Looking for a VPS

[Keyz333]

In the past I have used shared hosting for all my sites, but now, as I need to open an Image hosting site, I will need to move to a VPS..

Does anyone have any recommendations?

My budget is quite low right now,

I need around 40GB+ Web space 250GB+ Bandwidth and 512MB+ RAM

If anyone has any experience or knows of any that sound good, post them.

Thanks in advance

[Kymmy]

Try a 1and1 cloud server instead of a true VPS, ideal for hosting image related sites and currently with unlimited traffic free all for £29.99 a month for single core, 1Gb ram and 100Gb space with an added bonus of you can change the specs without having to migrate over to a new server each time

[Graham M]

I host a number of websites on a VPS from 1&1, it's very good, but I wish it was CPanel/WHM instead of Plesk

[Keyz333]

Oh wow, that seems perfect, I never thought of 1and1..

I've also seen UrgentVPS I had never heard of them before today though, so not sure what they're like..

Ah & yeah I would prefer cPanel.. but it doesn't have to be I guess.

[Kymmy]

I used to have a VPS with Hostdime in the states, but that was when the price was only $40 and the exchange rate was $2:£1 They're a bit limited now and statesside stuff is dear until the exchange rate at very least recovers

---------- Post added at 09:51 ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 ----------

Remember with images you are gonna eat up that bandwidth!!!

[Keyz333]

Yeah, the exchange rate is all over the place at the moment, not the best time.. :P

Also, yeah, it's why I need to start with at least 40GB+ it will be a private image host to start with, for a community, so I'm hoping not to use to much..

[Kymmy]

I was on VPS when I first came to VM, but between the rising exchange rates and the fact I didn;t need a fantastic amount of bandwidth I opted to drop the costs and for the same amount get a business line (great for websites but not for image hosting due to the limited upload (768Kbs)

Does mean though I have the ability to run a server or two from home which is ideal for me. Have you perhaps thought about a ADSL2 (not available in my area until 2011) with a fixed IP and running your own linux server?

[Keyz333]

I have thought about something like that, but there is no way I could set that up on my own.. and the cost is too high for now.

On another point, what would be the best operating system to run on?

CentOS 5.x
CentOS 4.x
Fedora Core 12
Debian 5
or Ubuntu 9.10

I have very little to no experience with VPS'

[Kymmy]

I started off myself as a linux newbie about 2 years ago..

Found Centos5 to be a nice easy install, then found that virtualmin has an install script.. the rest was very simple..

It's now ever so easy to set up multiple domains, email accounts and the only things I had to really do myself was setting up the backup, add the SMTP server (I'm on a dynamic sticky IP so have to use the smarthost), add a couple of RBL/SPAM checkers..

In the end I actually found it easier to do than my previous windows 2k3/IIS6 set-ups

---------- Post added at 10:17 ---------- Previous post was at 10:15 ----------

Do you have an old box handy? If so try an install on a local IP and run yourself a centos5/virtualmin intranet for a bit to see if you can cope

[Keyz333]

So Centos 5 would be best for a beginner?

I haven't owned a VPS before, I have always sticked with Shared due to me not hosting things like this before, and I know hosts do not like you using their hosting for it.

Does it take a long time to set up everything? Website, email etc?

& I do not have one anymore, I got rid of my old PC not long ago, thinking I wouldn't need it..

[Kymmy]

On a VPS it should have Plesk or WHM/Cpanel, these are too expensive for a home setup so I think the best option is Virtualmin. A VPS will have the OS/plesk/Cpanel already set-up and configured, the home system won't.. To set up centos/virtualmin at home it's a matter of downloading centos (3Gb DVD) and running through the install (If you can install windows you can install Centos) for Virtualmin there's a INSTALL.SH on their website that will do a full Virtualmin/Usermin/Webmin install, all together that shouldn;t take more than an hour. All you do then is to https://IP:10000 and you then have a nice webpage to set-up all your domains/backups/etc....

As I said if you have an old machine (P3 1Gb or above(to slow for normal usage but fine for a test at home)) then give it a simple test, it'll give you a fully featured php/apache/mysql/postfix web server that you can then test/configure over your lan to see what you think

[Keyz333]

Yeah, I could have a look around see if I can make one up somewhere..

If not, I may try urgentVPS as they have cPanel which I'm used too.. and see how easy it is to set it up..

[Lord Nikon]

Don't rule out webhosting.uk.com

[Keyz333]

The hard drive space just isn't enough, and it would cost way to much compared with urgentVPS.

[Kymmy]

I'd suggest you first of all either use urgentvps or create your own server and firstly see (especially with urgentvps) whether the system is usable for your purpose.. If yes then do a few tests, get a site up and see if the bandwidth (urgentvps don't seem to supply a lot) and processor/memory/disk limitations is OK. If yes then great, if no look elsewhere (at least sites and databases are very easily transferable )