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Most
webmasters on the net today are familiar with what the industry calls
"shared" web hosting accounts. A shared hosting account is where you
rent a small amount of space on a server which is shared among many
other users.
This is a
cheap way to get started online but it has many disadvantages - you
will encounter email delivery problems because of complaints of spam
against other sites on the same server. You will find your site's
grinding to a halt when someone else does some heavy database work on
the shared server on which your web site is also hosted. You might even
find your site going down because of a denial of service attack against
someone else hosting hacking or piracy related material on the shared
server (these type of sites attract antisocial elements!)
How can you avoid all of this drama?
By upgrading to a virtual dedicated server. A virtual dedicated server
lets you run your sites as if you had your own "dedicated" server,
except it is cheaper because you are really just using part of a server
that has been split into multiple virtual dedicated servers.
You can find out more about this by searching Google for "virtual
dedicated hosting". Virtuozzo is the main commercial software that web
hosts use to run virtual hosting services.
You will find virtual dedicated server accounts starting at just $30 a
month. You'll get a much larger chunk of bandwidth compared to shared hosting, and none of the
problems that go with a shared host. You can also get multiple IP
addresses that are exclusive to your sites.
So what's the catch? Not much. You'll probably spend a bit more on
hosting each month. The main disadvantage of upgrading to virtual
dedicated hosting is that you will need to be more technically
proficient so that you can administer the server.
This requires a bit of time learning the necessary Linux skills to make
sure your server runs smoothly.
Many hosting providers will have a "premium" support offering that
includes a bit more hand holding - this is definitely recommended if
you don't have much experience with Linux, or are new to virtual
dedicated hosting.
With the increased speed and bandwidth that a virtual dedicated host
offers, and none of the shared hosting headaches, the move is one you
will never regret. So, the question now becomes, are you ready and
willing to take-on the challenge of virtual dedicated web hosting and
save yourself some hard earned cash? The choice is yours...
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