Web Hosting Blog

Online gaming industry is one of the highest earning businesses in the world of Internet today. The choices of online gamers have drastically changed. Online gamers no longer like to play simple games. Todays trend is of high definition and more realistic kind of games.

Due to the ever increasing users of online gaming, many users have switched to dedicated server hosting to provide their customers with better services. In the initial stages users opted for shared web hosting packages to start the online gaming service. But as the number of gamers increased, the web hosting packages had to be upgraded. Today the big online gaming web-sites are hosted on dedicated servers.

Today those who wish to start an online gaming website either select a VPS hosting package or Dedicated server options. Now-a-days Gaming websites isn’t a normal business website. Though not every gaming website needs a dedicated server. It depends on the type of game that is hosted on a server, the number of visitors to the website etc.

Having an account for dedicated server with a web hosting company means, you are not required to share the server with any other user. Dedicated server hosting has more advantages than shared web hosting solutions. A dedicated server is necessary for the web-sites that has more traffic daily to the website. Usually most of the online gaming websites charge customers with certain amount of money every month for allowing them to play the games. Traffic on the Internet is dynamic, hence if a website is slow or takes long time to respond, then visitors might turn their back to such websites and search for a better option. Falling into such situations means losing out a lot of potential business. Here having a dedicated server hosting package becomes vital.

The fact that dedicated game servers are costly but if thinking of a long term objective then hosting the game on a dedicated server from the beginning itself can repay well in future, because as the web-site grows older on the web, means more traffic and more traffic means more business.

Usually a well reputed web hosting company provides assistance for all the queries regarding dedicated game server options. They would help your business grow. Hence, selecting the correct web hosting company is crucial. Selection of the appropriate operating system, data backups, bandwidth, package, hardware and space is the next thing after choosing a reliable web hosting company.

Dedicated Server hosting service, managed hosting service or Dedicated server is one of the different types of Web Hosting service. Dedicated web hosting is more flexible type of web hosting solution as compared with other types of hosting solutions. The organization who have chosen a Dedicated hosting package from a Web Hosting firm, has the complete control over the server(s). The organization(s) can choose the operating system, hardware etc. to be installed on the server. As an add-on service, server administration can be offered by the web hosting firm. The dedicated servers are housed in data centers, just like collocation facilities, with a provision of redundant power sources and HVAC systems.

The organization(s) can choose the operating system to be installed on the dedicated server. The Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server, it is offered through a special program known as the Microsoft SPLA. Different variations of Linux which is an open source operating system is usually included at zero charge for the customers. But Red Hat Enterprize is a commercial version of Linux which is offered to the hosting service providers with a monthly fee charged. The monthly charge provides updates on the OS through Red Hat Network.

The support for any operating systems depends on the level of management offered with a particular dedicated server hosting plan provided by the hosting service provider. The updates include updates to the core system in order to acquire the up-to-date security fixes, system-wide vulnerability resolutions and patches, kernel upgrades, application updates, service packs etc.

The data transfer rate or the amount of data that is carried from one point to other in a given time is known as Bandwidth. It is represented in bits per second.

Methods of Bandwidth Measurement

1. Unmetered Method : In this type of measurement the web hosting providers control the top line speed of the server. This speed in unmetered bandwidth is the total Mbits/sec allocated to the server and configured on the switch level.
2. 95^th Method : The Line Speed billed on the 95^th percentile, average or peak usage, it refers to the speed in which data flows from the server or device. This measurement can be compared to the Miles Per Hour (mph) which means with what speed it travels. The Line speed is measured using bits per second, kilobits per second, megabits per second and gigabits per second.
3. Total Transfer Method : Depending on the web hosting service provider, some calculate the Total Transfer, it is the measurement of the actual data arrival and leaving. It is measured in bytes.

One of the following equations are used to measure:

1^st Method : IN TRAFFIC + OUT TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER

2^nd Method : IN TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER

3^rd Method : OUT TRAFFIC = TOTAL TRANSFER

Due to the availability of high powered networks from multiple providers people choose to outsource the dedicated servers. The server use large amounts of bandwidths. Usually the providers of dedicated servers include a service level agreement based on the network uptime.

There are no clear industry standards set that can define the role of management of dedicated server providers. Every Web Hosting provider defines the term differently but use the industries standard term.

