There is good reason for dedicated boxes - especially where the content flowing thru them mean dollar values. Example.. if your box is generating $3K-$10K+/month, there is a biz judgement that would suggest a dedicated box.

I'm no hosting expert (and hope others will elaborate), but yes, - as a rough rule of thumb your 3200 gigs is 10Mbits.

OK.. basic stuff and simplified... On peaking... say you have a paysite - you need to have enough cable to let an optimum number of members get access at the same time. If 60 members are each downloading a selection of 50 Meg movies concurrently - that's 10 Mbps and no allowance for the activities of other members or possible other domains on that server. Depending on the plan, the cable can be capped or uncapped - the latter is where the host will charge some dollars per extra Mbits used, but allows access to your content during peak periods and without interruption.

With virtual hosting you are sharing a box with others and although you may have a BW usage of eg 1600 gigs (and depending on the box and other factors) your content may be restricted at times - and, who knows, could have been 2000 gigs if hosted on a dedicated box.

There are obviously other factors related to the box, - processor/s, RAM blah. For crucial stuff - I'd go with a dedicated box (and depending how crucial - add colocation). For feeder domains (especially spread over a range of networks) and less crucial elements, virtual hosting can be fine and $10 VH accounts can have a place in the bigger picture.

Overages on an uncapped dedicated box are not that bad depending on the host, (generally from $10 to $65 per Mbit extra, so a matter of shopping around).

Bottom line.. and this is only my :2 cents: - it has more to do with stability and dollar revenue than much else. It's more a commerical decision having confidence in the host and balancing your hosting over X hosts/networks. If your revenue or traffic is worth is eg $500-$1000+/month off a $10/month VH account - it prob is time to look towards stabilizing that element on a dedicated box, especially if the traffic on that VH account is increasing.

But dammit - your are paying $9.95 on Dreamhost - sheesh - a total ripoff for just 5Mbits :winkwink: :thumbsup


PS We used to pay.. think it was $3000 ish/month for fairly simple dedicated boxes with Class C's about a decade ago - but it's a changed world now :)

I had a lot of downtime with Webair when I started. They moved me to another box and I've been fairly happy since.

The problem is that you get what you pay for with hosting. If you're on a shared hosting plan that costs $10, you're going to get shitty hosting. This doesn't matter who you go through. Maybe Webair overloads a little more than others, but it's not uncommons for small plans like that to have a lot of downtime.

If you have something important, don't put it on a shared hosting plan. Get a box with someone like Webair, PhatServers, GotWebHost, or someone else who will be an ICQ or e-mail away to help. Sure it's a little more pricey, but you'll sleep a lot better.

I happen to be happy with Webair, I have been there for almost 7 years now.


:)

I call bullshit... $200 for 100mbps? They'd be loosing money.

That is probaly port speed not bandwith speed.

port speed is Gbs, bandwidth is 100Mbs

http://www.ovh.com/fr/produits/mgplus.xml

EXCELLENT POINT AND POST

Thanks alot for taking the time to type all that and explain it to me...I think I understand it pretty well now. The problem is, I'm not making 10K a month, so I figure I probably dont need that type of set up...With any luck, I'll get there one day and will need your help choosing a "box"

So you think Im safe with my 9.95 plan running 16 sites on it? I pull down about $23.73 a month...-$9.95, thats all profit, baby :thumbsup :pimp

Hehe... I'd be twitching on the stability of a Dreamhost account pumping 1600 gigs, but worth every dime. Damn you are beating all barriers with that $23.73/month revenue - I'm still hoping to do $9.95 :winkwink:

Just noticed a dreamhost test account we have and hardly use - the BW deal on that is over 2500 gigs and increasing monthly - they are offering it, so hell :)

I got to be honest, its not as bad as everyone says it is...Only bad thing is no .shtml, only .php (they cant figure it out) but no biggie. Also cant seem to get a mpg script to run on it and no php implodes for security reasons..But what I do, its a "dream"

update:
Mike contacted me on icq and promised to refund me and offered me a dedicated server for the price I paid for the virtual plan under 6 months if I wanted :) Thanks!