For complete control of the web server hosting your web site, you will need your own dedicated server hosting. You choose what runs on the server and how secure it is. The two main types of dedicated servers you will find upon looking is a server running either Linux or Windows as the operating system.

Linux Dedicated Servers

The free operating system of Linux is installed on these servers, as the name implies. Cheap linux dedicated server are typically used with an Apache web server, PHP and mySql configuration. With these servers, you will be given root access for control of aspects including domain and web site configuration and the conf file if running Apache web server. Since Linux is a free operating system, there is no overhead cost for licensing and this results in the Linux Dedicated Servers being a cheaper option.

Windows Dedicated Servers

As the name of a Windows Server implies, this will be running a Windows Server operating system on the server. Currently, service providers are offering the newest version of the OS: Windows Server 2008. The common configuration setup for a Windows server is different than a Linux server as it runs IIS as the web server and SQL server to handle database requirements. The option to run Apache on the dedicated web server is available on Windows by running a WAMP (Windows, Apache, mySql, PHP) configuration setup. On average most servers running Windows do have a higher monthly cost due to the licensing fees the service provider needs to pay for the operating system.

The owner of the server will ultimately need to decide if they would like Linux or Window on their dedicated server, as it depends on their server needs. Different requirements will lead to different server selection. Those looking for a cheap dedicated server solution will want to purchase the cheaper Linux servers. Anyone running open source PHP applications will almost always want to select a Linux server as their first option. If you plan to develop using Microsoft .Net, you will need to select a Windows Server, and you will typically get SQL server database with it. In the end, the choice of what server you pick will be based on your own web site hosting requirements.

While you have chosen the operating system, you will then need to decide if you want to pick a managed or unmanaged dedicated server solutions. If you want to handle everything including patches and configuration, you will want to go with an unmanaged server leaving all the responsibility with you, while a managed server will take care of this for you, including server backups for a lot of them.

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