An unmanaged dedicated server is almost like a bare-bones computer. While you get all of the essentials required to call it a server, there are many features that you will want to add. Some of them are free and/or open source, while some require purchase or even subscription services. It is important to know this before getting a dedicated server, thinking that you are getting a complete product.

A good web host will list some of their extra available features, including prices. Here is a brief list of options you might want:

• cPanel or other control panel
• SSL certificates
• Additional IP addresses
• Load balancing for two or more servers
• Anti-virus protection for mail servers
• Routine backup storage
• Additional RAM
• Additional hard drive
• Windows Server 2008
• KVM over IP
• Additional badwidth/data transfer

For prices check your web host’s website.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Continue reading: Common extra dedicated server features

Not sure how much bandwidth you will use or worried about those large overage fees? If so, an unmetered dedicated server might be for you.

As the name implies, hosts offering unmetered servers do not charge based on the amount of bandwidth consumed. Rather, the customer pays a flat fee per month. This does not mean the customer has unlimited data transfer, however. This is limited by the speed of the connection.

Most unmetered servers share a connection (often 100 mbit) with other servers. This makes the service more affordable, but limits the amount of available bandwidth. Think of it in terms of an amusement park. You can ride anything you want once you enter, but must share the rides with other customers.

For those with extremely intensive needs, dedicated lines can be purchased. This is akin to renting the amusement park for yourself. While you get all the resources 24/7, this luxury comes at a heavy price– often many times the price of a server. Typical speeds available include 5 mbit, 10 mbit, 100 mbit, and even 1 gbit!

Continue reading: Avoid bandwidth overage charges with an unmetered dedicated server

In a previous post, we learned how to increase the memory limit on PHP by editing the php.ini file. But limits exist for a reason, and although you would probably love to give every process, every script, and every website unlimited CPU cycles, memory, and bandwidth, it just isn’t possible.

To begin editing, open /etc/php.ini in your text editor of choice. For example:

# nano /etc/php.ini

Look for the following values and change them to fit your requirements for your server. Below are just suggested values:

max_execution_time = 30
max_input_time = 30
memory_limit = 40M
post_max_size = 8M
upload_max_filesize = 2M

You may need to adjust the actual size limits to meet the requirements of certain content management systems or scripts, but be sure to not get carried away with being too liberal.

Continue reading: How to set resource limits on PHP

Question: My dynamic PHP-driven site is popular and is using a lot of bandwidth. What can I do to save that precious bandwidth?

Answer: Those of you who have to worry about bandwidth should really consider yourselves lucky. It means that your website has been more successful than the majority of others on the Web. Still, I sympathize a little with you, because bandwidth does cost money, and any sensible person will try to save money whenever possible.

With the combination of Apache and PHP, there is an easy way to cut your bandwidth usage nearly in half, and it’s very easy to do. I have not had a chance to test this, but according to corz.org, it only takes one .htaccess directive:

< ifmodule mod_php4.c>
php_value zlib.output_compression 16386
< /ifmodule>

Save that in an .htaccess file, and you are good to go. There are some limitations, particularly if your PHP installation is less than normal. You can read about them on the aforementioned site. Happy savings!

Photo Source: Flickr

Continue reading: How to Save Bandwidth with .htaccess

There are many design benefits to using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), but there are also technical ones that any website owner or server administrator should consider. Originally, websites were mostly just text and images with no fancy boxes, menus, or other slick layout schemes. Over time people started getting more inventive and primarily relied on tables with styles inside of them.

CSS allows web designers to use other methods, such as divs, for structure while leaving the styles in a separate stylesheet. Web browsers read through tables twice, once to understand the structure and a second time to determine content. Relying on CSS decreases rendering time, making the site faster and easier on the server.

Furthermore, html documents are smaller because the layout and design is not rewritten for every page. Most of it is contained in a single or few style sheets. Again, the obvious benefit is less stress on the server and less bandwidth and disk space consumed. As you can see, using CSS helps websites run more efficiently, which is good for both the site owners and the server administrators.

Photo Source: Flickr

Continue reading: Benefits of Using CSS

Over the past decade, home Internet connections have become substantially faster and many websites have found themselves delivering larger and larger files to visitors. The average website file size and amount downloaded by visitors have increased, but has your host ever raised its bandwidth and storage limits?

Most hosts have kept up with the times and raised their limits to stay in line with current Internet trends. There are still hosts out there offering 1999 features today in 2009– 20 MB of storage instead of 2 GB, or 500 MB of bandwidth instead of 50 GB.

Just as salaries and prices rise in response to inflation, so should web host features. Bandwidth and storage has become much cheaper over the years and requirements have increased. If your provider hasn’t passed the savings on to you and won’t keep up with the times, perhaps its time to jump ship and find a new one?

Continue reading: Has your host kept up with the times?

Question: What is MRTG?

Answer: MRTG stands for Multi Rounter Traffic Grapher. It is free and open source software that monitors and measures traffic on a network. It provides a graph that shows traffic load over a set period of time. Although it was originally developed to monitor routers, many web hosting companies use it to keep track of bandwidth usage.

