Scott
01-21-2006, 10:11 AM
If you're starting up a forum, you're going to need to deal with the web hosting industry and that can be a scary place to go. Hosts are determined to get you as a customer and you need to watch out you don't get caught in the web of someone who isn't going to be around next week. Hopefully I'll try to explain in this article the types of web hosting you're likely to come across and give you a few pointers about what to look out for.
Domains
Domains are not hosting in themselves and if you buy a domain most of the time you'll still need to host it somewhere. Domains are what people will use to get to your site, eg google.co.uk, forumuniversity.com, etc. These are pretty cheap, usually costing <$10 USD for a years use. If you can get a web hosting package includes a free domain - excellent, but not all of them do. Domains are also subject to availability; if yourdomain.com is taken you won't be able to buy it. However check to see if yourdomain.net or similar is free as these can be just like a .com or in some cases they can be more appropriate.
Free Hosting
As the name suggests, this costs you nothing. Is this a bad thing? That depends, lets look at the pros and cons of free hosting:
Pros
Free! Won't cost you anything to use.
Normally you'll get the chance of a subdomain, so you don't need to worry about buying or setting up a domain. This can also be a con, see below.Cons
Usually poor or non-existent support. If you have a problem, it's your problem.
You might not be able to direct your domain name to your website, so you could have a long domain such as myhost.com/mywebsite which isn't great for professionalism or for visitors to remember.
Resources might be restrictive, especially if your forum grows quickly.In my opinion, free hosting isn't ideal particularly if you want your forum to look professional. It can, however, be good to start up a forum, upgrading to a shared package when you need the resources. If you're determined not to spend any money on your forum then free hosting may be your only choice.
Shared Hosting
This is the most common type of hosting, and you'll find it everywhere. Prices vary a lot depending on where you look so you should find a package you can afford. Be aware, most of the time you will get what you pay for. A look at the key points of shared hosting:
Pros
Usually give you a lot more space and traffic usage than free accounts.
Packages these days come with an extraordinary number of features, including auto-install scripts such as Fantastico which can help you setup a forum in seconds.
You should expect a decent level of support if you get stuck
Might include a free domain name (always work looking for one of these packages if possible)Cons
If you have a large forum, there might not be quite enough space or bandwidth to keep your forum running smoothly.
Although you can usually get shared hosting for extremely cheap prices, it's not free.
It is unlikely you'll be able to optimise to suit your forum. Limited control over your site.If you're starting a new forum, I would start with shared hosting. It's reasonably affordable and will be able to keep you online as you grow.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting allows you to host multiple domain names from one account. This is unlikely to be used for a forum as you only really need one domain. If you're going to use reseller hosting - you probably know more than the scope of this tutorial.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
These are relatively new in the hosting industry. VPS are kind of an intermediate between shared and dedicated, and the cost usually reflects this. In a VPS setup, you get a share of the overall resources on the physical server (RAM, CPU, memory, etc) but you are not the only one on the server. Each VPS runs individually so you have a large amount of control over it - reboot, conf settings, etc. A lot depends also of the software running on your VPS - check this out before you buy.
Pros
Plenty of resources to keep a reasonable sized forum running smoothly.
Usually you'll have pseudo-root access to your VPS, giving you almost total control over the system (although you don't have true root access). Excellent for optimizing settings to suit your needs.
You should get pretty rapid support from your host.Cons
A bit of technical knowledge is required to setup and maintain a VPS.
More expensive than shared hosting, expect to pay around $40USD/month
Domains will need to be purchased and setup separately
Your host will probably not help you with small problems since the overall responsibility comes down to the user.This is the type of hosting I have least experience in, but I've heard good things about it. If you have the type of forum which doesn't quite need its own server, VPS will fit the gap. I wouldn't start with a VPS package simply because you'll be paying more than you need.
