Shared vs. VPS vs. Dedicated

[Menard]

I have been looking at other options to hosting other than the shared hosting I am using at present.

First off, I am far from satisfied with any hosting.

There used to be a thing called customer service, apparently that was before the internet and Walmart came along and changed it to provider service; the provider does not service the customer, the customer services the provider.

A prime example of this is the opening statement in a hosting company acceptable use policy (I've changed the name to protect the guilty):

Creep Hosting's Acceptable Use Policy is provided to give our customers and users a clear understanding of what Creep Hosting expects of them while using the service.

Well, how 'bout that. The company expects things from the customer. What about the customer?

Any form of TOS goes to great lengths to explain what the customer does not have the right to and what the provider does have the right to. If companies had operated like this before the internet, and certainly there were such companies, many of them would have gone out of business; of course, the life expectancy of any internet business is not great (makes you wonder why ).

Imagine going into a store and being told that you have to shop in a certain way or you are not welcome there. Of course, before civil rights in the U.S., this did happen to people of color or certain ethnicity, and still does to some degree.

Here is an example of limitations placed on what you can and cannot host with Hostgator:

Examples of unacceptable material on all Shared, Reseller and Dedicated Servers include:
IRC Bots, Proxy Scripts / Anonymizers, Pirated Software / Warez, image, filedump, or banner-ad services (similar to rapidshare, photobucket, or commercial banner ad rotation), topsites, commercial audio streaming (more than one or two streams), Escrow, High-Yield Interest Programs(HYIP) or related sites, Investment sites (FOREX, egold exchange), sale of any controlled substance without prior proof of appropriate permit(s), AutoSurf sites, Bank Debentures, Bank Debenture Trading Programs, Prime Banks Programs, lottery sites, muds / rpg's, hate sites, hacker focused sites/archives/programs, or sites promoting illegal activities, IP Scanners, Brute Force Programs, Mail Bombers and Spam Scripts. Forums that distribute or link to warez content is prohibited.

Acceptable material on Dedicated Servers:
Proxy Scripts / Anonymizers, Image Hosting sites and muds / rpg's

Not only do they contradict themselves by including some of the same items in both lists, but that list of what cannot be hosted also applies to dedicated servers.

Now let me get this straight; if I am paying for a dedicated server, and might I add 'paying a lot', so that I am basically leasing a server in a datacenter for my own use, but I am being told what I cannot put on it (legal is implied)? What's the point of me paying for a server if I can't use it the way I see fit?

Heck, with their restrictions, which I just recently read, it makes me wonder why I am paying $15 dollars a month for shared hosting (that won't be for long).

It basically comes down to overselling: they are offering the world, but won't allow you to use any scripts which might actually use what they promise.


I am looking at hosting for my new site. I can't afford a dedicated server, but am wondering what advantages a virtual server offers over shared hosting. I have read some of the stats involving allowed memory and cpu usage, but has anyone here used a virtual server before, and can you tell me if you feel there is a benefit?

My main concern with what would be hosted on a virtual server, aside from the primary site files, is the databases. Since I am planning on several databases which, providing on how well the site does, could end up being accessed multiple times, and simultaneously, in a relatively short period of time; they can basically use a lot of resources. Actually using a lot of resources has a tendency to get accounts suspended on shared hosting.

Another of my concerns is space and bandwidth. Overselling on shared hosting makes virtual and dedicated hosting seem sparse on space and bandwidth in comparison (though I'm certain that if you actually used what they promised, your account would be suspended in no time). In order to have more space, and reduce bandwidth, I was thinking of using shared hosting for some of the media files. I have the dotcom, dotnet, and dotorg for the domain and thought that I would have the dotorg on shared hosting and put the media files there.

Okay, my rant is over. Thank you in advance for any input.


*BTW, I had another account hacked into and ended up looking for new hosting. I am getting a free test drive for 3 months with eVerity, which is standard for all of their plans; don't even have to provide a credit card or payment info for those 3 months and I can pay by the month when it comes time. We'll see how this works out; so far, other than only 2 ftp accounts (though I only use one anyway), I like what they offer and reviews I have read are glowing. We'll see.