If you are a running a dedicated server, you will find MRTG very useful. With it, you can keep track of your site(s) bandwidth usage, high traffic times, and any anomalous spikes. MRTG is a Perl application and can run on numerous platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Netware.

Users can download MRTG directly from the project’s website. It is also available in most Linux software repositories, making installation quick and painless. MRTG is available under the GNU General Public License.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Continue reading: What is MRTG?

The last thing any dedicated server owner wants to see at the end of the month is a bandwidth overage fee. Data transfer is expensive, and server providers levy hefty charges to customers who use more than their allotted amount. If this is something you are worried about, consider renting an unmetered server.

These servers cost about the same as a typical box, except there are no charges for data transfer usage. There are two types of unmetered servers. One provides a shared connection, while the other boasts a dedicated connection. Knowing the difference between the two is vital.

A shared connection is used by most server providers. Several servers share a single connection. This is important to know because a company will advertise a speed– say 100 mbps– but split it between multiple servers. Thus a server would get less than that speed, usually anywhere from 10-40 mbps. The speed depends on how many servers you are sharing with.

Most servers run on a shared connection, but for those with true bandwidth hunger, dedicated lines are available. These range in speed from 5 mbps up to 1 gbps, but cost a hefty amount. Expect the monthly fee to exceed the price of the server hardware!

Photo | Rotorhead

Continue reading: Avoid bandwidth overage fees with an unmetered server

In my first post, I covered four basic components found in most statistics software. In this post, we will examine them more closely and also take a look at some more specific stats. An important way to gauge your website’s success is to look at the daily breakdown of those four components: number of visits, pages, hits, and bandwidth. Your graph may show certain days as having spikes, much higher than others. Find out what you did on that day and what content you posted.

Your statistics will also tell you which days of the week and hours of the day were the prime times for site visitors. Next, take a look at the breakdown of visitors by country. Hopefully, the country of your target audience will be first. If not, you might need to reevaluate your language policy and cultural references in your content.

You should have a section for “hosts”, including “top 25″ and “full list”. This is very important if you suspect security problems. Normally, you will have a few ip addresses with more hits than others, but if you have one or two that are extremely large compared to the others, you might have an attacker or someone attempting to attack.

Continue reading: Understanding Website Statistics: Part 2

When signing up for a hosting plan, one of the most important factors to consider is how much bandwidth is provided. Data transfer is expensive but necessary. Too much and you will be throwing money away, too little and your site will be shut down.

Predicting bandwidth usage is something hosting customers new and old alike have trouble with. It involves a wide variety of factors, including the size of your web pages and hosted files (movies, pictures, etc.), as well as how often these items are viewed. Other services like FTP and email also count towards your monthly bandwidth allotment.

Continue reading: Calculate bandwidth usage with free online tools

Yesterday, an undersea SAT-3 cable was cut between the Iberian peninsula and West Africa. It is apparently the only line connecting West Africa to the digital world, and the cut caused connectivity problems in Benin, Togo, Niger, and Nigeria. Nigeria’s banking sector, government and mobile phone networks all suffered from bandwidth outage.

“SAT-3 is currently the only fibre optic cable serving West Africa,” explained Ladi Okuneye, chief marketing officer of Suburban Telecom, which provides the majority of Nigeria’s bandwidth.
“So all West African countries have to use it.”

The fibre optic cable is 15,000km (9,3000miles) long, connecting eight West African countries along is route to South Africa. 70% of Nigeria’s bandwidth is routed through Benin, causing it to suffer greatly from the cut. The company responsible for the network, Suburban Telecom, is sending a ship from South Africa to investigate. According to Okuneye, it could be two weeks before the ship arrives.

Source: BBC News
Photo: Flickr

Continue reading: West Africa struggles after cable cut

If you’re Monday is off to a good start, here’s some bad news to put a damper on any sort of nice day you might have been having. According to a report issued earlier this month, your provider’s failure to upgrade infrastructure at a time when usage is increasing could spell disaster down the road.

It seems as though network providers are seeing increases in traffic, but are doing nothing to upgrade infrastructure such as routers and switches. This includes both web hosts and ISPs. Providers are letting their equipment run “hotter.” Whereas in the past networks might have run at 40%-50% utilization and leave room for future growth, they are now operating at more than 80%. With IP traffic expected to increase fivefold by 2013, the picture down the road doesn’t look very cheerful.

John Mazur of Network Infrastructure at Ovum summed the problem up:

Router spending is down, IP traffic is up. Internet service providers (ISPs) are putting off buying new network equipment to save money, just when the amount of traffic they are handling is exploding.

If networks do not expand, web services –hosting included– could become more limited and more expensive as time goes on. During traffic speaks, people would experience time outs, packet loss, and slow speeds. In other words, that Thriller video might take a longer than normal to load.

Source | eWeekly
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Providers delay network expansion, risk catastrophe