Thanks for all the info. I currently am at ThePlanet and they are horrid! I mentioned this earlier, but they have problems every single month. I even have a ticket open with them for nearly 6 months and they still haven't resolved it. On the bright side, because of their SLA and inability to resolve issues, I get every month free.

So for dedicated servers, it looks like EV1 might be the best route? I'll check them out! If anybody else can post suggestions I'd much appreciate it!

http://www.Intermedia.net

I have used this provider since 1999 for my own company and dozens of my customers. The number of trouble tickets has been less than 10 for all sites. I am in the process of enabling eCommerce and SSL. You will receive an answer usually within 20 minutes of sending a trouble ticket.

WebMail is a bit slow at times, but most people use OutLook/POP3 anyway.

You have total control for DNS, ASP.NET apps, email accounts, etc. Options for advanced SPAM (basic is free) and anything else you need.

They are not the cheapest but a great choice for a "business" account. I do not see how anyone can offer hosting w/SQL for $10.00 per month. I cannot even bill a customer without it costing me $10.00 in time...grin.


mikez






mikez

first this was about dedicated servers .. anyhow...at least give some truth .. 9.95 is for linux with mysql ....

the cheapest windows plan with sql server is I think $50 + a month.... not reasonable at all...

I have my business and 30 other customers at CrystalTech... some DNN, some ecommerce... no experience with their new dedicated server plans but I am going to try it out.

(I'm going to revive this thread because I'm looking for Co-Location or a dedicated server and I have some quesitons related to the past posts in this thread.)

For folks who are using dedicated hosting or co-location what type of bandwidth billing plans do you have? Basically, from my reading I see there are three basic ways that hosters charge for bandwidth.
1. Capped or valved bandwidth
2. Total Monthly transfer
3. 95th percentile

1. Capped bandwidth – you get bandwidth limited by the network. Typical limits are 1Mb/s or 1.5 Mb/s. You cannot go over this limit. Typically rated in Mega BITS per second. A 1.5 Mb/s rating is similar to a traditional T1 line. 
2.  Monthly transfer – you get a budget of total data that can be transferred per month. If you go over your budget you are charged extra for at a per GB rate. Rated in Giga BYTES per second. A typical rating is 1000 GB per month.
3. 95th percentile – in this type of plan they give you a bandwidth rate, but you are not capped. Your line speed can burst higher. They sample your bandwidth usage, eliminate the top 5% of the samples, and charge you for the bandwidth of the 95 percentile. There is an excellent explanation of this at http://www.webair.com/support/NEW_faq_billing.htm#whatis. According to the explanation, you normally get free upload bandwidth and your busiest 36 hours each month (5% of a month is 36 hours) are dropped. If you go over your budget you are charged extra at a per Mb/s rate.

So, how does one compare these plans? Here is my attempt. There are:
(30 days/month) * (24 hours/day) * (60 minutes/hour) * (60 seconds/minute) = 2,678,400 Seconds/Month

So, a 1 Mb/s capped bandwidth is equivalent to:
(1 Mb/s) *  (2,678,400 Seconds/month) / (8 bits/byte) / (1000 G/M) = 334.8 GB / month Transfer 
(not sure if they use 1024 G/M or not)

Bandwidth (mbps)   Monthly transfer (GB)
0.5                167
1                  335
1.5                502
2                  670
2.5                837
3                  1,004
 
Bandwidth (mbps) = Mega bits per second rate
Monthly transfer (GB) = Giga Bytes transferred each month

Michael's hosters have a similar chart - http://www.calpop.com/bandwidth.html so I think I'm on track.

If this is correct, why do so many plans have seemingly cheaper monthly transfers than bandwidth caps. Here is example, from I've seen many plans in the $200/month range with 1000 GB monthly transfer. I belive that is comparable to a 3 mbps capped plan. However, when I look at hosters that offer capped plans, they are incredibly expensive relative to Monthly Transfer plans. For example, at http://www.twshosting.com/services.php 3 mbps is $640/month just for bandwidth costs. At serverbeach.com they offer 2000 GB monthly transfers on their $200 packages, for $80 extra you can get a 10Mbps capped line which is equivilent to 3,350 GB monthly transfers. Other providers want $1500 per month just for a 10Mpbs capped connection. From the Icthus speed test it seems the serverbeach is capable of bursting to these high speeds.

I know there is no free lunch. Is there a catch in these monthrly transfer plans or cheaper bandwidth plans that I am missing?  or is this just smart shopping and finding providers who are more competitve?

Not to Hijack this but what do you need to look for in a dedicated server besides storage/bandwidth. This is what I need, how do I achieve it.

DotNetNuke of course
SQL Server (I own a copy.)
Email
DNS, I guess?
FTP Server
Anything else?

