UK Server Costs!

gramps

gramps

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Now that the £ is so low on the $ my US server cost is creeping up so I have been looking at UK alternatives and nothing seems to have changed in the years I've had a server ... for the money, nothing even remotely close to what I already have in the US.
Rip-off Britain lives on :(
 
Currently:-

2x Dual core Intel Xeons running at 3.0Ghz w/2MB L2 Cache
4GB DDR RAM
2x 160GB SATA Hard Drives
10mbps unmetered bandwidth (3.2tb/mo)
(5) Five IPs Include. Additional IPs Available w/ justification.
cPanel / WHM Included
Free Remote Backups - 12 Hour Incremental using R1 Soft.
Fully managed (I even have the CEO's number).
Been with them since 2009

$129.00 per month


I can get somewhere near it using a VPS mostly without backup and unmanaged.
 
What on earth are you hosting that uses 3 TB of bandwidth per month?!

1&1 have unlimited bandwidth. Their support is poor though.

I switched to solarvps. They're support is better and it's about $30 a month for full support or you can not bother with it. Costs about $60 a month for a mid range vps including support. Bandwith is about 50c a TB.
 
I probably don't and could possibly manage with shared hosting but having been down that road before and been at the mercy of others sharing the server I prefer my own space.
Apart from hosting several dozen websites, an active IPB site and some corporate email accounts I like to be able to have root access and to use it in my way and with my add-ons but at the same time have someone standing by when I get out of my depth ... not to mention the benefit of the R1Soft backup.
My current provider has been excellent I have to say.


[Edit - I don't use anywhere near 3TB of bandwidth but that's the package and the price has remained fixed since 2009]
 
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Organnyx said:
Excuse me while I fall about laughing at such high figures - I've used http://www.knethosting.co.uk/ for years, packages from under £30 per annum - unlimited bandwidth, excellent service...........
Click to expand...

For your own server, and not sharing a server, and its resources and bandwidth with 300 other websites?

Speccing a server using their cloud server pages, I would be paying £ 150 per month with that firm...
 
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I've been happy with solarvps.

I tried hostgator, they were utter crap. Very cheap but they couldn't even transfer a domain from another host. Their online ticket system didn't work properly either.

1&1 have no support but uptime was actually good apart from one hardware failure (which they denied it was until they admitted it eventually and fixed it) and their induced software fault which caused no end of hassle (clock drift)

Eukhost are ok but with a managed service they will update things without reference to you at intervals which can bog things up. Any problems with your server will lead them to cut you off and you could be without email etc for days even if it is a bug they introduced when they updated it.

If you are used to your own space then shared hosting is a nightmare. You can't control any resources properly or decide whether to do updates or not.

Perhaps your current provider would offer something smaller that suited your current usage better so you could stay with them and spend less at the same time? Two birds, one rock :)
 
srichards said:
Perhaps your current provider would offer something smaller that suited your current usage better so you could stay with them and spend less at the same time? Two birds, one rock :)
Click to expand...

Yes that may well be the way to go :)
 
andrewc said:
For your own server, and not sharing a server, and its resources and bandwidth with 300 other websites?

Speccing a server using their cloud server pages, I would be paying £ 150 per month with that firm...
Click to expand...

What he said. There's a difference between hosting and dedicated servers:)
 
There are different ways of doing it, we pay £150 a month for a dell r210 with the same spec as above, but this is in telehouse docklands which is a premium data centre, you can save money buy using a different data centre.

Have a chat with Tim at http://crosspointcolo.co.uk/ We have been with them for a year and been up to the data centre and they have been excellent.
 
Organnyx said:
Excuse me while I fall about laughing at such high figures - I've used http://www.knethosting.co.uk/ for years, packages from under £30 per annum - unlimited bandwidth, excellent service...........
Click to expand...

That is hosting rather than a dedicated server. My server for example is currently hosting 14 web sites and running at 2-3% (so 14x£30/12= £420pa or £35 per month so already winning)... Yes I could have got a smaller one but I'm only paying £26 per month and the smaller ones start at about £20 so I've got the future expansion room.
 
Looks interesting!
 
