Cloud computing is a term that gets thrown around quite a bit these days, so I thought I’d clarify the term just a little bit in regards to what most people mean by it. Cloud computing, as it is commonly used, means that instead of using one server and upgrading and adding them manually you [...]
I stumbled upon this article at Slashdot and I thought it worth a mention. It’s an Ask Slashdot sort of question that deals with software piracy on servers, and many answers crop up in the course of the ensuing discussion. I agree with some of the other posters there when I say: If [...]
Yesterday I talked about how process/resource watching isn’t the optimal way to go about monitoring a server’s performance, and I mentioned that it would lead to setting arbitrary benchmarks that have less bearing on a production machine than a practical assessment would have. I also mentioned that there is a very useful component to process/resource [...]
There are two types of people when it comes to server performance: There are the benchmark/log/process manager people who studiously scrutinize everything from how often a machine to pages to the load per core on a machine, and there are the more laid-back folks who use the rather practical and somewhat easier benchmark of “If [...]
I bumped into this blog today and read the post concerning whether or not you should host your own email. Barring the fact that the post offers very little information besides email hosting options, the question remains; should you host your own mail server? The post mentions the dangers of spam in today’s [...]
WebHostingTalk was recently hacked by an ingenious method; someone gained access to their offsite backup servers and used that to gain access to their database tables. They had to restore from an extremely old database, and many users lost tons of post counts and interesting topics. Even worse, the attacker was able to [...]
Beware the promise of unlimited bandwidth! The hawkers promising unlimited bandwidth seem to have dwindled, especially in the dedicated server arena; a quick Google search revealed fewer providers promising unlimited bandwidth for dedicated servers at outrageously cheap prices. They more often come now not promising unlimited bandwidth but absurdly high bandwidth- intimations of 5000GB+ bandwidth [...]
I was over at WebHostingTalk and I bumped into this topic here, in which a forum poster asks how much CPU load is too much CPU load for a dedicated server. The answer most given to him throughout the course of the topic is that too much is when it affects performance (though [...]
I was browsing around today and stumbled upon Gigenet’s “Bargain Basement” section. I was pretty impressed with what I saw- 2.2GHz Athlons with 2GB of RAM starting around 99$ per month, with around 2000 GB of bandwidth. I’m not sure how managed the servers are- Gigenet claims something called “Pinnacle Support”, and they [...]
The question of the advantage of the Mac dedicated server has been bugging me for awhile since my last post about it, and today I searched around looking for people who can claim an objective advantage to it that isn’t dependent on application compatibility. Besides this article here I didn’t find much (and [...]
As usual, I was browsing around the Internet and I stumbled across the fact that WebHostingDay 2009 was just held in Germany- it started on Wednesday and ended on Friday. I suppose the title of this post is a little bit of a misnomer- it’s not so much a day to celebrate your server but [...]
I was goofing around Google and I stumbled upon an article from Monday concerning the “Anti-Phishing Working Group” (APWG for short). The organization is dedicated to stopping phishing attacks and reporting them in a concerted effort to reduce phishing effectiveness and prevalence. They have the usual phishing tips for consumers on how not [...]
Even if you’re only running a slightly complex page with a few scripts, you’re going to want a good backup solution. It may seem like an unnecessary expense, but think about all the information that goes down the drain if something goes wrong: Customer information, usernames, passwords, invoices… really the whole kit and kaboodle! Since [...]
Everyone’s heard of Apache and IIS, and sometimes it can seem like those are the only two options available to people looking for a web server. I know I’ve pretty much used Apache exclusively, seeing as my machines are mostly Linux servers, and those in the Windows crowd often opt for IIS as well. I [...]
I was browsing the forums over at webhostingtalk.com and I found this interesting post by someone who was complaining that most dedicated server providers use “boring hardware” from manufacturers like Dell. The other posters in the thread rightly shut him down, but it’s interesting that he didn’t like the fact that vendors like [...]
I’ve done a couple of posts this week on security, but I’d like to touch upon something that not only has implications to security but also to just about everything (including, if you’re a small business, profit)- PEBKAC!
PEBKAC is a fun acronym coined by computer support specialists which means “Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair”. [...]
I was talking to a friend today about the Dedicated Server blog, and she asked me if dedicated servers were PC or Mac. I explained to her that usually they’re Windows or Linux, but it did get me wondering why there aren’t more Apple servers prominently featured on the market. A quick search of the [...]
Following from yesterday’s post, I thought a bit about security and I realized it’s a pretty intense subject. There are obviously tons of things you can and should do to keep yourself secure, many of them outside the scope of this blog post. Here are some quick ones, however, that you should always keep in [...]
There’s something that a surprising amount of people overlook, even though it’s a vital part of a system’s security: Permissions! You’d be amazed at how many people are beyond paranoid about being hacked (as they should be) and go about fortifying every part of their system. They update their OS as soon as updates arrive, [...]
Before I go off advising you to pay for a managed server, I need to stress one thing: Make sure you know what “managed” means! There’s no widely accepted universal standard, and different companies will mean different things when they throw about the word “managed”. LiquidWeb offers something they call “Heroic Support”, which [...]
Sometimes fate is not kind (or you’re simply adventurous) and you need/want to use a server that isn’t quite up to the task you have in mind. I was looking at some of my servers today and I realized that one hasn’t been scaling well- an old Gateway that I’ve been using for request tracking [...]
ServerBlog.us.com launches, offering free information and advice on server technology and webhosting with daily posts and provider referral service.
New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) March 10, 2009 — The idea behind The Dedicated Server Blog was first born when the creator was looking for information on web [...]
Almost every company worth their salt nowadays will give you an option between Linux or Windows for the operating system on your dedicated server. Debates have been waged endlessly on the Internet over whether or not Linux or Windows is the better operating system for your server, but the bottom line is this: for 80% [...]
Media Temple is a popular hosting company who has been using very slick marketing for the past two years to sell their popular Grid Service. If you had a look at their website, and read the write ups about the Grid, they make it seem like you are getting extreme dedicated server power for a shared hosting [...]
I guess this kind of follows from my last post, but it’s one worthy of discussion and a subject I should have addressed in my post on shared hosting services. I’m sure everyone’s heard of the free shared hosting services floating around the web, and there are a myriad of opinions regarding their advantages and [...]
Kind of off-topic, but everyone should keep these ideas in mind. I was browsing the forums over at webhostingtalk.com and I found this topic concerning poor web hosting service. This poor guy got slammed with terrible customer service and blatant incompetence in terms of handling fairly simple technical errata (He only wanted to [...]
Hoo-wah! We’re getting to the big guns here: Colocation centers are, for the majority of you out there, not something you want to get into. I’m only including them here for the purposes of being thorough, but for the most part anyone who needs and is able to use colocation is far beyond what this [...]
Some people are stuck in the unfortunate gap between shared hosting and dedicated servers. They need the functionality and flexibility of a dedicated server, but they don’t need its storage or computing power. Paying almost 200$ a month for total flexibility is a bitter pill to swallow; fortunately, there have been other people with this [...]
Dedicated servers are very attractive, and for good reason: who doesn’t want their own private server somewhere with all the hardware and software issues managed for them? All that space, bandwidth, and computing power sounds good when you’re looking for ways to spread your ideas or business to the world. There is, however, one considerable [...]
Welcome! I’m Xand, and I’m your new staff blogger here at The Dedicated Server Blog. I’m excited to be writing and informing about dedicated servers, and seeing as this is all our first time I thought I might kick off the blog with a series of starter topics. Over the course of the next few [...]
