A lot of dedicated hosting companies offer cheap packages that don’t come with technical support. Some also offer packages that come with a pay-per-use technical assistance plan, or a one-time payment plan (you pay when you need help). The question is: do you save money by opting for a plan that doesn’t include technical support?

Here are five times that you’ll need (and be glad you have) technical support.

1. Crash, bang, boom! Your site is down. Nothing you can do will start it up again. You can’t figure it out, and that remote reboot option isn’t working. Now what? You guessed it: call technical support.

2. Hack attack: If your site gets hacked into, there might be tiny you can do about it. But, a hosting company that has a support team ready to help you out can be a huge godsend.

3. The site didn’t move correctly: This is a big complaint. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, your site just isn’t working the way it used to. Sometimes, tech support can help here.

5. What the?! When those moments happen that just make no sense at all, you have to have someone you can call. It is a job for a dedicated and seasoned tech support team.

But, Not Getting Tech Support Is Cheaper!

Sure, but is it worth the cost? I’m going to go out on a limb and say: no. You never actually save when you try to do it the cheap way. It is true when choosing the most affordable hosting package you can find, and it’s also true when it comes to opting out of tech support. The chances are that you will need some help along the way, and that means that you’ll have to pay the extra bucks. It’s that simple.

Best Dedicated Hosts With Good Support

It’s hard to find a good host with equally good tech support, but it does exist (just like Santa). We recommend taking a look at what the hosting giant GoDaddy has to offer. This company may be enormous and may have had some bad press along the way, but GoDaddy gets things done. Too big for you?

Try A Small Orange: This little company offers plans that feel personal, excellent support, and plenty of options when it comes to great hosting packages. BlueHost is another great thought if you’re looking for something in-between.

Any one of these companies will give you the best of both worlds: great dedicated hosting and awesome support. What more could you ask for?

If you’ve decided to move from a shared hosting plan to a dedicated hosting option, you may have to change hosting providers. Some hosting companies offer both options, but unless moving to a dedicated plan that your current company offers make sense, you’ll have to switch companies entirely – and that’s not always easy to do.

How to Switch Web Hosting Companies

First, don’t close your existing account just yet. Keep your account running and your website running until you’ve signed all the paperwork and made sure that everything safely moved. What needs to be moved? Your file transfers, email options, DNS modifications, and everything else about your site.

Why should you wait before you close down your other account? If you shut down your current hosting account before you make a move, you can say goodbye to your site. Sure, it means paying for two plans during the transition period, but that’s a better option than letting your site die while you move.

Back It Up

Make sure that you backup a copy of your current website. Things can go wrong when you move, and this could mean that you’ll lose a portion (or all) of your site. Never assume that a backup isn’t necessary. It might take some time to backup your existing site, but that time will be well worth it!

Keep Some Things the Same

What happens if you move your site and change your email? That’s not a good combination. Try to keep the same email at all costs. This way, your clients can reach you no matter where you move or what you do. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to reach a company that’s moved and doesn’t provide the same contact email (or, at least, a forwarding email!).

Put It All Together

After you’ve signed a new contract, have backed up your files, and have made sure that your contact is still the same, you can make the domain name server (DNS) changes. But, again, I caution you to make sure that everything is lined up, backed up, and ready to go before you even consider switching hosting providers.

Changing hosting providers from one that offers only shared hosting to one that offers (supported) manual hosting is a great idea if your site is growing. But, so many companies make the mistake of not preparing for this move. The result? A website that loses clients is a complete mess and loses all of the traction it once had. Don’t make this mistake!

If you need some help choosing a dedicated hosting plan, ask us. We’ve taken the time to review and compile a list of large dedicated hosting options for you to consider. Read through our suggestions, and find a hosting provider that offers dedicated hosting in addition to plenty of backup support when you need it.

Automattic (the company behind WordPress) announced a few days ago that the company is now offering a service called WordPress Enterprise.

What is Enterprise? A step in-between WordPress.com and WordPress VIP. Enterprise is a completely managed hosting option for businesses seeking something more than WordPress.com, but something that’s far less expensive than WordPress VIP.

Pricing and Details

WordPress Enterprise doesn’t come cheap at $500 per month, but Automattic reps say that the level of managed hosting is going to be so high that the price is justified. Is it? It all depends on what you want in a hosting company. For sure, $500 is far more than most other hosting companies charge for managed options, but it’s hard to get a completely managed hosting plan with other companies too.

