The ability to have full remote control of your dedicated server is an important requirement. This way, you can have access to the server control panel whenever you want, from anywhere in the world. You may need for example to re-boot your server, and with this capability you can do it yourself.

Effective technical support is vital if you have a dedicated server. You need to have access to experts whenever you need them, and the best dedicated server suppliers will be able to provide this kind of support twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. These experts will be able to manage and monitor your server, particular during times when there is a lot of online traffic.

The best dedicated server suppliers will have assembled a comprehensive online knowledge base, where you can read frequently asked questions. This is a great way to get a steer on what to do, especially at the beginning of a new arrangement.

It is important to work with a dedicated server suppler who has a flexible back-up capability, which can be added to as your business grows, or you amalgamate with other companies.

Most suppliers of dedicated servers will have a number of packages that they can offer you. These will be typical arrangements of hardware and levels of management and monitoring that they find works well with other clients who are similar to you in size and business needs.



By: Tom Dun

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Types of clusters

A cluster is basically referred to as grouping of similar things to reduce the load or work of a single one. When it comes to servers there are 2 types of clusters :

1) Load Balancing Web Server ;

Load balancing Web Server is setup so that the traffic load is distributed among a number of servers instead of one single server. It involves a number of servers which are setup in such a way that the traffic is equally distributed among all of them. Due to this kind of a setup, the network load is not concentrated on one single server and this helps in improving the reliability with the tremendous improvement in performance. This kind of setup is also available for 2 or more nodes in the cluster.

2) Failover cluster Server :

Failover cluster also involves a number of servers but this is not the same as Load Balancing servers. Failover, as the term suggests, is setup to provide high availability even after there is an hardware or software failure. Once there is a software or an hardware failure, an action is taken by the cluster immediately so that the resources of the server are moved to another server. Cluster is informed once the hardware of software failure has taken place as the cluster keeps on monitoring the resources.

Real time failover for hardware and software failures including the current status of the applications can be acheived by fault-tolerant failover cluster. But this requires a better software application and more hardware and this is due to the fact that the condition of the current applications must be known. The applications which are currently in use are lost while the failover process is going on by the hardware and the software components and these should be recovered.

Microsoft’s Cluster Service (also known as MSCS) is exactly opposite to the true fault-tolerant cluster and is built in as a high-availability cluster. This is better as the cluster will not require specialized fault-tolerant solution and can work with more applications with less hardware also. This will definitely reduce the price. The cluster will not be in a good position after the failover but will be able to recover from a hardware or software failure. Two servers (nodes) are supported by the MSCS high-availability solution.

Basic hardware and software components

A common set of hardware is involved which are actually two servers nodes in a cluster. Both the servers in the cluster are connected to the network and both of them have there own operating system. The harddisks are external but they are connected to the servers through a network. A drive controller connects the shared disks to the servers. A Storage Area Network (SAN) is commonly used for this purpose.

Only one of the nodes in the cluster is active at a time. They are not active together and hence this solution is also called as an active/passive solution. The resources of the cluster is used up by the active server (node) and the active server writes all the data on the Shared disks. If one node fails the other one comes into play. To make sure that all the nodes are working properly, a signal known as a heartbeat is sent accross the private network to which all the servers are connected. If the active server fails, the passive server gets a signal about it through the heartbeats and once it receives the signal, it starts working as an active server and starts using all the resources of the cluster.

How to Install SQL Server in a cluster ?

Operational cluster is required to install SQL server in the cluster. Follow the steps given below to install Operational cluster.

1) First, install a Windows Server edition which supports MSCS on each server.

2) Now, make sure that each server in the cluster is connected to a Public network which is required to receive requests.

3) Make a different network and all the servers shouldn’t be connected to this network as this network should only be established between two servers within the cluster. This network will only be used for the heartbeats to send signals.

4) You will have to create a user account for the service account so that the cluster operates under this account in the domain. Make sure that you add this account to each Administrator’s group of each server.

