Dedicated server ...

[fiddleabout]

I've been looking around for a reasonably priced dedicated server solution.

I've come to the conclusion that I want a managed server solution for a couple of reasons - firstly I don't have the time avaialbale for monitoring the beast and secondly, being a mainframe dinosaur, I don't have currently have the know-how to set the thing up myself.

I've checked around the prices and 1&1 seem to offer the cheapest deal I can find - £99 setup and £29 a month - the server is low end and the bundled bandwidth is only 10Gb/month but alternatives are far more costly.

I know 2 people who've used 1&1 - one said they are great the other said they are cr@p so...

Anybody had experience of 1&1 (on any package)
Anybody aware of a better deal.

I need to host a handful of domains - all use php and mysql

[Capn Graybeard]

Fiddle

I've been using 1&1 for over a year and I've not had any trouble at all. Not once had reports of domains being unavailable or unable to access mail.

I'm not using a dedicated server, but have varying amounts of domains active and transferring in/out - all without any problems. In fact it's been far better than freeparking.co.uk where I used to have my domains stored - they screwed up on almost all transfers whereas 1&1's side went smoothly and quickly.

I use the business hosting package with 3GB monthly.

HTH

[Vetran]

Are you sure you need a dedicated server?

Unless you are really hammering the server then it is unlikely that if you use a decent ISP you will get your own server much faster. They all use the same pipe and Apache when properly tuned will run thousands of sites quite well (unlike some other servers I could mention).

[fiddleabout]

Most hosting packages specify quite restrictive monthly bandwidth figures unless you pay quite a bit - usually 1-3Gb. Kwikbreaks uses around 10Gb per month for 3 months of the year by itself. By the time you've totted up say 6 or 7 sites the costs come up close to cheap dedicated servers. I've found a US deal at $29.99 per month with 50Gb a month bandwidth.

Problems with that - it's very low end 450MHz P2 with 128Mb memory 6Gb hard drive . I'm sure the processor has the grunt but have reservations on memory. I'm waiting for a reply from them on hosting co.uk domains as their FAQ says only com net and org

[AtW]

if bandwidth is a problem than it might be worth looking at ways to optimise site - HTML, images, zipping on the fly etc.

[fiddleabout]

Bandwidth is only a problem because of the number of vistors and the number of pages they request.

The main frameset could be cut down - 50k total text + graphics - the page you are looking at up to the end of this post is 48k. The vast majority of pages served are text + a few tiny graphics which are the same on each page so they don't get re-sent. The biggest graphic is 11k and the vast majority are less than 2k. At least 30% of visitors are repeat callers meaning the graphics will be cached anyway.

There were over 65,000 individual visitors in August 2003. With an average of 150k per visitor (what it takes to do 2 searches) that comes to 10Gb.

P.S. I'm quite adept at sucking eggs.

[Vetran]

60GB averaged over 12 months = £180
120GB averaged over 12 months = £300
+vat.

Secure location, UNIX or Win servers PHP,MySQL, ASP(win only) superb support . Seeing as how its you gov, you can have 10% discount on the above prices.

Also they aren't too exacting about the bandwidth so long as it is about right. If you need more then they will discuss higher bandwidths they have a number of sites really hitting the bandwidth.

[fiddleabout]

Thanks vetran - I'll bear that in mind - the yank server still looks best though at 50Gb per month - I couldn't put a dent in that unless I put a lot more effort into site promotion.

[AtW]

yanks are the cheapest - I'd host my own business server there but I don't want 100 ms latency, ok its not real time gaming but I _feel_ and hate delays like that.

> Bandwidth is only a problem because of the number of
> vistors and the number of pages they request.

There is _always_ way to optimise and gain at least 20-30% extra (speed, space etc).

[Vetran]

you already have an age to wait while it loads.

The two kwikbreaks logos (banner & holiday) could be trimmed considerably I got reasonable compression out of PSP.

The surround framing is pretty but quite wasteful.

and the speed, is it running at your house on your ADSL ?

The compression may be slowing your site down it may be wise to make your graphics less fussy (bold edges) and cut their size, there is also a lot of java etc.

even with it cached its taking me > 20 seconds. A customer site of 1.5 size is taking <10.