Tagadab seems to offer a good range of services - my workplace have used them for a while with dedicated servers and I have started using them on their basic VPS package, but they seem to offer good value. I initially found them as I wanted an IPv6 enabled site and a lot of providers seem to only offer IPv4 for some reason.
 
boliston said:
Tagadab seems to offer a good range of services - my workplace have used them for a while with dedicated servers and I have started using them on their basic VPS package, but they seem to offer good value. I initially found them as I wanted an IPv6 enabled site and a lot of providers seem to only offer IPv4 for some reason.
Click to expand...

That looks interesting too - do you know what backup they use and what the support is like?
 
cowasaki said:
That is hosting rather than a dedicated server. My server for example is currently hosting 14 web sites and running at 2-3% (so 14x£30/12= £420pa or £35 per month so already winning)... Yes I could have got a smaller one but I'm only paying £26 per month and the smaller ones start at about £20 so I've got the future expansion room.
Click to expand...

That's not how most hosting accounts work. You can usually host plenty of websites on the same hosting package, at least that's what I did when I was using Servage.
 
Hosting packages are very dependent on who is sharing the server with you, my past experiences with different providers mean that I can't trust my requirements to standard hosting - dedicated or VPS gives much better reliability IMO.
 
Amp34 said:
That's not how most hosting accounts work. You can usually host plenty of websites on the same hosting package, at least that's what I did when I was using Servage.
Click to expand...

I've had a look at a few of the silly cheap offers £15-30 p/a and none of them were very flexible. You really need a VPS or dedicated server if you are going to run multiple sites. As I said I think I have about 14 on mine at the moment and could install probably 10x that amount if they were basic sites.
 
gramps said:
That looks interesting too - do you know what backup they use and what the support is like?
Click to expand...

There is a page on the backups here http://tagadab.com/uk/dedicated-servers/backups

Not really used their support so far, just re-imaged and restored my VPS when I "broke" it, and I'd imagine our works IT department are pretty used to running & managing servers, so would probably not use support as much as a non IT person would.
 
cowasaki said:
I've had a look at a few of the silly cheap offers £15-30 p/a and none of them were very flexible. You really need a VPS or dedicated server if you are going to run multiple sites. As I said I think I have about 14 on mine at the moment and could install probably 10x that amount if they were basic sites.
Click to expand...

I wasn't making suggestions about what is better than the other, just that your assumption you had to multiply £30pa by 12 for 12 sites was wrong. :)
 
Amp34 said:
I wasn't making suggestions about what is better than the other, just that your assumption you had to multiply £30pa by 12 for 12 sites was wrong. :)
Click to expand...

These basic "pay a small lump sum each year for a site" deals are usually for just one site and no help other than supplying login details and maybe giving an SQL login if requested. Thats normally it, so if you went down that route and wanted multiple sites you would pay multiple amounts. I had 4-5 sites with one of them before going to a VPS then had issues with them so dumped that in favour of an unmanaged dedicated server. Other "pay a small lump sum each year for a site" suppliers may be different and may give a discount for multiple sites but if you are running multiple sites then VPS/dedicated is the way to go. You can get a VPS for as little as £10 a month or possibly less now.
 
I run multiple sites & domains out of my onesizefitsall account at unlimitedwebhosting. Totally unlimited domains/websites/emails/disk space/bandwidth/SQL etc.... £3.30 per month.

Sometimes a bit slow the first time it is accessed, but then I'm only paying £3.30/month....
 
cowasaki said:
These basic "pay a small lump sum each year for a site" deals are usually for just one site and no help other than supplying login details and maybe giving an SQL login if requested. Thats normally it, so if you went down that route and wanted multiple sites you would pay multiple amounts. I had 4-5 sites with one of them before going to a VPS then had issues with them so dumped that in favour of an unmanaged dedicated server. Other "pay a small lump sum each year for a site" suppliers may be different and may give a discount for multiple sites but if you are running multiple sites then VPS/dedicated is the way to go. You can get a VPS for as little as £10 a month or possibly less now.
Click to expand...

That's you're experience though, not what the guy was linking too.