5) Now you will have to connect the Shared harddisks to the server and you will have to power off the servers for this purpose. Once you connect the Shared harddisks to the servers make sure that the resources are being used by the server. Turn on node number one of the cluster.

6) Install Microsoft Cluster service and then configure it through control panel. Follow the steps given below to do this.

a. Go to Control Panel.

b. Then, Add/Remove Programs

c. Finally, Windows Components

7) You will have to give a name to your cluster and also assign an IP address with the Shared disk resources.

Now turn on the second node in the cluster and move to the First one (Original one) once the second one is online. Once you get back to the original one, to add another node use the Cluster Administrator.

Note : You will be able to install the second node quite easily in comparison to the first one as it will be based on the configuration of the second one.

Once you have installed the cluster sucessfully and everything works fine, follow the steps given below to install SQL server into the cluster :

1. To begin the installation process, you will have to insert the SQL Server Enterprise edition CD. If the installation does not start auto-matically, launch the setup through setup.exe.

2. Select Virtual Server on the computer name screen and enter a name by which you would like the Cluster be referred.

Note : This name is a Virtual name and is just like the hostname of a server.

3. Now make a service account to run the SQL web server and make sure that you provide Administration rights on each node on the cluster.

4. You will have to assign an IP address, Shared Resources and a service account to the SQL server while the installation.

Once you have done all the above steps correctly, a copy of SQL Server server will be installed on each node by the setup program within the cluster and the setting of the cluster will be installed automatically. Now you will be able to control the SQL server services by the cluster administrator.



By: Leif Cage

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Windows hosting makes use of Microsoft’s Windows software for the web hosting server for your websites and give you environment to run ASP ASP dot net sort of web application with power of windows server environment. Microsoft Windows and Linux are the two most widely used web hosting platforms all over the world. In comparison to Linux hosting, Windows hosting allows a better user friendly interface with Microsoft’s own products and services. Windows hosting supports all the popular windows web services used in web development, allowing an individual to make a website or web application in the language of one’s preference.

Sometime new webmasters get confused that which one web hosting to choose from the variety of two choices available in market such as Windows Hosting & Linux Hosting for such users I highly recommend Windows Hosting to choose reason being is this that web hosting providers today in market most of they are offering PHP and MySQL sort of Linux server features in their web hosting plans of Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 server. As they install PHP and MySQL as a add-on on their server thus in this manner you get a few most important features of Linux servers also within your same package of windows hosting without paying extra for Linux web hosting package.

Using Windows Hosting is more users friendly and carries more benefits that are the reason why it is so widely used these days. Each operating system has its own unique features, and this brings their own advantages and disadvantages. Linux platforms do not offer support for the dot NET technologies, which includes ASP dot net. If you have already built a website using Microsoft dot NET technologies then you may know the benefits of using this service, UNIX is an open source which means that the operating system does not include any charges. If you are planning to design a website with Microsoft FrontPage or a web application using Active Server Pages (ASP) or any of the Microsoft application then Windows hosting is the solution that you should go for.

It is said that Windows hosting are often slower than UNIX hosting in performance but it proves a very cost effective choice from using hardware efficiently whereas Linux hosting is incredibly efficient and gives you some of the cheap hosting options available but does not support applications like ASP or ASP dot Net applications which use windows platform to run.

These web hosts can also be used as data center space and inter connectivity service for the Internet as web hosting is done in a safe and secure manner with a number of anti spam filtering your data is always in secure hands or rather you can say on secure servers. Customers get a quick account setup and they can easily administer there hosting account with the control panel provided by the hosting provider which is a traditional way of the control panel. Sometime those websites which are hosted on shared server experience some problems than from those websites which are placed on a dedicated web server as the result of higher volumes of traffic cannot be controlled or managed by these types of servers.