Server Management includes the following:

• Intrusion detection
• Updates on Operating System
• Database administration
• Updates on Applications
• Performance tuning
• Server monitoring
• Software configuration and installation
• Simple Network Management Protocol hardware monitoring
• User Management
• Application monitoring
• Consultation on Programming
• Technical Support
• Backups and restoration
• Firewall Services
• Disaster Recovery
• Updates of Antivirus
• DNS Hosting Service
• Security Audits
• DDoS protection and mitigation
• Load Balancing

Depending on the services offered, Dedicated hosting server providers define their level of management.

The Dedicated hosting server providers usually provides the below mentioned types of Server management support

- Fully Managed : This includes monitoring, security patches, software updates, operating system upgrades and reboots.

- Self Managed : It includes regular monitoring and some maintenance.

- Managed : This type of support includes medium level management, updates, limited support and monitoring.

- Unmanaged : This includes little or no involvement from the web hosting service provider. Customers provide all the maintenance, patches, upgrades and security concerns.

The Dedicated Hosting provider apply extreme security measures to ensure the data safety of the stored on their servers. The Web Hosting firm often deploy various software programs for scanning systems and network for spammers, invaders, attackers and other problems like Trojans, worms etc.

Before transferring data from one Dedicated server to another, some of the following points must be kept in mind.

• Visitors to the web-site must be kept informed about the migration. The possible downtime too should be communicated. The migration should be done during sometime in the mid night when there is least traffic on the web-site. This helps in reducing the inconvenience to the clients.
• Preparation of DNS for the move: All the DNS record must be set to atleast an hour. It must be done 48 hours earlier to the move. This helps to ensure that when the website migration takes place and the IP address get switched in the DNS records, visitors would be able to quickly get the new location.
• The website owner should make a list of all things that needs to be moved.
• A web page must be created that only notifies the migration such as “Migration in Progress. The website would be functional in couple of hours” or anything of this sort. This web page must be kept in the place of the web directory. Care should be taken that no pages should be accessed this would avoid the risk of losing of any data.
• Once everything is fine, the website must be brought back up. This can be done by swapping the IP address in the DNS to the new IP address.
• Now the TTL in the DNS records must be changed after approximately 24 hours to what it previously was.

Migration of the dedicated server is one of the crucial process hence it should be done very carefully.

Shared Web Hosting can also be termed as Budget Web Hosting. Shared web hosting is the most common web hosting service. If you have chosen a shared web hosting package then your account shares the same server with many other website accounts. The resources of a single server is shared with multiple customers, hence it becomes economical for both the web hosting company as well as the website owner or customer. Every website shares the same IP (Internet Protocol) address as well as the host name in shared web hosting. This type of hosting can be selected when your website is new and the web traffic is less. But as the traffic increases one should upgrade the web hosting account to a better package which might be dedicated server hosting or semi-dedicated web hosting, because as your website shares the resources of the same server with other websites the speed and performance of your website gets hampered. This in return might affect the traffic to your website.

VPS web hosting is similar to a dedicated web hosting operationally. It presents users root SSH access, administrative tools, privilege to install software’s and applications. The only difference between VPS hosting and dedicated hosting is the price, VPS is much more cheaper and affordable than dedicated web hosting. VPS is an abbreviation of Virtual Private Server, hence as the name suggests, users get to use a virtual atmosphere with the privileges very similar to dedicated server resources. Choosing a VPS package enables users to create, modify and delete e-mail accounts. They can manage the servers as per their requirements. Users can install whichever software or operating system as per requirements. The resources of the server are not shared with any other customer or website which is the opposite case in shared web hosting. So, indirectly you are the owner of the server and can do any operation you wish to.

Within a datacenter when you have a dedicated server, you need to pay rental charges which are

pre-agreed, to use the services provided to you. Depending upon the number of days you wish to use the server, the rental fees may be required to pay on a monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly basis. For a dedicated server, the rental fee covers the cost of the hardware that your web hosting provider provides. Your dedicated hosting provider need to consider the electrical cost and the cost of bandwidth within the server rental fee which is charged to you. If you already own a collocated server, then the rental fee of the server paid by you, covers the cost of the bandwidth and electricity which is used by your server.

Dedicated web hosting is more popular as they provide businesses and individuals with high specification web hosting environment. If one does not require a dedicated server anymore then the services can be immediately withdrawn by the dedicated service provider at your request. Dedicated servers are most reliable form of web hosting than the other forms of web hosting such as Reseller Web Hosting, Semi-Dedicated Web Hosting etc. The user is not required to share the resources, the user is the complete owner of the server in terms of resource allocation. The hardware of Dedicated Server, particularly high specification hardware are expensive. The dedicated server hosting provider will add up their profit to the cost of electricity and bandwidth that needs to be paid to the datacenter.

