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View Full Version : Web hosting Shared vs Dedicated



Paper Shredder Clay
09-20-2009, 01:43 PM
How many of you utilized a shared web server and how many are using a dedicated server? I recently found out the trouble with shared web servers -- means if one of their users gets blacklisted for spam everyone on that server pays the price and that just isn't fair but is the price of cheap web host. Has this happened to you? What did you do?

billbenson
09-20-2009, 06:18 PM
While that could happen, a web host would only have to change the shared IP which is inexpensive. To my knowledge, blacklisting happens at the ISP level. There are various services out there that maintain blacklist IP's that they can subscribe to. They all maintain different databases. If you are really worried about it, get a dedicated IP. Doesn't cost much. You can do that on a shared server.

While there are good reasons for some to have a dedicated server, blacklisting isn't one of them.

rezzy
09-20-2009, 08:48 PM
I would have to agree with billbenson, considering getting a dedicated server should be based on need or the ability not blacklisting.

For instance, I think this forum is either on a virtual private server or dedicated, simply because the demands for these type of sites can be high. And in order provide space for growth a dedicated server or vps is good. But the invest and maintenance for a dedicated server can be high depending on the server setup, package, etc.

bacterozoid
09-20-2009, 09:31 PM
InMotion Hosting (http://webhostinggeeks.com/user-reviews/index2.php?item_id=28)

Dedicated hosting gets expensive quick. Choose a good host like InMotion to prevent problems with bad users. These guys actually call you before they set up your hosting.

I've always used shared hosting in the past, simply because I have never needed all the extras. I am running my own dedicated server right now, though, which gives me ultimate control. ;)

Anyways, I've never really had trouble with shared hosting except maybe slightly slower speeds. If you get enough website traffic you may benefit from VPS hosting. I think you seriously need to be generating some traffic to require dedicated hosting.

vangogh
09-21-2009, 11:39 AM
With shared hosting your site is affected by the other sites on the server. The spamlist is one thing, but also if one of the sites on the server is getting a lot of traffic and using server resources your site could go down. Shared serving is best for sites that get low traffic and for site owners who want most of the server work taken care for them. That's really most people and sites.

You probably won't need to make the jump from shared hosting directly to dedicated hosting. You can go the VPS (virtual private server) route first. With shared hosting you're sharing the server with hundreds of sites. With a VPS you're sharing it with a few sites. A VPS will cost more (say $50 to $100 a month) and you have to take more responsibility for running the web server or you have to pay more money to have someone manage the server for you.

The forum is on a VPS through Liquid Web (http://liquidweb.com/). I've been very happy with them. They offered more management than most other places I checked without an extra fee. They've been extremely helpful the one or two times I've needed to call support and they aren't too expensive. Been very happy with them.

Paper Shredder Clay
09-25-2009, 12:02 PM
My webhost said they could change the ip, but then they said that their ips had that problem, but that they were working on clearing that up.


While that could happen, a web host would only have to change the shared IP which is inexpensive. To my knowledge, blacklisting happens at the ISP level. There are various services out there that maintain blacklist IP's that they can subscribe to. They all maintain different databases. If you are really worried about it, get a dedicated IP. Doesn't cost much. You can do that on a shared server.

While there are good reasons for some to have a dedicated server, blacklisting isn't one of them.

billbenson
09-25-2009, 12:42 PM
Do you actually have this problem or are you just worried that it could happen? For my main site, I use a dedicated IP and have never had a problem. For that matter, I've never had a blacklist problem on a shared IP.

Paper Shredder Clay
09-25-2009, 12:47 PM
It is currently a problem.

rezzy
09-25-2009, 01:03 PM
How do you emails are being blacklisted? And where are the emails being sent from?

Maybe there is something else at work. I can run checks on your email address, server ip, etc to verify if its actually blacklisted.

Paper Shredder Clay
09-25-2009, 01:37 PM
Well its when I try to email a person on AT&T, I get a bounce back saying the ip has been blacklisted.

billbenson
09-25-2009, 02:05 PM
I'm confused. Are you sending from outlook on your pc? If so, do you have an email account that is on a different server. Are you sending from the server or through your ISP.

Most ISP's require that outgoing mail be sent through them not your website. Some still allow that. They also check to see if your web site is alive before sending.

Are you sending from your pc and if so, is the account set up to use your host as the mail host or your ISP?

vangogh
09-25-2009, 11:45 PM
I've had the same problem with AT&T emails. What happens is one site on a server sends out spam and the whole IP gets flagged. It's actually happened to me a couple of times now. Once on a server that did accidentally let in a spammer and again with this forum. When I first set things up here I had missed a flag that needed to be set or unset (I forget which now) and forums emails weren't getting through to those on AT&T networks.

I take it your emails get bounced back to you. They should have a link in them that takes you to a page where you can submit something stating you aren't sending out spam. I think one of the questions is what have you done to prevent spam in the future, but I don't know that you have to give a great answer to the question.

If the link in the email doesn't take you directly to the page it's another click away. And if you don't have that link let me know. I can dig up an email with it and send it to you.

I think it takes about 24 -48 hours to get yourself off the blacklist.

Paper Shredder Clay
09-28-2009, 11:09 AM
I believe I filled out the form, but I never heard back from them, this was about a month ago.

So they cleared up your problem within a couple of days?





I've had the same problem with AT&T emails. What happens is one site on a server sends out spam and the whole IP gets flagged. It's actually happened to me a couple of times now. Once on a server that did accidentally let in a spammer and again with this forum. When I first set things up here I had missed a flag that needed to be set or unset (I forget which now) and forums emails weren't getting through to those on AT&T networks.

I take it your emails get bounced back to you. They should have a link in them that takes you to a page where you can submit something stating you aren't sending out spam. I think one of the questions is what have you done to prevent spam in the future, but I don't know that you have to give a great answer to the question.

If the link in the email doesn't take you directly to the page it's another click away. And if you don't have that link let me know. I can dig up an email with it and send it to you.

I think it takes about 24 -48 hours to get yourself off the blacklist.

vangogh
09-28-2009, 12:09 PM
They did. After filling out the form I received another email saying they'd look into it and then a couple days later I tested by sending emails to people that weren't getting them. I don't think I ever received an email saying my IP was off the list, but within a few days it was.

Do you know if the spam issue was cleared up on the server your site is on? If someone on the server is still sending out spam they aren't going to take you off the list since you'd be using the same mail server.