I actually like the way my current host handles email configuration, but I don't know how they do it.

The reason I'm looking at dedicated? Improved Speed and more disk storage.

One thing that I would ask any company offering dedicated hosting is how 'dedicated' is it? With the stability and scalability of products like VMWare or even Virtual Server now, you might find an enterprising hosting company that is offering your own dedicated VM and not a physical hardware dedicated box. In theory this shouldn't really be that big of a deal, but if a host is offering a dual xeon box and all the goodies, are you the only one having access to the resources of that box or is that box also serving requests for other VM's.

Another question I would pose is what type of firewall is being used to protect the perimeter. Is the box going to be behind it or do you have to provide your own firewall solution. If the server is behind the hosting companies firewall, ask about spam blocking and content filtering that might happen at the firewall level. This way if you were to encounter any weird issues, you can look up the KB of the respective firewall and add another avenue to troubleshoot.

Also you didn't mention backups. Again is this a solution being provided to you or do you have to byob. This would be helpful when you tell your clients what the nature of the backups are, are the diff's only running once a day or is it throughout the day. Backing up takes resources from the server and would effect your performance, so to know when this occurs could be beneficial.

We have a 10MB fiber drop fromn TWC with a T1 from XO for failover. Our firewall auto fails over to the T1 in the event that the fiber goes down (which hasn't to date) so our access to the internet is somewhat failsafe, now we just need to decide on what type of backup generator to purchase (any advice from people with experiance in this would be appreciated) which is something else you want to ask your host. How long do they run without electric service (either via fuel or battery) so that you can plan accordingly.

And last but not least, how do they allow access to the server. Do they open up 3389 or is there any type of VPN concentrators /appliances that allow for secure connections to your box.  

Hope that helps,
Ronald 

"Owning" SQL server is a complex topic.

To be a fully legitimate usr of MS SQL server 2000 on an Internet facing application like most DNN inatallations is not cheap. If you want to use SQL Server Standard Edition on the Internet you really need the per processor license. The list price is about $5K per processor. If you have some other license for SQL Std Ed (like Server plus 25 CALs) you really can't use that license on the Internet. To be true to the license you would have to purchase a CAL for every user. http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/faq.mspx says:

•

For externally focused server applications. Processor licensing is the obvious choice for externally focused server applications, such as Internet and extranet scenarios. Typically, counting devices or users in these scenarios ranges from difficult to impossible, so hardware–based pricing is more straightforward.

Now there are other options beside Standard Edition. These include WorkGroup edition, Developer Edition, and MSDE. MSDE has some built in scalability limitations - http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnmsde2kwrk/html/msde2000webapp.asp

MSDE 2000 databases are limited to 2 GB each. More importantly for your application designs, MSDE 2000 employs what is known as a concurrent Workload Governor. The effect of the governor is to slow certain operations down by stalling user connections for a few milliseconds whenever there are more than eight concurrent operations.

Developer edition can only be used for development and testing. And I really don't udnerstand the use of Workgroup edition on the Internet. Now some hosting companies will Lease you a legitimate SQL Standard license under the terms of their Service Provider Licesnse Agreement (SPLA). Typically, I've seen SQL Standard Edtion for $200 per month.Also, Yukon (SQL Server 2005) will have an Express edtion which will be free, but won't have the performance limitations of MSDE. - http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.mspx

Actually, you don't need DotNetNuke from a dedicated hoster. They are giving you your own machine, so just install it yourself.

I did a little more homework about SQL licensing. This is important for this dicussion because if you go to dedicated servers you are responsible for your SQL license.

SQL Workgroup edition eliminates some of the more advanced features of SQL Server Standard (like Analysis services and English Query). But it leaves you all the features you need to run DotNetNuke (I think). Workgroup edition is available in a per processor license, so it can be used on the Internet. Its list price is about $1200 cheaper than Standard edition (should cost around $3,700). It is available on a per month basis for about $100/month. It is limited to two CPUs where standard edition can go to four. It does not have the performance limitations of MSDE or the License restrictions of Developer edition.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/evaluation/features/choosing.mspx shows the features that are missing from Workgroup edition.
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/default.mspx shows the license terms available
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/evaluation/overview/default.mspx basic overview of all versions

So, for today (until DotNetNuke is tested with SQL 2005 Express Edition) SQL WorkGroup looks like a good deal, as long as you don't need analysis services or any of the other missing features.

'Actually, you don't need DotNetNuke from a dedicated hoster.'

Thats not what I meant. I realise I'm responsible for setting up the server. I was trying to list what I need to put on the server to get it to run DNN. Thanks for all the inut everyone. I believe when I move to a dedicated server it'll first be a single processor. But it looks like 'renting' SQL server may be the best option.