Usually large businesses and enterprises who have many servers might not have the money to build their own datacenter’s, then they go for the option of choosing a data center web hosting by collocating their servers in a professional web hosting environments. Then in such cases the rental fee of collocation server is cheaper than that of dedicated server as the collocation web hosting provider is not providing their servers.

Dedicated hosting is actually hosting a website on a Dedicated server. Dedicated servers are the servers which are dedicated to or in other words given to one single client. There are no other clients hosted on the same server and this is the reason that Dedicated hosting is preferred over Shared or VPS hosting. There is no sharing of hardware or software resources as websites of one single client is hosted on the server. It is easy for the client to install the software’s required on the server for the task to be performed. Also, dedicated servers offer much more secured environment than the shared server which is yet another benefit included with dedicated hosting. If you compare shared hosting with Dedicated hosting then, you will find that dedicated hosting is much more reliable and secured. Dedicated servers belong to one single client and the client can manage the resources of the server. This reduces the chances of the server facing downtime. On a shared server there are many websites hosted on the same server which increases the chances of the server facing downtime. This is the reason due to which many clients prefer Dedicated hosting in comparison to shared hosting.

Dedicated hosting also has some of the drawbacks. One of them is considered to be the cost of the server. However, the cost of the server is decreasing with time. The cost of the server is high as the cost of the server hardware is high and the client of the dedicated server has to pay the cost of the server as he is the only user of the server unlike the shared server where a number of users share the cost of the server hardware. The cost of the server is declining as the dedicated hosting industry is growing. The Dedicated hosting industry is also growing due to the fact that nowadays many of the small and the mid-sized businesses are willing to make an online presence. These businesses have increased the level of service but have decreased the cost of the server due to the competition in the market which has increased a lot and is still increasing day by day.

Control

As Dedicated server is provided to one single client he has the full control of the server and he can perform the task easily on the server. This is not the case with the shared server as the shared server has many clients hosted on the same server. Dedicated server allows installation of software’s, changes and updates the client wants to do on the server and he can easily do that as he is given the root access to the server. This is a great benefit to the user as he can run the server as well as manage it on his own so that the server works smoothly and performs the task which is to be performed with the configuration it has without any difficulties.

Reliability

Dedicated servers are the most reliable servers when it comes to hosting your website on a server. Another benefit of the dedicated server is that the resources of the server can be managed by the client and he can allocate the resources on the server. This also allows the client to calculate the resources of the server and hence the chances of the server getting overload and facing downtime. If the server will not face downtime than it is good for the clients and they will be capable to satisfy their customers with the service they provide.

All these and many more benefits of Dedicated server hosting make dedicated servers the most preferred kind of server in the Web Hosting industry.

If you want to host your site on a server, you will have a lot of options for the server configuration but, the server types is limited and you have to choose among them. The server types currently available are Shared server, Virtual Private server (VPS) and Dedicated server. VPS server is also a kind a shared server which acts like a Dedicated server. So there are basically only two kind of servers and they are shared server and a Dedicated server. So you have to choose between these two servers. If you go for a shared server you will only get a part of the server or in other words server resources. Whereas, in a Dedicated server you will get the entire server, connection and the server resources. One of the main drawback of the Dedicated server is, Dedicated server are much more expensive than shared servers as the entire cost of the server is to be paid by a single client having the Dedicated server as there are no other users on the server (It depends on the client).Also, it is very difficult to operate a Dedicated server as it requires good technical skills. On the other hand, a shared server has a number of users contributing in the total cost of the server. As there are a number of users on a Shared server and the resources are used up by all of them, there are more chances of a shared server facing downtime which is a loss of business for the client who has hosted his site on a shared server. This is the reason due to which a Dedicated server is preferred by an individual or a company running a mission critical website or in other words a website which requires maximum uptime.