So, is WordPress Enterprise not a contender in the managed hosting scene? It might be. If you sign up for WordPress Enterprise, you’ll get everything that you would get with WordPress.com plus some features from WordPress VIP plus Chartbeat and Flipboard integration. In short, it’s the best that WordPress has to offer in one nice package – well, one expensive and nice package.

Managed Hosting Is Worth It

Whether or not you decide that the $500 Enterprise plan is right for you, there’s no debating that fact that managed hosting is where it’s at, and it’s what you want when choosing a dedicated hosting option. Without managed hosting, you’ll be left to your own devices, and that’s never a good idea unless you know exactly what you are going. No idea? Don’t go without managed hosting!

WordPress needs to break into the managed hosting space since the company deals with a lot of pressure from other hosting companies (and from sites like Tumblr). But, it will be interesting to see if companies want to pay $500 per month for what WordPress is offering. Would you pay this much for a managed hosting plan that’s as simple to use as any other WordPress plan – and comes with some VIP advantages?

How to Choose

The best way to select a dedicated hosting plan is to find one that offers everything you want for the right price. If what Automattic is offering sounds like the exact thing you’ve been looking for, you can justify that $500 per month price. If not, it’s probably out of your budget for now, and you can certainly find cheaper packages.

Compare what Automattic is offering as far as managed hosting goes with what you find elsewhere, and you’ll soon see whether or not that price is crazy or just right. Would you sign up for the new WordPress Enterprise managed to host for your small business? Or, do you feel better about paying less? It will be interesting to see which one this one goes!

Choosing a hosting plan isn’t a big deal, right? Wrong! When it comes to your website, the right hosting plan can make or break your business. Before you sign any contract or consider any fee, read this!

7 Very Important Things to Consider

1. Price: for many obvious reasons, the price comes first. You will pay more for dedicated hosting than shared hosting. There’s no debating that fact. But, dedicated hosting is absolute worth the cost. Now that that’s out of the way let me just say something fast and in bold print: cheaper is not better!  So, choose a plan that fits your budget, but also comes with all the right ingredients.
2. Find one that fits: some web hosting companies don’t do it all, and that’s okay. You want to choose a hosting company that can grow with your business. If the hosting company that you’re with right now offers great shared hosting but mediocre dedicated hosting, don’t settle.
3. Get the most that you can: ask yourself why one company is better than another. Find out why one company offers lower prices or higher prices. What makes that company stand out? Why do they deserve your money?
4. Email options: I guess that email issues and features didn’t even cross your mind, right? Well, you’ll want a company that provides some email access and solutions to problems like spam. If I were you, I wouldn’t settle for less.
5. Absolute control: there’s no worse idea than choosing a hosting company that doesn’t let you have control over your site. You should have enough control to do basic tasks like changing around some pages or adding a copy to a site. If you don’t have any control panel control, you’ll feel that pinch every time you have to call tech support.
6. Free tech support: there are times when you will need professional help. You don’t want to have to pay for that help every single time you need it! Free tech support is worth a higher monthly price.
7. Reviews: make sure that a company has solid reviews before you sign up. All it takes is a quick Google to see whether or not a company is just out for your dollars. If you see a lot of negative reviews, make sure that you proceed with caution. Find out why those reports exist, and see if you can find a better company. No company is perfect, but some are far worse than others.

Reviews Here

On this site, you will find tons of dedicated hosting reviews. Take your time to read through what we have compiled for you. You’ll soon discover that we take the time to go through what each company offers so that you get the dedicated hosting plan available.

Need some help? Not sure what company to choose? Just ask! Dedicated hosting reviews are what we do!

Things to Consider before Choosing Hosting Plan like Price, scalability, e-mail options, control, technical support, and reviews. Investigate on host reliability, uptime guarantees, upgrading options, hosting features based on needs, prices on both sign up and renewal and hosting control panel.

There are a few dedicated hosting companies that offer different levels of RAID. But, before we jump into these enterprises (and what they offer), let’s go through what RAID is and why you may want it.

RAID Explained Simply

Multiple drives in a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) is one excellent way to prevent a complete hard drive collapse. When a hard drive fails, the result is often catastrophic and can mean lots of lost revenue.  The RAID options are sought out, to avoid this kind of disaster, 

In basic terms, a RAID storage system includes two (sometimes more) hard disks that are combined to form one single disk. This single disc is sometimes called a virtual disk. RAID storage makes for faster transfer rates, a much lower possibility of complete data loss, and a larger storage option (usually at a reasonable price). In short, you’ll want to go with a RAID setup.

Where can you find a dedicated hosting company that provides different levels of RAID?