By: Anand

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Are you having trouble finding a PSP games download website? Trouble is, if you are fairly new to gaming and downloading off of the internet you might not know how to find websites that offer you PSP games to download. Use one of the three major search engines such as; Google, MSN or Yahoo and type the name of the game that you are looking for along with PSP games download site into the search bar and you will have a list of many sites to view.

Look through each one carefully and remember to check and see what the server size is and if there is a limit to the downloads that you can do, per week or per month. When you are wanting to download games for the PSP you will have to download software that will be able to accept the game download properly. Some sites even charge you a pay per download fee which can become quite expensive if you happen to download a lot of different files. These sites usually have more that just PSP game downloads, normally carrying all types of files for the PSP and other gaming systems, movies, wallpapers, and other files.

What makes the best site for PSP game downloads? A site that can provide you with excellent customer service, technical support as well as providing its customers with a dedicated server to handle all the traffic pertaining to the downloads. Sites that are updated regularly and provide full instructions for those just learning how to download files for PSP makes good business practice and will only make others want to spread the word about the website. So if you are into PSP gaming, get busy and find a download site that will suit your taste and budget and have enjoy the game!

If you want to quickly and safely download PSP games all you have to do is Click Here



By: Michael Blacke

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Why should you choose a virtual private server hosting account?

Virtual private server hosting accounts come equipped with all the features that small to medium-sized businesses require. Therefore, expanding businesses can happily settle into a virtual private server, and keep going for many years. To facilitate this, good VPS hosting accounts come with cutting edge virtualization software that makes it possible for each virtual server to act as a powerful, single dedicated server.

Some of the advantages that you will enjoy when you opt for a virtual private server hosting account are:

High end servers: Virtual hosting depends on a cutting edge server sharing technology that makes it possible for a single physical server to act as several separate ‘virtually’ dedicated servers. This means, each virtual private server will have all the features that a physical server has. Enough disk space, large memory, sufficient security and full customizability are some of their most noteworthy features. Many good virtual private hosting services provide their users with high end quad core processors. This ensures that there is virtually no CPU lag time between command and execution.

Technological edge: An excellent virtual private server hosting account is rich in RAM. This gives you quick server responses. In order to give users maximum drive performance, some hosting accounts combine the best raid cards and drives. This avoids any incidents of Disk I/O problems, which may be seen in cheap virtual private servers.

Flexibility: Many VPS services offer you a variety of operating systems. This gives you a high amount of flexibility. VPS also come with a good variety of extremely powerful control panels like cPanel, Plesk and DirectAdmin. You may select the kind of control panel that is most suited and comfortable to your style of work.

Features: Another important feature of a good VPS hosting account is easy setup. Instant activation, quick setup and customer support are important things to look out for in the VPS service you purchase. Many hosting services now have blogs and forums where you will find abundant support and discussion. Interactive tutorials and 24×7 online support are priceless features. Most VPS servers will be offering you full privacy and security, and they will also come out with new technologies to give your website the edge it requires to be a winner.

Nowadays, many hosting companies are happy to provide you with a money back guarantee. Look for a service that gives you some amount of testing time so that you can explore and understand the features provided by the service.



By: Ravi

About the Author:

Rapid growth happens often with popular Web sites. They start out using a simple shared account, only to consume so much of the server’s resources that they are forced to a dedicated server. Other times, a company will simply want the flexibility a dedicated server offers, even if they do not operate a high-traffic Web site. 

Put simply, a dedicated server is a computer located in a data center that is used for a single Web hosting account, whereas shared accounts can potentially share a server with hundreds of other sites. A site on a dedicated server has the same Internet connection as all the other servers, but it doesn’t have to share it with anybody. This can be a tremendous boon for anyone who operates a large site. 

One of the things that dedicated servers provide is customizability. Since the client is going to be leasing the entire computer rather than just a portion of it, many Web hosts allow the client to select the components used in the server. These can range from hardware, such as disk size and the amount of memory, to software. Most hosts can set up dedicated servers with Unix or Windows-based Operating Systems – the choice is typically left to the site owner. 

