Bandwidth

Bandwidth (data transfer) is usually measured in gigabytes. A gigabyte is roughly one billion bytes. Each letter on this page is one byte. Images can take up a large amount of kilobytes (thousands of bytes), and file downloads can be several megabytes (millions of bytes) in size.

You need to realistically think of how much bandwidth your site will need. Unless your site has a lot of downloads or a large advertising push, it will be unlikely that you will need many gigabytes of transfer - 5 gigabytes should be enough. Any more, and you will just be paying extra for something to use. On that note though, you should be careful and make sure you always do have some extra bandwidth - many hosts charge $2.00 and more for every gigabyte of transfer you use extra. That can add up very quickly

Like most things, bandwidth is not created equally. There are varying degrees of performance delivered by carriers (the actual companies that provide the internet connection). One company may provide expensive, but super-fast connections while another could provide slow but cheap bandwidth. It is good to test it yourself by visiting the web host's page multiple times throughout the day to see how fast their response loads up. A slow loading website could be a sign of a slow and over-loaded internet connection.

Lastly, the size of the pipe should be noticed. The 'pipe' is the actual internet connection, and its size refers to the speed at which data is transferred. Just like a home connection can be 33.6k and 56k (which refers to the speed of the connection), internet connections are measured in Gig-E, OC3, DS3, and so forth. The faster the pipe, the more data it can handle, and thus usually the better it is.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

A virtual private server, more commonly known as a VPS, has much more power than a shared hosting account without the cost of a dedicated server. VPS technology allows a single computer to be partitioned into multiple exclusive environments. These "virtual" servers are very close to a dedicated server for control, flexibility, performance and security, but are closer to shared hosting in cost.

Like a Dedicated Server, VPS hosting can be managed and unmanaged. Cost wise, the managed will be more expensive, but can save you a lot of headache. Also, some virtual private server providers have a control panel pre-installed allowing for a seamless transition from shared to VPS. Some providers do not provide a control panel or you must pay extra. We recommend going with a provider that includes a control panel. cPanel is the best in this case.

When you are looking at a VPS, providers will allow you to use a certain amount of disk space, bandwidth, RAM and CPU. The RAM and CPU can be different. Some VPS hosting providers will limit the exact memory amount alloted to each environment while others allow for burstable memory  over your limits to ensure your site will not break during times of high resource usage.

VPS hosting providers are known to handle CPU cycle usage of their accounts differently. Some providers offer an equal share of the CPUs while others limit the usage for each customer. Platforms that utilize fixed CPU allocations will be less flexible with overages.

Not all hosting companies provide virtual private servers and the level of personal support can vary greatly by company. Dedicated IP addresses, custom set-ups, and backups are all features that leading VPS providers should include. VPS hosting is a great solution for customers outgrowing their shared hosting capacity but are not ready to have their own dedicated server.

Dedicated Server

For sites requiring more power than what normal hosting can provide, a dedicated server is usually the better route to take.
Having a dedicated server is a completely different from normal virtual (shared) hosting. The server is now fully yours - the entire hard disk and all the bandwidth allocated can be used as you want. There is no longer any CPU Usage restriction. If you need, you can use up 100% CPU utilization. You can put all your sites on this one server without having to worry about paying hosting fees for each site added.

But along with these new liberations come new responsibilities. Most important is to ensure that you server is always patched and up to date. There are new updates being constantly released, which if not applied to your server could let a hacker could gain inner access to your server.

Because management can be so difficult, there are usually two types of dedicated hosting offered:

Unmanaged - your host will not help you maintain the server. Far more cheaper than managed dedicated, you should only opt for an unmanaged server if you are well versed with how a server functions. The server will be given to you either with a plain operating system installation or with a control panel installed. It is your duty to take care of all upgrades, patches, configuration, security, and fixing any problems. In such a situation, it might be worthwhile to hire a system administrator to ensure that your server is always in good condition
Managed - your host will assist you in the upkeep of your server. This can be quite expensive, but for those without the technical skills it can be very helpful. By choosing to go with a managed dedicated server, the web host will help you with the above-mentioned administrator responsibilities. While more expensive, it will save you the headache of trying to get your server to work if there are any problems.
Dedicated servers come either as just plain installations (where only the operating system and basic services are installed) or with a control panel. The control panel lets you easily modify most server features from a web page. It should be noted that the control panel will have limitations, and will not provide access to everything.

It should be noted that with a dedicated server, even though you may be paying a set up fee, the server is usually owned by the company . you are only renting it for the time being.

Colocation services

Colocation services are for those that require complete control over their server configuration.

Colocation is a service in which a company will connect a server that you own to the internet. If you do not already have one, some companies offer to build a server for you. This is the key difference between dedicated servers and colocated servers. In a dedicated environment, the server itself is owned by the web hosting company, whereas in a colocated environment, the server is your own.

There are two costs associated with colocated servers - rental fees and connection fees.

Rental Fees - These are the costs associated with actually having your server located in the web host's datacenter. Ranging from 1U to a full rack, this measurement is the height of the server(s) being hosted. Most servers come in either 1U or 2U configurations. Servers with a large number of harddrives can be as big as 3U or 4U.

Connection Charges - Instead of measuring the total number of gigabytes transferred per month, a connection average is usually used. So a 1 mbp/s connection means that you can average 1 megabyte of transfer per second for the entire month. Getting more complicated now, there are two other things to consider.

Firstly is how this transfer is measured. Some simply take the amount of bandwidth used that month, divide it by the number of seconds in that month, and come to a figure that way. Much more popular though is a system called '95th percentile' in which bandwidth measurements are taken every 5 minutes. At the end of the month, the top 5% of readings are discarded, and the highest remaining reading left is what the user is billed at.
This brings us to the second point - burstable connections. While you may be allowed to average 1 mbp/s, you can suddenly burst to a higher transfer rate. With a system of measurement such as 95th percentile, you have to make sure that you do not need to burst your connection often.

Since you are entrusting your server in the hands of another company, there are other things to be aware of -
Facility - It is important to know where your server will be physically located.

Physical Infrastructure - Natural disasters can and do occur. You want to ensure that your server and the data it contains is kept safe.

Security / Access - Just as you would not allow anyone into your server, you want to make sure that only people with the proper authorization will have access to your server.

Bandwidth - Not all internet connections are equal. For more detail, please refer to our page on differences in bandwidth.

IPs - If you want to be using features such as Anonymous FTP, private nameservers, or game servers, having multiple IPs can become important. The host should be checked for how many IPs they can provide and at what cost.

Support Options - This is important with any type of hosting. You want to make sure that the people that work with your servers are both knowledgeable and helpful.

Cross Connect Fees - This is a more advanced feature. In certain places, you can actually physically co-locate your server with one host, while having the internet connection provided by another host. These additional fees are called cross connect fees.

Uptime Guarantees - Just as they are very important in virtual hosting, it is extremely important to ensure that your host has guarantees in regards to the performance of your connection.

Contract - The fine print is always important. Things to be noted include the terms of service, an uptime guarantees, and the contract length.