It is very important to know how busy your website is,with this I mean how much traffic does your website receive before you opt for a dedicated web hosting service. You also must be aware of limitations of your current host and the amount of resources you are using. Below are few points that would help you about resources that websites normally use:

• Network bandwidth is the amount of data transfer that your host gives you per month.

• A fast processor for websites that use databases and PHP.

• Disk storage that your host allows you to use without going over the limit and asking you to pay more.

• With a dedicated server, you can get all these and more benefits like:

• Software installation like PHP according to your requirements

• Running of disallowed software in shared servers like Java.

• Streaming audio or video download offers for your customers that cannot be offered on shared servers.

• Server improvements according to your requirements.
• Website’s speed and availability would not be affected by anything.
• Here are types of servers that you can use and choose your dedicated hosting server according to your needs.
• Unmanaged Server: You only get the machine connected to the host network and the root password then it is up to you to maintain your server.
• Managed Server: Lease of the server and entire administration is given to you. This usually enables you to think about your content.
• Collocated Server: You need to purchase the machine and then the host will give you connection. It is only recommended to choose this if you have specific technical requirements because they are very expensive.

The cheapest options that are available are the unmanaged servers but if you are particularly new to the world of dedicated web hosting servers, you might have problems with it because the unmanaged server requires you run the entire server on your own. Most people find it hard because it needs some amount of expertise technical as well as customer service.

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There are various misunderstandings about Managed Web Hosting Services. Today, most of the small and mid sized businesses use managed web servers to carry out their mission critical businesses.Depending on the requirements, Shared hosting and VPS hosting services have gained popularity, but alongwith it, there are various misunderstandings and misconceptions that have rooted in the minds of users. Following is an in depth explanation of about the misunderstandings.

A) Managed Services are entirely Outsourced.

This is one of the biggest misunderstanding among individuals.It isn’t always true. Sometimes, web hosts outsource their post sales technical support tasks to other companies for the purpose of offering better services to their customers. There are a lot of automated services you get with a managed dedicated hosting service provider.The volume of privileges differ with the web hosting package.Most of the reputed web hosting providers have dedicated and professional technical and support staff available 24×7 at the DC’s. Though, the website design, promotion and the website administration needs to be taken care by yourself.

B) Its the newbies who must opt for Managed Web Hosting services.

Many users have a thinking that Managed services are suitable for newbies due to their lack of webmaster skills and web server management skills. This probably may be a thought arose due to the fact that, dedicated server management needs some amount of web master skills. Some outsource this task to other professional companies for better server management.But, this is very untrue that managed web hosting service is suitable only for newbies and not webmasters. There are many factors involved in web server management and require dedicated people to handle the crucial task of server management. Therefore,managed hosting is preferred by most of the consumers in the Web Hosting Industry.

C)Managed Hosting Service isn’t as Reliable as Unmanaged Services.

Its actually the other way round.Reliability basically depends on the web hosting provider you have chosen.Most of the reputed web hosts offer reliability and scalability of their servers.

Instead,if you choose an unmanaged service from a hosting provider, you need to take care of the server management which includes installing new security patches, installation of software upgrades etc.Whereas with a managed web hosting provider, these tasks are taken care by the host themselves and you can concentrate your focus on other aspects of your business.

D) Managed Web Hosting is Insecure

This is another biggest misunderstanding that managed web hosting service is insecure.In todays highly competitive world, it is important to provide the utmost services to the customers.Hence, maximum web hosting providers take utmost care to provide best of the best security and reliability of their servers and services.They take enough precautions to avoid intrusions, attacks, malicious activity etc so as to keep their customers safe and secure. Managed Web hosting provider are well aware of the various online threats, hence take ample care to avoid those.

E) Managed Web Hosting is Very Costly.

Yes, thats true to some extent. But, understand that if it would have been that expensive, would anyone have had chosen these packages? The answer is NO. There are web hosting providers who offer these services at affordable prices. One must differentiate between the fact that you do not have to invest in purchasing costly server hardware and softwares etc. Inaddition to that you do not need to employ teams for the purpose of your server management, therefore if you jot all the expenses, you would realize that choosing a managed web hosting service is far more cheaper than purchasing your own hardware etc. In the long run you would realize that managed hosting services are much more cost effective than the unmanaged hosting solutions.

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As most of us must be aware, a Dedicated Server offer better security and reliability than any other web hosting solutions. Now-a-days dedicated servers too can be leased at affordable prices. Previously, only large businesses and enterprises used to host their websites on dedicated servers, but with the advancements in the web hosting industry, web hosts can offer servers at fairly cheap prices.

You have the option to opt between two types of servers namely Windows Dedicated Servers and Linux Dedicated Servers. Windows Servers being bit more expensive than Linux Dedicated Servers due to the licensing fees charged by Microsoft. Hence, if you are looking for cheap Dedicated server, a Linux dedicated server can be the best affordable option for you.