Top Hosting Companies Offering RAID Levels

• GoDaddy – RAID 0,1,10
• RackSpace – RAID 0-10
• Diadem Technologies – RAID 0-10
• A Small Orange – RAID 10
• BlueHost – RAID 10

What Are RAID Levels?

All of these companies offer various RAID levels. To break this down further, let’s take a look at what a RAID level is.

• RAID 0: this level also called ‘disk stripping,’ and it’s used mostly to heighten the performance of a server. There is no fault tolerance included with RAID 0.
• RAID 1: also called ‘disk mirroring,’ this level of RAID copies (or mirrors) data from one drive to another. Benefit: if one disk dies, the other drive keeps ticking.
• RAID 5: this is the RAID level that most sales reps will probably suggest for your small business. Why? RAID 5 means that data included in 3 separate disks, so the failure rate is much lower with RAID 5. RAID 5 also ensures that segments of disks did not ultimately lose when various parts of a disk burn out. RAID 5 also works well with NAS devices.
• RAID 1+0: this is also called ‘RAID 10.’ Basically, RAID 1+0 combines the best from RAID 1 and RAID 0. So, that’s both mirroring and striping. Servers that go through various write operations on a daily basis will benefit from RAID 10.

Additional RAID Options

There are a number of RAID levels offered, though most of those levels are not sought after by small business owners. Most variants of the RAID levels listed above are specific and used in very specific cases. Hosts may suggest different levels of RAID if you have specific requirements.

You will find that most hosting companies offer the RAID levels outlined above, though some offer additional RAID levels. The best way to compare rates is to, as always, shop around for what you will need. If you aren’t sure about what RAID level to use, contact us – we’re happy to help.

If you currently run a few websites, you may have wondered whether or not it’s possible to host those sites from the comfort of your own home. It is possible, but it might not be the cost-effective solution you’re looking for. There are some other problems with running a server from your home office too, but we’ll hit those at the end of this article.

For the very determined, here’s how you can actually run your own server from your home office.

1. Make sure that your current ISP is okay with your new plans. Often, running a server from home is against the terms of your contract, so double-check this.

2. Get a dedicated IP address. You don’t want your IP address to change every time you have to restart your system. To get a fixed IP address, you will have to upgrade to a business service (which may cost you more money). Check out broadband options for fixed IPs.

3. Get a web server. You can purchase software like Apache and run that from a different system – note: I said ‘different system.’

4. Use a different system. It is not – I repeat, not – a good idea to run a server from your home or office computer. Why? Because you are setting yourself up for safety issues, and you’re going to disappoint your site visitors when your site goes offline due to system crashes or problems.

5. If you have a Mac, you can simply check out what Apple says about running your own server on the Apple website – the details are pretty clear, though, once again, it’s not necessarily recommended.

Some Definite Drawbacks

Now comes the fun part. It’s also the part where I try to talk you out of running your own server from home! Ready?

1. Your energy costs will skyrocket.

2. Your site speeds will not (and cannot, really) ask fast as the speeds that hosting companies offer.

3. Your site will go offline somewhat frequently, and this will cause your clients some aggravation.

4. You probably won’t save any money. I know that you think you will, but compare the costs of the actual setup plus electric (and time that you may be losing business because your sites are down), and you’ll find that option for a slightly more expensive dedicated hosting package from a reliable hosting company is a better idea.

5. No support. If things go awry, you’re on your own (unless you are planning on building out your own support team in your home office!).

Can you host your own websites from home? Sure. Do you want to? Probably not. My advice is this: carefully weigh costs and other factors before you decide to move ahead with this setup. It may seem simpler just to make some space in your office and set up your Mac, but that’s not necessarily the route that you should be taking.

Not convinced? Leave your arguments below.

I applaud your nerve if you want to manage your dedicated server. It’s not an easy task, but it’s one that many can handle if you know a thing or two about managing a server. Know nothing about this topic? I’d suggest hiring a competent management team and going about your business.

For those that have some idea, though, and are willing to take the jump, here’s what you need to (carefully) consider.

Some Basic Lingo

Remote power management/control: as the name suggests, this is a way to control your dedicated server remotely. Think of a remote control that you may use for your TV or another device. Having remote management control means being able to turn a system off, on, or reset it (sometimes, this can be vital).

Rescue mode: want to venture a guess what this means? Sometimes, your server will be in trouble. When that happens, you have to have a backup plan that allows you to fix regular issues through remote control. If you don’t have a rescue mode option, you’re looking at a hard and long process when it comes to fixing regular issues.

