Straight In At The Deep End Of The Server Pool

Well, we took the plunge a few days ago and signed up for our very first VPS hosting account, after spending a day or two researching suitable candidates.

Our requirements were quite specific, for reasons that are not relevant here, and the sign-up process and post-sales set-up were not without their problems.

However, I should make it clear that none of these were the company’s fault – it was more to do with our lack of understanding about VPS.

You see, I have a fair bit of experience in managing websites using the standard cPanel, as offered by what’s probably our favourite hosting company, Host Gator, but VPS is a whole new world, as we recently discovered – the learning curve appears to be steep.

Firstly, the O/S we chose, ubuntu 8.04, only comes with a thing called Virtuozzo Power Panel, which is fine for one of the reasons we wanted this server, but it apparently meant we had to install our own DNS server and email server.

Yikes!

The techie support guy therefore suggested getting a control panel such as cPanel, as this would sort out that hard stuff out for us.

Great, and the cost was a lot less than most companies charge for cPanel.

But that was way too simple – we got an email a few minutes later to say that ubuntu and cPanel don’t work together.

Rats!

After further discussion, we opted for the Plesk control panel instead, which is new to us, but so far it’s not that strange.

So, where are we?

Well, our server is set up, we have a domain name and nameservers set up too, we’ve got both Virtuozzo and Plesk control panels and access to the server itself, but so far, we’re having trouble configuring the stuff we actually bought it for, although we do have some real websites earmarked for this server.

Time will tell as to whether this was a wise choice or not.

And I don’t mean whether the company is good and reliable, because so far, having spoken to at least five different people from different departments on their live chat service, their support has been first class.

They offer 24 x 7 support, which is very handy when you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, and they genuinely seem to go out of their way to help, which makes a refreshing change.

No, I mean was going for a VPS a wise choice. On the one hand, it may provide the best solution to the problem we have, but on the other, even though it’s a fully-managed server, will it suck up all of our valuable time trying to get it all working as we need?

Watch this space!

Oh, and by the way, if you want to check them out, the company is based in the UK and is called Webhosting UK. Based on our admittedly limited experience so far, I highly recommend them – their prices are reasonable, and their support is excellent.

Tags: wise choice, few days, live chat, suitable candidates, few minutes, server time, hard stuff

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