There are typically two categories of dedicated servers: managed and unmanaged. Managed servers are usually operated by the Web host, while the client provides the Web site data. In these cases, a good host will fully monitor the server and have technicians standing by in case of difficulty. An unmanaged server is operated and maintained by the client; the Web host provides the storage space, physical security, and bandwidth. However, often a Web host will have a consultant available to assist clients operating an unmanaged server – this is usually provided at a nominal fee. 

Looking for a suitable dedicated server is something that takes time and research. Not all Web hosts are created equal, and neither are all dedicated servers. There are several issues that must be addressed before a client can choose the best server. 

First of all, what does the Web site actually need, and how much space will it need to grow? This is an incredibly important question, as any computer has limited capabilities. Before one can select a dedicated server, one has to know exactly how much disk space the site will require, along with memory and bandwidth. 

Second, what amount of customization and upgrades will the Web host allow? Many Web hosts offer specific dedicated hosting plans, and have the client choose between them. Some offer full customization of the Web server. What works best depends on the Web site.

Upgrades, however, are another matter. If a Web host doesn’t upgrade its machines on a regular basis, there is something wrong. Technology is infamous for moving extremely quickly, and a Web host that doesn’t keep its machines up to date will quickly find itself, and its clients, falling behind.

Third, where is the server stored? A good host will keep the server in a safe, secured environment, usually at a data center. A Web host that stores a dedicated server elsewhere is usually a bad sign. 

Finally, what support does the host offer? Even for unmanaged servers, there should always be an account representative available to handle client concerns. There should also be a managed hosting plan that one can opt into, just in case managing the server solo is too much. Also, upgrades and customizations should be seamless, with little or no impact on the users of the site.



By: Mohammad Salay Naderi

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What is a Managed server?

A Managed server is a dedicated server for one high resource account that is actively managed by onthenetOFFICE. Instead of just having a server handed to you, onthenetOFFICE will take care of the setup, software installation, security monitoring, backups, and technical support that is needed to help you focus on growing your business.

Managed server eliminates the cost of:

Installing software Server administration Back-up and storage of your data Installing security, e.g. firewall solutions

What is Unmanaged Server?

Unlike the servers where it is all managed for you, these unmanaged servers are completely under your control. If you have an issue with your server, you will have to troubleshoot. Support is required for computer failures and other network problems within the hosting centre. After all, you can connect to the server, but you do not ever physically see the server, so you are unable to troubleshoot hardware problem.

The purchaser’s knowledge of server configuration and setup will determine if a managed or unmanaged server option is the best choice. Many dedicated hosting plans exist with different price points, but knowing if its managed dedicated server or an unmanaged dedicated server will assist you in determining if that price warrants the service being provided to you. As with all purchase made, the higher the cost directly relates to the value of the dedicated server purchased, but not always.

Benefits of Managed Server

Managed server are the right solution for any website that has outgrown a shared hosting account, needs dedicated resources, runs processor intensive scripting, requires customized software installations.

Here are some of the typical benefits you’ll want to see before signing up to Managed Server:

Service Level Agreement which guarantees 100% server ‘uptime’ You should have full control over your own server Choice between Windows and Linux servers (depending on your personal choice) No traffic (bandwidth) limits Genuine 24/7 phone & Email support available, all year round Backup services Anti spam and virus protection Firewall services Software updates

By: Alex Saca

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Most websites are hosted on a shared server which means that many websites, from a handful to hundreds, all use the same server and occupy the same space. For a small to mid-sized website with a reliable web host this is not usually a problem. However, for a large website with thousands of visitors and large bandwidth requirements, using a shared server can cause many problems.