A Linux Dedicated Server can be considered to be more efficient and causes lesser technical problems as compared to other servers. The other benefit of Linux Dedicated Server is that it consumes lesser bandwidth than Windows Servers.

Linux Servers are considered to be more secure than Windows Server. For users who wish to have cheaper hosting solutions, there are many Linux hosting packages that can be opted for hosting the websites at cheaper prices. Linux hosting packages can be availed at cheaper prices due to the fact that Linux is an Open source OS and is registered under GNU, therefore there isn’t any cost of licensing that needs to be paid and hence decreases the cost of the hosting packages to be offered to the clients.

As there are advantages and benefits of having Linux Hosting solutions, there are some disadvantage and demerits too.  If your website requires LAMP technology, in that case Linux Dedicated Server would be the best option for you, but in case the website is designed using ASP.Net and requires MSSQL, then Windows Dedicated Server Hosting would be the best option to choose.

Before you choose a web hosting provider that offers Linux web hosting services, it is important that you get assured that they offer basic features such as firewall, virus protection and a control panel (optional)  along with flexible upgrade options. It is important that you check that the web host offers MYSQL database, sub-domain services, additional FTP creation etc.

There are few other basic features that you must keep in mind when choosing a perfect web host for you. You can refer the following link for the same : Key Aspects to Consider when Choosing a Web Hosting Provider.

You must bear in mind that, if you opt for a Linux Web Hosting server, you cannot avail the benefits of .Net and some of the other Microsoft applications.

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Previous versions of ASP.Net too used to offer many good quality useful features, but their 3.5 version includes applications which has added majorly to the popularity of ASP.Net which a platform for development.

The Merge tool of ASP.Net is among the latest features added to the list. This tool has helped Web Hosting service providers to merge the assemblies that were pre-compiled previously. There are many features as stated below that have been added to ASP.Net 3.5.

a) An Integrated AJAX Support.

b) An IntelliSense for ASP.Net Ajax and Java.

c) It offers an improved design time experience.

d) ASP.Net 3.5 offers new and advanced Data Controls.

e) LinqData Source Control

f) Offers a Support for LINQ

The inclusion of Integrated AJAX Support into ASP.Net 3.5 hosting offers added advantages:

a) The interface has been designed such that its quicker to respond.

b) The all new neutrality of language has been introduced.

c) It assures that the system memory isn’t over-loaded.

d) Un-required web server hits have been decreased.

e) Based on Real time, the Web pages get updated.

f) The delivery time of Web pages have an increased rate.

The other addition to the Web Hosting support is the AJAX Control Toolkit. It makes the use of code sample and a SDK. This is beneficial from a web hosting providers perspective, as it enables them to make a website more appealing visually. An aesthetic appeal can be simply added to the webpages with the use of the tools.

The ASP.Net application services and web services such as Membership, Authentication, Management, Profiles etc. too are supported.

ASP.NET 3.5 Hositng enables web hosts to create websites that enable AJAX for ASP.Net. The user is also gains a privilege to create websites which enable ASMX and WCF using Microsoft AJAX Library.

DataPager and ListView too are included in with the new Data Controls of ASP.Net 3.5. The ListView enables users to Create, Read, Update,Delete functions, also termed as CRUD operations. Users can also page and sort data. Due to the flexible controllability, users have the access to controls such as Datagrid, Gridview, Repeater and similar.

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Cluster is usually useful to reduce the load on a particular server.

Basically, clustering can be defined as the use of more than one computer/ server that can work together. In this type of architecture, multiple servers are liked to one another and has the capability of handling workloads. It helps to offer continued working and offer 100% uptime. All the machines in a cluster are involved in the operations at any given point of time. The cluster of servers offer fault tolerance. It is also termed as Load Balancing.

There are two types of clustering architectures offered by Web Hosting services providers.

A) Failover Cluster Server:

Multiple servers are involved in Failover Cluster. Failover clustering is different from Load Balancing servers. The term itself gives a little hint of what it is. Servers are placed in a cluster to offer high availability, though there is an hardware or software failure. If a hardware or software fails, a counter action is taken by the cluster itself and the resources are fetched from other servers to continue with the operations. There is a constant monitoring always active in the cluster to monitor the resources. A practical failover of software as well as hardware including the current status of applications can be achieved by fault tolerant fail over cluster.

Below is a pictoral description of Failover Cluster Server.

B) Web Server Load Balancing:

The basic intention of a load balancing architecture is to distribute the load among the servers in the cluster. A cluster can have more than one servers. You can keep adding servers to the cluster. These servers are set up in such a way that the traffic is distributed among all the servers. Its due to such an architecture that the network load gets re-distributed and is not focused on a single server. This helps in offering better reliability and gaining much improved performance.