Dedicated Server
Dedicated servers are exactly what they say - a server dedicated to you. Buying one of these is likely to give you enough oomph to power most reasonably sized forums. There are commonly two types of dedicated servers - managed and unmanaged. Managed (the more expensive of the two) will include a level of help from your hosting, things like upgrading software, configuring security, etc. If you've got to this level without gathering a level of technical knowledge your best bet is managed. If, however, you are happy to deal with the techy things yourself then save some money and go for an unmanaged option.
Pros
Plenty of space and bandwidth to keep a large forum up and running.
Total control over pretty much everything which happens on the server.
If you have a managed package, you should get outstanding, fast support from your host. If unmanaged you should still be able to raise problems which you can't fix.Cons
If unmanaged, a competent technical knowledge will be require to upgrade, maintain and secure a dedicated server.
These will undoubtedly cost quite a bit more than shared hosting - probably at least $100USD/month
Domains will still need to be purchased separately.If you manage to get your forum off to a good start with a nice flow of members and lots of posts, you'll probably need to get a dedicated server at some point. I would suggest waiting until you have a forum setup which can pay for the server it needs, most likely through advertising.
Beyond Dedicated?
If your forum becomes of of the Big Ones (http://www.big-boards.com/) it will be likely that a single dedicated server won't be enough. There are lots of different configurations out there which you can consider - Load Balanced Servers, Private Racks, etc. For interest's sake, a Big Boards interview of Derek Liu, Create of Gaia in October 2004 elaborated on the setup of Gaia (probably now obsolete):
In a nutshell:
[Firewall]
[Load Balancer]
[Web Servers] - 30+ under load balancer, 10+ for specific features or raw graphics
[Database Servers] - 4 in a cluster for forums, 7 for specific features
[Memory Cache Server]
All database servers are still the dual Opteron configuration with 4GB memory, while the web server config is being changed from dual Xeon with 2 Gig memory to P4 servers with 1 Gig memory.
That's pretty much it for this tutorial. I should probably mention that everything stated above is based upon my experience in the web hosting industry and does by no means reflect any specific company's setup. Prices stated are extremely rough estimates which will likely change as this article ages. Further (up to date) information about the web hosting industry can be found on Webhostingtalk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com).
:)
Domains
Domains are not hosting in themselves and if you buy a domain most of the time you'll still need to host it somewhere. Domains are what people will use to get to your site, eg google.co.uk, forumuniversity.com, etc. These are pretty cheap, usually costing <$10 USD for a years use. If you can get a web hosting package includes a free domain - excellent, but not all of them do. Domains are also subject to availability; if yourdomain.com is taken you won't be able to buy it. However check to see if yourdomain.net or similar is free as these can be just like a .com or in some cases they can be more appropriate.
Free Hosting
As the name suggests, this costs you nothing. Is this a bad thing? That depends, lets look at the pros and cons of free hosting:
Pros
Free! Won't cost you anything to use.
Normally you'll get the chance of a subdomain, so you don't need to worry about buying or setting up a domain. This can also be a con, see below.Cons
Usually poor or non-existent support. If you have a problem, it's your problem.
You might not be able to direct your domain name to your website, so you could have a long domain such as myhost.com/mywebsite which isn't great for professionalism or for visitors to remember.
Resources might be restrictive, especially if your forum grows quickly.In my opinion, free hosting isn't ideal particularly if you want your forum to look professional. It can, however, be good to start up a forum, upgrading to a shared package when you need the resources. If you're determined not to spend any money on your forum then free hosting may be your only choice.
Shared Hosting
This is the most common type of hosting, and you'll find it everywhere. Prices vary a lot depending on where you look so you should find a package you can afford. Be aware, most of the time you will get what you pay for. A look at the key points of shared hosting:
Pros
Usually give you a lot more space and traffic usage than free accounts.
Packages these days come with an extraordinary number of features, including auto-install scripts such as Fantastico which can help you setup a forum in seconds.
