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Old 8th February 2009
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ai-danno ai-danno is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Boca Raton, Florida
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If you are going to choose VPS, the next logical question is "Who?" Because of my position, I won't name names, but look up about 4 or 5 well-googled places and then consider in choosing-

- price. Prices change so I won't name a dollar amount here, but it should be in line with your other compared hosts.

- backups. Ask them about their backup policies and procedures. Most important to know is the frequency of the backups and the process in restoring one (and if there is cost involved.) Then, test them. Whomever you sign with, within the first month ask them for a restore from backup. See if they can do it (some hosts lie about their capabilities) and how easy it is- if you aren't satisfied, leave them.

- connectivity. One of the plusses is supposed to be that they have multiple connections and low latency to where your potential audience would be. I know, everyone wants worldwide scope under 150ms (unrealistic), but how's the latency to their network from various domestic carriers? Goto ops.rogerstelecom.net (it's a looking glass) and perform traces and pings from the 20 or so carriers listed there (which have worldwide reach, but focus on US and Canada.) Then learn to use BGPlay, and see if they really do have redundant connections to the Internet (again, if they lie, this is one place they normally do it. A company that simply connects to ONE other company with multiple carriers is a sign of weak infrastructure, both in hardware and technical manpower. Robust companies don't outsource this kind of thing.)

- customer service. Every company has lackluster support resources (just being realistic here- you can be 'unhappy' anywhere), but do they at least have them 24/7? And can the frontline staff process backup/restore operations, or does that need to be escalated up the chain? Can you call them? How long does it take to answer an email request for a non-essential or essential item? Do they have live-chat?

- check the rumors. Go to webhostingtalk.com and see if there is any dirt on them- if they are large enough but notoriously horrible, you're bound to see a complaint or more about them here. And be sure to filter an angry immature poster's rant with a truly valid complaint. Some people rant, and some just tell it like it is.

- flexibility. Do they offer your platform- and are they flexible enough to allow you to put yours in place if they don't offer it per se? All VPS back-end infrastructures (VMWare, Xen, MS, etc.) can host *BSD technically, but some providers won't allow them if they aren't in a cookie-cutter ready-to-provision template, and others won't allow them if they don't have people that can support those platforms. Tell them up front that you want it UNmanaged, which gives you a slightly better chance that they may allow you to load up a non-templated BSD OS.

So I told you to do this with 4 or 5 well-Googled hits- once you've done that, you understand the landscape. Personally, I wouldn't go with one of the big boys that define the landscape. I'd take that knowledge and go to a smaller provider that is hungrier for your business- often you will find their customer support is actually GOOD and FRIENDLY and QUICK and SMART... large outfits don't know how to accomplish this without 14 departments. Also, smaller outfits are often much more flexible in their offerings- if a really large VPS provider gets 40 orders a day for pre-templated supportable platforms, why would they consider being flexible with you on *BSD? But a smaller provider with 3 or 4 orders a week (hopefully more than that though LOL, this is just to illustrate a point) is definitely going to consider *BSD even if it isn't a direct platform offering.

Hope this mini-guide helps- if it is helpful to anyone, I can republish it in the guides section.
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