Out-of-Band management: if your network no longer functions, you need a way to get into your server. It is where out-of-band management comes into play.

These three terms matter the most, and they are words that you will want to become very familiar with if you plan to manage your server. What else do you need to know? Oh, nearly everything that you can learn about server management. Is it possible to learn? Absolutely. But, it will take some time, and you should consider whether or not you have that time.

Your Time Is Valuable

Choosing a dedicated server option is not the cheapest route to take. In some cases, it may seem like a good idea to go with a dedicated server and then manage that server to save some cash. But, this isn’t going to pan out in the long run. Why?  You’ll spend countless hours trying to figure out how to manage and run that server.

If you already have some of this knowledge, making the leap might not be so hard. If you need to start from scratch, it is, indeed, possible, but it will take some time to learn it all. For now, begin with letting someone else (with experience) run the show. In the future, you can catch up and take over. Or, just hire a competent manager from the start.

Need some help with managing a dedicated server or understanding what you need to do to make sure it all runs smoothly? Let us know what your questions are, what you are considering, and what you need help with. You’ll also find that plenty of our reviews include management options too.

Thinking of managing your dedicated server? Think about it long and hard before you make the leap!

A dedicated server can be an excellent thing, but is this type of server what you need? Let’s break down what a dedicated server is (and isn’t) so that you can make the right choice.

Who Can Benefit From a Dedicated Server

Businesses of any size will find that a dedicated option is a way to go. The reason with this type is, as the name suggests, entirely dedicated. But, what does that mean? It means that nobody else will be sharing your server.

If for example, you share a server with 300 other companies, a thing may be slow sometimes – this is especially true if a company that shares your server has a high amount of traffic. The more traffic a site gets, the slower things get in return.

In short: share a server and expect some slow times.

Other Reasons Why Dedicated Is Better?

1. Downtime can mean lost revenue.
2. Dedicated options come with backups, software options, and more customization control.
3. You will have direct access to support options, and most of the time that means dedicated support.
4. Better and more security.
5. A more reliable server option that results in increased uptime.
6. Happier customers.

Are there any reasons why a dedicated server is not a good option, or why this type of server would not be the best idea for various businesses? Everything has a downside, right?

Possible Dedicated Server Drawbacks

There aren’t any real drawbacks (in the plural sense) to a dedicated option. The only actual issue here is that dedicated server choices tend to be more expensive than shared hosting options. But, you have to weigh the costs of a dedicated server with the benefits associated with a server that’s a lot more reliable.

On the one hand, specialized options are more expensive. On the contrary, sharing a server is also expensive if you lose clients because your site is slow or completely down. So, you see, the benefits of dedicated hosts entirely outweigh the cost factor.

The Cost of Downtime

If you’re still weighing the pros and cons of dedicated hosting, consider what you like to experience as a customer. Do you become frustrated when a site is down or slow? Now, think about what 30 minutes of downtime could mean for business sales. Just 30 minutes could mean thousands of lost revenue dollars.

It’s recommended that you shop around for the best dedicated server option you can find. Companies offer competitive packages that tend to come with plenty of choices and lots of excellent support. Do your homework to find a company that has positive reviews across the board, and find a dedicated package that is cost-effective and includes everything you want to get out of a host.

As always, we’re here to help should you require any assistance, and you will find plenty of reviews and information about dedicated hosting on this site.

Linux Hosting Server

Mainly the two categories of a server are used in web hosting, and Linux was most popular, and still, it is most used operating systems in servers. Linux has many benefits like – It is free and supports most of the scripting languages, but usually it does not support ASP and  ‘.Net’.

Windows Server Hosting

Windows Server is not like Windows desktop, Windows server built to provide different services included web hosting. Its support ASP and ‘.Net’, but not support other script languages. Windows web hosting server is not free, so it’s also a costly solution.

MySQL is the database used on Linux and Windows, but it is more associated with Linux servers and Windows uses Microsoft product MS Access and Microsoft.

Windows vs. Linux web hosting

As above discuss it is clear that the main differences between Windows and Linux hosting is to support scripting languages and cost, apart from this other hosting characteristics are common in both OS, Like:-

• Access Server – Windows and Linux provides remote access through Telnet and FTP. Linux also supports SSH that is secure access the computer remotely through an encrypted connection.
• Interface – CLI and GUI interface used in those OS.
• Security – Inbuilt Firewall option for security.
• Performance – Check out comparison performance chart of CPU, RAM, Network etc. to monitor the server.
• Technology – Both OS able to support HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, Flash, real audio, video, CGI, pop mail ids, FTP, etc.