If you have a website that is very popular; it has and has high traffic, large amounts of file uploads, or other large amounts of bandwidth usage, using a shared server can become an issue. Even if your web host offers what seems like a generous amount of bandwidth and storage space, and has good advertised speeds, if your website uses more than its allotted share you may be charged overage fees or even worse your host may limit the number of visitors you can have or even disable your site to protect other customers on the same server. If your website faces any of these problems by exceeding or routinely meeting your bandwidth allocation, you should consider a dedicated server.

Deciding when to make the switch can be hard because of cost differences between shared and dedicated servers. However, if your hosting needs are exceeding the limit of your shared server it is important to switch to a dedicated server to avoid paying overages or having your traffic impacted. Having a dedicated server, either a virtual dedicated server or a truly dedicated server will give your visitors a more reliable experience when visiting your site and will ensure that your site continues to run smoothly.

Virtual dedicated servers are not truly dedicated, but they do give a website their own IP address, root access, and full control over the server and what applications you can run. There will be other websites using the same server, but it will usually be partitioned so that you have more space, privacy, and a much larger bandwidth allowance.

You will also be able to offer file downloads and accept file uploads without the problems that are commonly encountered with shared hosting. A virtual dedicated server is more costly than a shared server but not as expensive as s truly dedicated server.

A truly dedicated server that you do not have to share in any way with other websites is the most expensive type of server but it is worth it if you have a large website that has high bandwidth requirements, such as a social network site, gaming site, or your website has large amounts of data and downloads.



By: Ron Subs

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Are you a New York based gamer looking for exceptional voice performance for your Guild? There is absolutely nothing like cranking up your latest game and experiencing other gamers as if they were sitting in the room with. So, based on a lot of our experience, let me give you 3 main points to consider.

• NYC Gamers! Now you can have smooth, high quality communications without dealing with those expensive and confusing in game programs…. You know the ones that sound like you’re talking through a straw. Dedicated Ventrilo servers are simple and easy to use, and allow communication with up to one hundred individuals that can be subdivided into competitive clans. Even better as that many Ventrilo servers are fast with no voice hesitation which this amazing quality is achieved by having server locations throughout the NYC area. This guarantees a clear and quick connection without waiting for open bandwidth space or line availability. Unlike other server hosts, NYC-based Ventrilo servers can be accessed immediately. There are no delays. Simply fill out a basic form and provide a valid credit card and begin gaming immediately. If you have experienced poor service or quality from other gaming servers, then we can promise you that there are other providers that offer great service, great performance, and our cheap (less than $4 per month in some cases).

• Signing up for Ventrilo servers is usually easy. Simply fill out a short application available on the provider’s website and you will be granted immediate access. There are no delays or credit checks. Unlike a few Ventrilo hosts, many NYC-based servers provide customer service that does not end once the gaming begins. If, at anytime, you are unsatisfied with their servers, then a qualified technical expert will assist you and correct any problems that have arisen. They guarantee quality and technical assistance or you r payment will be completely refunded. In fact, some are so confident in the quality of their Ventrilo servers that this guarantee extends to any compatibility issues between software and any installed operating systems.

• Worried about your computer’s operating system and compatibility with the Ventrilo host? You need not fear since several host software works equally well with any operating system, including Windows Vista. Additionally, their high quality, high bandwidth, low latency Ventrilo servers work with all of the popular online games. And their technical experts are constantly updating and upgrading both the software and hardware to ensure that your Ventrilo servers will continue to be compatible will all new and future online gaming platforms. What does this mean to you? It simply guarantees performance with future gaming scenarios. If you have experienced Ventrilo servers with less than adequate results, then fell free to hunt a better Ventrilo provider….. If you are in the NYC area, you have some good options available to you.

So as a New York based gamer, we can’t encourage you enough to 1) take advantage of the sound quality of Ventrilo, 2) find a great, local host whose server is close to you to avoid data latencies, 3) find that host the provides high quality voice CHEAP.



By: Vinny Duit

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