As arad85 also has you get an account where you have access to a certain amount of space and bandwidth, maybe a limit on SQL servers but that's usually about it. Not all non dedicated servers are like clickpic or whoever they are.

Anyway this is going completely off topic as I'm not advocating one over the other, just pointing out you can't suggest a dedicated server is cheaper with lots of sites and just multiply out the accounts like you did.:)
 
gramps said:
Therein tends to be the problem.
Click to expand...
Yup... But when I get 1 or 2 hits a day, I'm not too worried. Not like I'm running TP or anything.

The point is, different requirements, different producst. J can run 10000 websites from my single account if I want. Given my usage, I'd rather have £3.30/mo and slow access over spending £30+/domain.

In fact, given my ISP deal, I'd probably be better off running my own VPS here (I have a virtualisation server and I have multiple static IPs available on a 60/16 link...).
 
Would your ISP be happy with that?
 
gramps said:
Would your ISP be happy with that?
Click to expand...
Yes... I pay for a business service (I pay £55/month) and they were the ones that gave me a block of dedicated IPs...

In fact, this is what the FAQ says:

Clara.Net said:
Can I run a mail server / website server from my internet connection?
Yes, though if you do plan to do this, we recommend you contact our sales team so that you can purchase one of our accounts that provides you with a range of IP addresses that you can dedicate to your servers.
Click to expand...
 
Good, I don't think many ISP's permit that.
 
Didn't say I was going to do it... ;) Just that it is available. But then I do pay a premium for my internet connection.
 
It seems odd having to pay a premium for a block of IP addresses - I have always had a block of 16 IPv4 IP adresses and I'm on a basic £20 per month ADSL package.

I have also just been given a block of 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 IPv6 addresses, with no extra charge :cool:
 
You can't even get a block of IPv4 addresses now from most hosts. You actually have to apply for another IP address and explain why you want more. There are lots of wasted IP addresses allocated to people and not used.

The three steps host, VPS and dedicated all with optional support have their advantages and disadvantages. I pay £26 a month and host 14 sites including a shop all without any issues at all. It's my server and I can install whatever I like whenever I like but the support consists of robotic pressing of the reset button on request and repairs to the hardware within 4 hours (if I remember rightly). Most people just don't need that power so something cheaper will suffice. I had a VPS prior to the dedicated server and they were absolutely useless/clueless. I was paying about £15 a month for the VPS so about another tenner for 15x the storage and a considerable jump in speed plus the ability to install whichever OS I wanted seemed like the best way forward.

Horses for courses...
 
boliston said:
It seems odd having to pay a premium for a block of IP addresses - I have always had a block of 16 IPv4 IP adresses and I'm on a basic £20 per month ADSL package.

I have also just been given a block of 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 IPv6 addresses, with no extra charge :cool:
Click to expand...
Yes. But you are with A&A and have no bandwidth with which to use them... ;)

My block of 8 IP addresses were a one off charge (which was actually waived). As was my static main IP (which I have additional, and was again waived). What I pay for is a totally unmetered, totally unrestricted link. In the last 3 weeks (since my router was last rebooted) I have moved 300GB of data. Most of that is backups. How much would that have cost with your provider?
 
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cowasaki said:
You can't even get a block of IPv4 addresses now from most hosts. You actually have to apply for another IP address and explain why you want more. There are lots of wasted IP addresses allocated to people and not used...
Click to expand...

Just checked my basic Tagadab VPS account (£10+vat/month) and notice that it includes up to 5 IPv4 addresses as standard and 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IPv6 adresses as standard, and no need to give any explanations why you need them :D
 
boliston said:
Just checked my basic Tagadab VPS account (£10+vat/month) and notice that it includes up to 5 IPv4 addresses as standard and 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IPv6 adresses as standard, and no need to give any explanations why you need them :D
Click to expand...

UPTO five IP addresses. Is that not 1 and the others on request? If so you might have to explain the reason after making the request. My provider only charges 1 euro for another IP address and I just clicked on it and requested 2 more. It was only then that they asked why. This is happening across the board with lots of providers now. There is a worldwide issue in relation to lack of available IP addresses.
 
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