There are common set of hardware that is required which is two server nodes in the cluster. Both the servers are connected to the network, both having their individual operating systems. Among the nodes, only one node is kept active at a given point of time. This is also termed as the “Active/Passive” solution. The resources of the cluster is utilized by the active server or the node and the data is written onto Shared Disks. Just incase if a node fails, the other node takes its place. To check if all the nodes are working properly, a signal known as ‘Heartbeat’ is sent across the network of the servers. If the active server fails to respond, the passive server gets triggered and starts functioning as an active server. The resources of the cluster are diverted to the passive server which is operating as the main active server.

Below are the Steps to Install a SQL Server in a cluster

It is important that the cluster is operational before you Install a SQL Server into the cluster.

a) You require Windows Server edition with a support to MSCS on every server.

b) One must get assured about every server in the cluster to be connected to the private network.

c) You must set up a different network and mind that you do not connect them to this network, it must only be used for sending the heartbeat signals.

d) You need to create a user account for the service accounts for the cluster to operate under this account in the domain. You also need to add every administrators group of every server.

e) Now you can connect the shared hard disks to the server then shut the servers off and switch on the node number one of the cluster.

f) Now you can install Microsoft Cluster and then configure it through the control panel.

g) Now, you must provide a name to the cluster and assign an IP address with the resources of the Shared Disk.

h) After all the above mentioned steps are followed, now you must turn ON the second node in the cluster and move to the Fist node, only when the second comes online.

This concludes the set-up of the cluster. You can refer the below guidelines to Install SQL server in the cluster.

a) You need to insert the CD SQL Server Enterprize edition, you may or may not have to do the installation manually.

b) Now you can choose the Virtual Server on the on the computer name screen and enter the name that you wish to have the Clustered referred as.

c) You need to now create a service account to run SQL web server that you provide administration rights on each node on the cluster.

d) You can allocate an IP address, Shared Resources and a service account to the SQL Server at the time of installation.

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Network Load Balanced Dedicated servers can be setup on both the platforms i.e. Windows and Linux. Network load balancing is also termed as Clustered Server Hosting. This was included in the Windows Server OS enabled with TCP/IP services such as Virtual Media Networking, Web Services, Streaming Media and Terminal Services.

Hardware support is not required, the traffic is re-distributed to hosts. It offers a control and upgrade from Windows NT 4.0. This technique is popular due to its ability to offer high performance and its unique fail-over protection as compared to other load balanced servers.

There are many advantages of Load Balanced Servers.

a) Network load balanced servers offer an improved reliability of servers and has the capability to detect failure. It can distribute the traffic to different servers in the cluster depending their loads

b) Network load balanced servers are better than Round Robin Solutions

c) It has a centralized access to the servers in the cluster.

d) Network load balanced servers are offer scalability, with this it means, if you realize an increase in the traffic load, you can anytime add servers to the cluster.

e) The traffic can get distributed based on the customers request.

f) With this technology web hosting providers can offer 100% uptime to their customers.

g) It is much cheaper than the Hardware load balancing option.

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Hosting a website on a Linux Dedicated Server or Windows Dedicated Server might seem little expensive if compared with shared web hosting, reseller web hosting or VPS web hosting. There are further benefits of having a site hosted on a dedicated server, it offers 100% reliability and stability. It enables oneself from avoiding various experiences such as server overload, scripts from other users, bad codes etc.

You get complete administrative access to the server, which enables you to install applications and software’s of your choice. Whereas, a shared web hosting server does not provide root access to the server. A dedicated server is assigned with dedicated IP addresses, hence the threat of IP blacklisting can be avoided. The dependency on the web host gets largely reduced for a web-site hosted on a dedicated server. This inturn reflects in saving time for addressing the issues. Having a dedicated server hosting package, you can offer instant support to your clients hosted on the server, which is not possible if you have a shared or reseller hosting package.

In any business to grow, prompt and reliable post sales support service is crucial. Word-of-mouth plays a vital role in a business to attain peaks of success, this can be achieved by having a business website hosted on a dedicated server with dedicated resources assigned for you.

A dedicated server hosting has proven to be highly effective for large business websites as well as for Web Designers, Graphic Designers and Web Developers. With a dedicated server you get 24 hours access to the server, which can enable you to resolve your clients issues by addressing it without a waste of second.

Inaddition to that, if you have your website hosted on a Fully managed dedicated server, the headache of managing the server can be shed out. You are not required to manage the upgrades, security patches, and other server management related tasks with a fully managed web hosting solution.

You must be very careful while choosing a web hosting provider as well. Before choosing a host, you must get reviews about them, read their customer testimonials in order to ensure their services. You must make sure that a fully managed web hosting provider offers 24×7 post sales support, flexible upgrade/downgrade options, maximum server uptime, professional but friendly support staff etc.

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