A Dedicated server allows you to manage and plan out your traffic level so that the server does not face any problem due to the traffic level. Dedicated server will also help you to manage other events which will definitely effect the server response time. One of the best parts of the Dedicated server is, you can install various types of programs and applications you wish to install. You can also customize the programs and applications on a Dedicated server without worrying about the other users as there are no other users on the server. Another benefit of a Dedicated server is, with a Dedicated server you can upgrade hard drive, RAM processors, platform or software applications at any point of time you feel to do so. Dedicated servers provide you the freedom to perform the tasks according to you. This kind of customization is only possible with a Dedicated server as the Dedicated server only belongs to one single client. As compared to the shared server information is more secure in a Dedicated server and the reason for this is, a shared server cannot be provided with its own Firewall but a Dedicated server can be provided with it which makes it more secure than shared server. Also, client can install a security system of his own choice to protect the server and the data stored on the server which is not possible on a shared server. If the website has highly sensitive information then it is recommended that the server is a Dedicated server as it is good for the internet security. For this reason, many of the organizations that are running websites with some of the private information choose Dedicated server for hosting sites even if there requirements are quite less then what is provided with the Dedicated server.

Games have been played from the early stages of mankind. Games teach us how to control anger, handle excitement, to learn from mistakes and to accept defeat. As the technology has improved a lot the gaming standards have also improved equally. For gamers, a type of internet hosting service called ‘Game server hosting‘ is available. Game server hosting is a type of internet hosting in which the servers are specially designed, manufactured and hosted for gamers who play games on the internet. ‘Game client’ is the software which is used by the gamers to connect to different game servers. One of the best part of the game server is that, many players can connect to the server at the same time. There are two different types of game servers available, one is the Listen server and the other is the Dedicated server. Individual players generally use Listen server and can also use it on Local Area Network (LAN) party. On the other hand Dedicated server is setup on a remote server. Dedicated server is generally kept in a data center where servers for other different purposes are also setup.

One of the points which may be considered a drawback of Dedicated game server is the fact that the maintenance cost of dedicated game server is quite high and this is due to the Bandwidth used by the server. One of the best options to use a Dedicated game server is to pay and get access of the dedicated server. Many of the gaming clans, in other words groups, also pay for this service sometimes. Game server hosting also offers many other features apart from this. One of this is voice capability. A system is used for this purpose which is called ‘Ventrilo’. Ventrilo is a voice communication system which makes it easier for the players of the game to communicate among themselves. This is a very good system for the gamers as they can use headphones for communicating with each other, build strategies and plan out to defeat the opponents without typing which saves a lot of time. Other features of a Dedicated game server include the feature of advanced statistics which is provided by some of the web hosting companies. This feature enables advanced statistics to each player on the server. Some servers have the capability to provide the location of each user on the server on Google maps. The location of each player on the server is also displayed with the help of a map.

All these and many other features make Dedicated game servers a very good option for gamers and this is the reason for Dedicated game servers being accepted all over the world by many of the gamers.

If you want to have your hosting account on a dedicated server than you will have to rent a dedicated server for this purpose. A web hosting provider can provide a dedicated server to you on a rental basis. However, if you have the hardware of the server than it is also possible for you to colocate your server within a data center. For this purpose you have to pay some rental fee which you had accepted to pay in returns to the service which is provided to you. The rental fees of the server is generally paid on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly basis and this depends on the time for which you are using the server that you are renting. If you are renting a dedicated server from a web hosting provider than most of the rent you are paying to your web hosting provider goes towards the server hardware as the hardware of the server is expensive. Also, the cost of the electricity and the bandwidth used by your server is also taken into consideration when a web hosting provider decides the rent of the server for which you pay. If you have your own colocated dedicated server than you will have to pay only for the electricity and the bandwidth used by your server and not for the server hardware as you have to own the hardware of the dedicated server for colocation server hosting.

Dedicated servers:-

Dedicated servers are the servers which only belong to one single client or in other words given to one single client. So, the client can use all the resources of the server it can be customized according to the requirements of the client. Also, the client can have a number of users on the server if he feels that the resources of the server are more than enough for him. For this reason, dedicated servers are very popular right from the time  web hosting came into existence as they provide flexibility, reliability and a high amount of resources which the other kind of servers do not provide. Hence dedicated servers are preferred by businesses and individuals who need a high specification and a dedicated web hosting environment. Also, dedicated servers can be used according to the client as, if the client wants to quit using the server he can do it easily if he has chosen a monthly payment for the dedicated servers. Dedicated servers hardware is very expensive and if the server is of a higher configuration than the server is more expensive. If you have a high configuration dedicated server from a web hosting provider than the web hosting provider has to pay for the hardware of the server. As you are using the server the hosting provider will charge you for the hardware as well as the electricity and the bandwidth used by the server. Also, a web hosting provider has to earn some profit from you as you are using the service provided by the web hosting provider. So, a web hosting provider has to keep the cost of the server as well as the service provided by him or his company according to the market level so that the clients buy the server and the services provided by him or his company.