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The final essential element of a well-running dedicated server is the hosting provider. This is the
company that will house the server, provide a link to the rest of the internet and service the machine
should anything go wrong. It is absolutely essential that your provider be capable of doing all of
these things well, or your site will suffer greatly.
Bandwidth
Your server's connection to the internet is very important. To lessen
the possibility of a catastrophic failure, your dedicated hosting provider should purchase their bandwidth
from multiple providers, which would allow their customers' sites to function even if one provider's
network goes down. Hosts with connections to multiple networks are said to be multi-homed.
Once you've settled on a provider, you'll have to determine what type of bandwidth you'll need.
There are several options here. Sites which get a lot of traffic at one time should consider getting
burstable bandwidth. This means that there is the capacity to handle a great deal of traffic simultaneously.
A host with burstable bandwidth will generally use a 100mbit connection. You will also have options with
respect to the total amount of data that your server will be allowed to transfer per month. Generally the
host will commit a certain amount of transfer for your server, with the ability to get more at an extra
charge, if necessary. Sites that require a great deal of monthly transfer will often lease an unmetered
server. This server will generally have a low-capacity connection to the internet, but will allow this
connection to run at capacity for the entire duration of the lease without incurring any overage charges.
Unmetered servers will often have 10 or 20mbit/second connections, but bargain-basement dedicated servers can go
down to the 1-3mbit/second range.
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