Advice on dedicated server hosting

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obiwan

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Wannabe Geek

#12661 29-Mar-2007 16:42

I am currently hosting with Webcentral for my Australian-based online service. They seem very expensive and their service is pathetic. Can anyone suggest a host, probably in Australia but o/s (are there any fish-hooks in hosting in the US, for eg) would be a consideration. Apparently, my minimum requirements are:

Windows Server 2003

3 GB RAM

SQL Server 2005 Processor license with SQL reporting services installed

100 GB HDD Space

bradstewart

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#65468 29-Mar-2007 17:06

Check out Openhost

They have very good service, for a reasonable price.

obiwan

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Wannabe Geek

#65470 29-Mar-2007 17:15

Thanks for that. I have done a bit of research and a lot of the forums have comments recommending the efficiencies of hosting in the US. I don't know much about this, but I suppose price is a fairly high priority for me. Given that I have shyte service now, any actual service would be nice. I guess it is crucial to have good uptime
What say you on domain name hosting. At the moment, Melbourne IT (which bought WebCentral last year) are hosting six of my domains for $12ea per month. Sounds OK like that, but try $900 per year and it starts to become a bit more chewy!!

bradstewart

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#65471 29-Mar-2007 17:19

Hmm that sounds expensive. Webfarm do domains for about $20 per year. This is all NZ stuff, but that plus openhost gives me some very cheap hosting solutions.

US hosting is very cheap but sorting domains with them is a huge hassle.

obiwan

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Wannabe Geek

#65475 29-Mar-2007 17:27

Does it make any difference where I host the domains? I have .com.au, .com, .co.uk and .co.nz domains.

bradstewart

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#65476 29-Mar-2007 17:30

No, just try and get them as cheap as possible.

alasta

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#65492 29-Mar-2007 19:50

bradstewart: No, just try and get them as cheap as possible.

I wouldn't agree with that if the cheapest registrar happens to be unprofessional or disorganised with regard to issuing renewal notices, administering change of ownership, providing online administration tools, etc. Sure, price is important, but it's not the only thing to consider.

Disclaimer : Whilst I work in this industry, the views expressed here are entirely my own.

bradstewart

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#65498 29-Mar-2007 20:44

Having a good domain management interface is handy.

One thing I've learnt is to stay away from Domainz, they are unhelpful, unprofessional and down right useless oh and expensive.

Freeparking and Webfarm are great.

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tonyhughes

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#65501 29-Mar-2007 20:53

I have three .co.nz domains with discountdomains.co.nz ($29.95+gst a year) and have had nothing but exemplary service, including proactive updates and notifications via email of outages.

My .com domains are with overseas providers, because NZ registars just cant seem to match the price.

mike

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#65504 29-Mar-2007 21:10

Melbourne IT own Web Central (as mentioned) and they also own Domainz in NZ - they aren't known for great service or great prices, Domainz only still exists as it was the incumbent before domain registration was opened up in NZ (believe this is where alasta works too?).

What this really comes down to is if you'd like all your domains/hosting conveniently managed and billed by the one company or if you'd like to have multiple accounts to get the best deals.

For me it's 2day.com for .co.nz domains ($28.80/pa), godaddy.com for .com (~$10/pa) and I looked at a few providers for .com.au last month but action on these isn't needed for several months so no experience there (but they are all round much more expensive than usa/nz domains).

For hosting definitely keep it in Australia if that's where your audience is. Probably best to fire off quote requests to different companies and search around for customer experiences for the ones that come within or below budget. Let them know your current setup/costs and usage as your needs are fairly high end.

My hosting right now is fairly evenly split between the USA and NZ and have spent this afternoon researching dedicated and VPS in NZ to add more next month.

barf

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Ultimate Geek

#65508 29-Mar-2007 21:51

DiscountDomains.co.nz have also given me great service for many years. I wouldn't go near GoDaddy though (see NoDaddy.com for reasons why)

Sniffing the glue holding the Internet together

tonyhughes

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#65515 29-Mar-2007 22:16

just checked godaddy.com their .info domains are 99c USD at the moment (for one year), thats insane. Not that I need or want a .info.

Their .co.nz is about $58USD ouch!

My dot coms are with my new webhost for $9.95USD a year. I wish i could have all my domains in one place, but to do that with .com and .co.nz I would end up paying nearly twice as much for the privilege :(

I have heaps of spare shared hosting capacity for web and mail if anyone wants any domains hosted and any services on it. Nominal charge - im just looking to recoup some of my costs. PM me if interested. Will offer services free for charities or good causes.

obiwan

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Wannabe Geek

#65588 30-Mar-2007 11:54

Thx for all the options. Now, the challenge - can we distill it down to one or a few options. Doesn't seem to be much Dingo (au) info filtering through at the mo. However, I have just returned to MEL after 7 years in ZQN, so would have no probs with hosting anything in NZ, if that was the best option.
Best case scenario:
Where do I get the best dedicated server deal (specs above) with the least arse-ache.
Where can I host au, nz, com, uk domain names all in one place without losing an eye.
Bit of biology there, but that is the crux of the matter.
I am a newbie to GZ, but this discussion has been great. Definitely keen to engage regularly. We met the Alpha Geek (Mauricio aka Freitasm) in Melbourne on his tour with Google Adsense.