Which Hosting Should My Friend Use?

[sb123]

Hi friends,

This query is asked by a friend on another forum where I am a member. It requires the best possible solution, and am sure that this is the right place to ask it. We had a discussion on that forum and when I suggested that I know some of the best people and friends in webhosting business who can give him the best possible solution, he has gladly asked me to go ahead and ask it to you.

I Hope I am not burdening your already very busy schedule. So, here is his query:

------- I Quote ---------

Hello everyone!

In about 3-4 days I will be putting my new offer to sale. The product is ready, the marketing is ready, only one problem is left - hosting.

The product is a CMS with graphic management system (colors, images etc.) that is targeted for small companies and people who want to start a website fast.

I want to make the purchase & installation 100% automatic. The process will consist of:
- CMS Installation
- Subdomain configuration
- Onlywire submission
- Search engine submission

After each purchase is made and paid these 4 steps will be initated on auto-pilot.
The only problem is that I don't know what kind of hosting would be optimal for me because:
- If I go with buying a new account for each customer I have to make installation by hand or make pre-installations for all the customers and then when someone makes a purchase he will get the data of one of the available installations. This has 2 disadvantages - one, there is work to do by hand. Second, when I will do pre-installations the hosting accounts will be valid for less then 12 months.

Also - buying hosting accounts is the only solution I know. I have been working as a designer for about 2 years and I have never used dedicated servers or reseller accounts. But this time the solution I know seems to be stupid.

So my question is:
- If I get a reseller account from one of the hosting companies how does it work? Does the customer buy hosting from me or from the company. Can I setup new accounts on auto-pilot. Can I have a script to pre-install certain files on every new account ?

- If I get a dedicated server is it hard to configure it and setup limitations for every account. I know little about Linux - I work on Windows on have only used WAMP for all of my design / CMS work.

My goals are to:
- Provide quality hosting for all of my customers
- As the CMS is not demanding I do not need 1 GB space - even 100 MB will be enough - I want it to be cheap
- Have the possibility to auto-install scripts on each new account
- Protect myself from 1 person using all of the bandwidth if it will be a shared account (for example sharing warez on his site or giant movies).
- Make it easy to manage all the accounts
- (OPTIONAL) When I release an update make it possible to update certain files on all of my customers accounts

Any help will be appreciated.

Best regards,
Michael

-------- end quote -- (emphasis is mine ) ----

I / We thank you very much,

God bless, and Keep Smiling!

[eUK-Martin]

Hello,

Looking at the requirement of your friend I think dedicated hosting would be an ideal solution, as the only problem he would have is initial configuration of the server. Once he is done with it with the help of the support or some one else he will be able to achieve all the six points in a fly.

The major problem with reseller or shared account would be that he will not be allowed to install any application on the server and hence with both of them he will have to manually install the CMS. Also it depends whether he gets SSH access or not, if he does not get SSH access then installation as well as upgrades would be very difficult. With dedicated server he will be able to configure his application on his demands. He will have to be very sure about the support before he opt the hosting company as without support his life would get jeopardized with server configuration as well as security difficulties.

Hope that helps

[Catherine]

Dedicated server would be the best option according to the requirements as administration access is necessary to install the applications which are required and it is not possible to install any application on the Windows reseller hosting packages as administrator access is not provided to the server.

Also, considering a control panel with the Windows dedicated server would be an ideal solution as it will be very easy to manage all accounts on the server with the control panel.

[sb123]

Hey dear Martin and Catherine,

Thanks a lot, dear friends! I knew I would get here the RIGHT solution to my friend's complex query. On top, you were very kind in providing the solutions for his possible future needs too. You both delivered a complete professional solution in the friendliest manner! I / we heartily appreciate.

I will request him to contact you personally if any fine-tuning to the query is required further and to thank eUKHost for your kind assistance. I thank you again!

God bless!

[Catherine]

Hey dear Martin and Catherine,

Thanks a lot, dear friends! I knew I would get here the RIGHT solution to my friend's complex query. On top, you were very kind in providing the solutions for his possible future needs too. You both delivered a complete professional solution in the friendliest manner! I / we heartily appreciate.

I will request him to contact you personally if any fine-tuning to the query is required further and to thank eUKHost for your kind assistance. I thank you again!

God bless!

You are most welcome

Thank you for your appreciation. This kind of appreciation motivates us to provide best quality hosting services to our customers. We always try to offer the best possible hosting solution to all our customers as we always believe in long term business relationships.

You can surely contact us at any point of time and we will be ready to assist you

Please feel free to post if you have any further questions.

[eUK-Martin]

I am not sure why Catherine has stressed Windows server so much.

Please let me clear myself that I did not enforce in any of my comments to go for a Windows server. I would not suggest a Windows server if your friend does not use ASP, .NET or MS SQL. If your friend has created the CMS in PHP then Linux would suit him more than Windows.

[Catherine]

I am not sure why Catherine has stressed Windows server so much.

I think you missed that point written by Michael in his post. Below is the point Michael has written.

If I get a dedicated server is it hard to configure it and setup limitations for every account. I know little about Linux - I work on Windows on have only used WAMP for all of my design / CMS work.

Best regards,
Michael

A Windows dedicated server was suggested to Michael as he uses Windows and it seems that he is not well aware about Linux. Hence, if he chooses Windows operating system, he will be able to manage the server easily once the server is configured according to his requirements.