You should expect a decent level of support if you get stuck
Might include a free domain name (always work looking for one of these packages if possible)Cons
If you have a large forum, there might not be quite enough space or bandwidth to keep your forum running smoothly.
Although you can usually get shared hosting for extremely cheap prices, it's not free.
It is unlikely you'll be able to optimise to suit your forum. Limited control over your site.If you're starting a new forum, I would start with shared hosting. It's reasonably affordable and will be able to keep you online as you grow.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting allows you to host multiple domain names from one account. This is unlikely to be used for a forum as you only really need one domain. If you're going to use reseller hosting - you probably know more than the scope of this tutorial.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
These are relatively new in the hosting industry. VPS are kind of an intermediate between shared and dedicated, and the cost usually reflects this. In a VPS setup, you get a share of the overall resources on the physical server (RAM, CPU, memory, etc) but you are not the only one on the server. Each VPS runs individually so you have a large amount of control over it - reboot, conf settings, etc. A lot depends also of the software running on your VPS - check this out before you buy.
Pros
Plenty of resources to keep a reasonable sized forum running smoothly.
Usually you'll have pseudo-root access to your VPS, giving you almost total control over the system (although you don't have true root access). Excellent for optimizing settings to suit your needs.
You should get pretty rapid support from your host.Cons
A bit of technical knowledge is required to setup and maintain a VPS.
More expensive than shared hosting, expect to pay around $40USD/month
Domains will need to be purchased and setup separately
Your host will probably not help you with small problems since the overall responsibility comes down to the user.This is the type of hosting I have least experience in, but I've heard good things about it. If you have the type of forum which doesn't quite need its own server, VPS will fit the gap. I wouldn't start with a VPS package simply because you'll be paying more than you need.
Dedicated Server
Dedicated servers are exactly what they say - a server dedicated to you. Buying one of these is likely to give you enough oomph to power most reasonably sized forums. There are commonly two types of dedicated servers - managed and unmanaged. Managed (the more expensive of the two) will include a level of help from your hosting, things like upgrading software, configuring security, etc. If you've got to this level without gathering a level of technical knowledge your best bet is managed. If, however, you are happy to deal with the techy things yourself then save some money and go for an unmanaged option.
Pros
Plenty of space and bandwidth to keep a large forum up and running.
Total control over pretty much everything which happens on the server.
If you have a managed package, you should get outstanding, fast support from your host. If unmanaged you should still be able to raise problems which you can't fix.Cons
If unmanaged, a competent technical knowledge will be require to upgrade, maintain and secure a dedicated server.
These will undoubtedly cost quite a bit more than shared hosting - probably at least $100USD/month
Domains will still need to be purchased separately.If you manage to get your forum off to a good start with a nice flow of members and lots of posts, you'll probably need to get a dedicated server at some point. I would suggest waiting until you have a forum setup which can pay for the server it needs, most likely through advertising.
Beyond Dedicated?
If your forum becomes of of the Big Ones (http://www.big-boards.com/) it will be likely that a single dedicated server won't be enough. There are lots of different configurations out there which you can consider - Load Balanced Servers, Private Racks, etc. For interest's sake, a Big Boards interview of Derek Liu, Create of Gaia in October 2004 elaborated on the setup of Gaia (probably now obsolete):
In a nutshell:
[Firewall]
[Load Balancer]
[Web Servers] - 30+ under load balancer, 10+ for specific features or raw graphics
[Database Servers] - 4 in a cluster for forums, 7 for specific features
[Memory Cache Server]
All database servers are still the dual Opteron configuration with 4GB memory, while the web server config is being changed from dual Xeon with 2 Gig memory to P4 servers with 1 Gig memory.
That's pretty much it for this tutorial. I should probably mention that everything stated above is based upon my experience in the web hosting industry and does by no means reflect any specific company's setup. Prices stated are extremely rough estimates which will likely change as this article ages. Further (up to date) information about the web hosting industry can be found on Webhostingtalk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com).
:)