Dedicated Hosting Definition

Free and paid shared plans are one of the most popular website hosting products on the market. They are good for small-sized websites that do not request a lot of resources and do not receive that many web site visitors, but for high resource-consuming web sites with many 1000's of viewers, a more advanced solution is needed. If you are searching for a rock solid, top-class hosting solution that can handle even millions of daily visits, a dedicated server is your most excellent alternative.

Tackle the Load Caused by Your Sites with a Dedicated Server

With the dedicated service, you rent an entire physical machine whose system resources will be utilized solely by your websites. Just as any PC, each dedicated server has one or more microprocessors functioning at a given speed, some amount of memory, one or more hard disk drives, and so on. A dedicated web hosting server is indeed a computer with hardware meant to cope with heavy load and certain software activated on it, like web server software, PHP and MySQL software, etc., which permits the web sites hosted on it to be visible on the web.

Managed Dedicated Hosting Services

A dedicated server can be administered either by the hosting supplier, or by the customer, depending on the concrete dedicated server package. In either instance, the side managing the web hosting server has access to a software platform to restart it at any specific moment. Administration is done via a CP graphical interface that allows you to monitor the processes running on the hosting server.

Operating Systems for Dedicated Servers

There are various web server OSs like Windows, FreeBSD, different Linux distributions, etc. Particular web hosting distributors provide dedicated servers using one specific OS, while others offer customers an option. MSSQL databases and .NET websites request a Windows server, for instance, and will not operate on another Operating System, whereas PHP and HTML based websites using MySQL databases will function on any OS. Prior to leasing a dedicated server, examine what the hosting firm offers and what the requirements of your site are.

Software Applications for Dedicated Servers

By default, each dedicated server comes with all the software required to run a website - a web server, database software (MySQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, etc.), PHP software, FTP server software and so on, so once you obtain the hosting server, you can upload your web site files and bring the site online. Most web hosting firms give complete root-level access, i.e. you can install any software on the dedicated server and alter any settings. Specific script-based software platforms need server-side apps that should be pre-activated in order for them to work. Many shopping cart software scripts, for example, impose such a requirement, and being granted complete root-level access to the dedicated server is essential for kicking off an online storefront. Other hosting service providers do not offer complete root-level access, but help the customer activate the necessary software apps - this is the so-called managed web hosting service, as compared with the unmanaged hosting solution, which comes with complete server root access.

Dedicated Server by 'Hosting Africa'

The web files on the dedicated server can be administered either via a Secure Shell (SSH) console or via a hosting Control Panel graphical user interface such as cPanel, DirectAdmin, Hepsia, etc. There are tens of hosting CP interfaces in existence, and normally hosting providers offer a few of them, and with root access at hand, the customer can install any of them. All files, databases, e-mail box accounts, access logs and script installations are managed easily via a graphical user interface in a web browser, so no advanced knowledge is needed. Particular web hosting CPs also include a reseller backend dashboard, so if you select a dedicated server, you can not simply host your web site files, but also offer shared website hosting plans to different individuals to generate profit. We, at Hosting Africa, offer charge-free invoicing software and a domain reseller account with every dedicated server plan of ours, which allows you to set up your very own personal web hosting company and make profit in no time because the hosting market niche is constantly proliferating.