[Andy]

I subscribe to the Hostgator reseller plan which is metered and so this is not oversold. And when I hit the limits I get automated emails and can go into the web host manager and allocate some more bandwidth as required.

The terms and conditions are there to protect their business. They just don't want sites that attract large volumes of spammy traffic that just waste resources such as Autosurfs and black hat kind of sites.

Most webmasters will consume minimal amounts of bandwidth and disk space, that's why the hosts can get away with offering these good deals.

As a sales man you must understand how they would rather sell cheap hosting than spend all their start up capital on lawyers to create the TOS. I know I wouldn't waste my money like that. I would have similar restrictive TOS but only shut down people that really abused the service and didn't take corrective action after being warned.

If you are going to provide streaming media or popular downloads such as ringtones, then that is when I would look at dedicated hosting. Just my personal opinion.

[Menard]

The terms and conditions are there to protect their business.

The terms and conditions are there to profit them and them only.

The hacking incident that happened recently got my account suspended. At least the service did send an email before they suspended it. It could have been hacked via my password, though I did not use it with any other service, and it was not weak as they suggested; not to mention that cpanel has a built in protection that only allows so many tries at a password before you have to wait a period of time before you can try again.

Perhaps the hacker found a way around this. Most likely it was their system that was hacked and I doubt that my account was the only one compromised.

I paid in advance for that service and I get nothing back.

They did offer to resolve the problem, but it is like having someone guard your property and being robbed, then asking the same person to guard it again.

Most webmasters will consume minimal amounts of bandwidth and disk space, that's why the hosts can get away with offering these good deals.

Is it really a 'good deal' if they have no intention of honoring their promises? Hosting is pretty much worthless if it gets taken from you because you actually used it for what it was intended.

As a sales man you must understand how they would rather sell cheap hosting than spend all their start up capital on lawyers to create the TOS. I know I wouldn't waste my money like that.

Being a salesman is a double-edged sword. There is a thin line between deception and honesty, and too many simply try to redefine the line.

The excuse of 'I didn't lie, I just didn't tell the whole truth' is a poor excuse used by too many salesmen (I didn't say the majority, just too many). Of course, in order to protect themselves, the companies will put a salesman on suspension for doing exactly what they were taught, off the record. If you have ever been in sales training, you have heard as many times as I the line 'now turn off your recorders'.

It would serve them well to have their TOSs penned by lawyers. The advantage that they have is two-fold: 1) most people believe that everything in their TOS is applicable in a court of law; 2) what it would cost to take them to court by far exceeds the amount in question.

The number one thing that nobody can claim, at least in this country, is 'we are not responsible'. You will still see signs at service stations that say 'We are not responsible for any damages to your vehicle if left here overnight'. That is simply untrue as it is their property upon which the vehicle resides, and they are responsible for anything that happens to someone's vehicle while it is on their property; but the sign works because people believe it.

 

I would have similar restrictive TOS but only shut down people that really abused the service and didn't take corrective action after being warned.

Where do you draw the line between 'use' and 'abuse'?

A forum that becomes popular is a 'use', IMO, but, if it ties up server resources, then it is treated as an 'abuse'. Many of the preinstalled scripts the services offer are resource heavy scripts, but you are told upfront that you can 'use' any and as many as you want, provided you have the databases, but using them may well get your site suspended.

IMO, there is no justification for deception. Some hosting companies use an extensive TOS  and support database that will provide the answers to many questions, but promising upfront something they have no intention of honoring and using the TOS as an excuse to say 'well, they should have known better' is simply a deception.


That's just my limited opinion. I don't know anything about running servers and what their listed, if they have provided it, percentage of resources breaks down to; I suspect I am far from alone on that.

 

[walls]

I do not have experience with any other hosting except sharing hosting but i'm very glad that i have become advanced huner for excellent shared hosting.
They are many many sharing hosts and it is very difficult to find good one. Why?
Because 90% of companies do something what is call as overselling or i will rather call it overloading where on one single server they place 500-600 users and in same time by plan they give you 700GB bandwidth monthl!?
True is that if your site start to be popular you will be in trouble. WIth 20 users online you will get warning of high use of CPU and in same time you do not use 5GB of bandwidth.
I hope that future will give use more companies who care about their customers and do not think only about his own profit.