Problems determining which reseller would be best

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Posted by obelix, 07-06-2005, 05:17 PM
Hi All, I'm new to reseller accounts and I have a situation which I *think* is worthy of getting such an account but I'm not sure. The situation is as follows: I have my own small web design business and we've been designing sites and having our clients referred to Lunarpages.com which we have been making a commission on. Lunarpages is a great service but unfortunately does not have SSH access and lately it has been getting slower and slower. We have just got our first large contract which requires a very dynamic site, rich in both multimedia and in online applications. The biggest catch 22 now is that we need be able to utilize our own custom implementation of either horde or hula server both of which require a compile and ssh access to install so lunarpages is out. We would also like to put all our clients on the same server both for ease of administration, and so that our clients have to deal with us and not the webserver provider. (Hopefully this will also generate a further source of income as more clients are added to the reseller account) I've been doing some research and I'm thinking of either going with rackforce or powervps. I have a number of questions here and these are: 1. are these companies well respected and does anyone have any other recommendations? 2. If we have one site that requires fairly high bandwidth and we have a number of other sites which we host on the same reseller account, will the others suffer if the high bandwidth site starts becoming very active? Can you throttle how much bandwidth a given domain can take of the total bandwidth available? 3. Do these services come with mail already setup or is that something we have to setup ourselves? 4. Would you guys recommend plesk over cpanel? We don't have any experience with plesk but it seems to be very popular. Any other comments are welcome... thanks in advance for your help!
Posted by productive, 07-06-2005, 06:13 PM
Hi,obelix 1) I had have expierence with Rackforce in the past, but moved on only because they were not managed dedicated's. For support, every true support ticket that I submitted was $25 wich became a big problem in our budget because for some reason there was always something going on with the server. So we just packed our bags skiped our way out of there. 2) Now for the bandwidth, yes you can control who gets what by giving them limites on bandwidth. 3 )Depends what package you are trying to get for Reseller accounts, yes it does come setup already all you have to do is just create email account. For dedicateds or VPS you have to do some configuration. Unless if it is fully Managed Dedicated where they would set it all up you, well from my expirience I dont know about all. 4)Well I like cpanel alot I have tryied plesk but it didnt do anything for me in terms of configurations, and our clients any prefered cpanel cause all the scripts features that fantastioco has etc. Good luck !
Posted by cartika-andrew, 07-06-2005, 06:37 PM
Hello obelix, There is a distinction between VPS/Dedicated and reseller solutions. Typically speaking - VPS/Dedicated requires you to maintain the environment (operating system, control panel, various services - mail, dns - etc) Typically, designers and various other value added hosting providers do not want to spend their time managing environments, and as such, will choose a reseller account over a VPS/dedicated. Most reseller solutions allow you to create plans and allocate resources to those plans. So, you should be able to create a plan for the high usage client and different plans for your standard hosting client. The bandwith utilized by your high usage client will not affect the other users - unless of course you exceed your overall bandwith allotment - which would then just require a plan upgrade. Hope this helps...
Posted by obelix, 07-07-2005, 02:49 AM
Can you recommend a good reseller hosting company?
Posted by RossMAN, 07-07-2005, 02:53 AM
I would also look at a VPS (PowerVPS is a VPS provider), what is your budget?
Posted by obelix, 07-07-2005, 02:58 AM
Ideally not more than $60US is the budget. We just want to start off with say hosting 10 sites or so and then work up as more come in.
Posted by RossMAN, 07-07-2005, 03:14 AM
Then go with a VPS such as PowerVPS, LiquidWeb , ServInt, etc. You get full root access, email is provided (assuming you get a control panel such as cPanel or DirectAdmin). You can even create your own resellers accounts with a VPS. It's like having a mini-dedicated server which is managed.
Posted by bwb, 07-07-2005, 03:29 AM
If it is in your budget I would skip VPS and go to a low cost dedicated, I used VPS for about two months and ran into too many problems with weird limits on amount of files you could have in folders (had to email support to be adjusted) etc. With a dedicated I think you have a better idea of what you are getting and having total control.
Posted by productive, 07-07-2005, 03:31 AM
hi, obelix same thing happend to me that happend to bwb . I agree with bwb good luck
Posted by net-trend, 07-07-2005, 05:08 AM
That is true. However, since your provider did manage to adjust the limits, it shouldn't be a big deal.
Posted by obelix, 07-07-2005, 10:47 AM
Now where am I going to find a "low cost" dedicated server? Everything I've seen is upwards of $80 - 90 US
Posted by net-trend, 07-07-2005, 12:18 PM
Try fastserver's auctions. http://www.fastservers.net/offers/index.php
Posted by BigFeetMedia, 07-07-2005, 02:36 PM
For a skinny dedicated solution, you may want to look into SuperbServers (SuperbServers.net) at their smallest package, $59 for a dedicated server. I know nothing of the quality, just the price.
Posted by bwb, 07-07-2005, 05:59 PM
Ya but that is really annoying, having to wait 12 hours for it to get adjusted etc. And there were several other problems from this and other VPS weirdness. Thanks, Ben
Posted by Website Rob, 07-07-2005, 06:53 PM
Hi obelix, welcome to the Forum. From what you describe, sounds like a typcial Web Designer situation. Creating Web sites for your Clients with them wanting you to also look after the Hosting end for them. This gives your Clients a one-stop-shopping solution for all their Hosting needs and works out to be a good deal for the Designer as well. Each level of Hosting requires more knowledge, experience, and time dedication. A Reseller account requires more than a Shared Hosting account, but less than a VPS. Getting to know two different Control Panels plus handling Support issues for all "your" Clients is usually as far as most Web Designers prefer to go. Although most Hosters do not provide SSh access by default, if you ask potential Hosters a bit more questions on it you can usually reach an agreement as to some level of SSH access. Most Clients do not need or want SSH access and for Security reasons, it's better to not provide it unless people can show they understand how it works and how to use it. Your need for a custom implementation of horde should not be a problem and I'm not familiar with a "hula server", so cannot comment on that. With a Reseller account you can determine Data transfer allocation amongest your Clients so no problem there. Whether one account uses more Data transfer than another makes no difference and should not negetively affect any of your accounts. Most Control Panels setup eMail automatically, when the account is setup, and WHM/Cpanel Control Panels can provide everything you need to do. Not having any experience with Plesk I cannot say what that Control Panel is like.
Posted by RossMAN, 07-08-2005, 10:34 PM
Keep an eye on CyberWurx.com servers. I've seen them as low as $50/mo for a dedicated P3/500 with 250GB bandwidth. I should note these are unmanaged and a control panel prices more.