Need Assistance: What to Look for in Purchasing a Server To Host Large Website with Affiliated Links

What kind of ISP do you have?

I have DSL Service

Is this in an office? or in a home?

However, although I have DSL,  I am willing to purchase whatever high speed services necessary for the best choice.

Thank you

This is in a home.

Ok this is a big issue. Nearly all in-home ISPs do not allow web sites to be shared in your house. They can block port 80, and some even block incoming http traffic. Another issue is that DSL upload speeds are not very fast, and will give slow loading pages. In addition, static IPs are hard to find for residential service as well, which would be pretty important in your case. If you don't have a corporate location/office to set this up in, I would say don't bother.

If you were buying a server just to expand your knowledge, learn how to configure/troubleshoot, then go for it! But if you want to host a website in any sort of effective manner, it will not work well in your house. It looks to me that you want to have a server with a decent amount of traffic, have you shopped around for some better web hosts?

I've been using Go Daddy and I'm having some major issues with slow service on a critical matter.
Do you have suggestions for another Host:
Would this same scenario apply to Cable ISP Services?
If I found an office location to house the Server set up. What then?

I don't like GoDaddy for a host.... I have used a few companies:
www.3ix.com   very cheap/great deal
www.1and1.com   pretty reliable/fast
www.rackspace.com   heard good things

there are tons of other companies, lots of them offer unlimited space/bandwidth, but if you are concerned about transfer speed, you probably want to stay away from those providers. The metered bandwidth providers like 1and1 and rackspace should be alot faster on average.

Yes this scenario applies for Cable as well. Pretty much any residential ISP will be using dynamic IPs.

If you found an office, where you could get a T1, T3, Verizon FiOS/fiber ISP, you would be set. A connection like that would be faster than most webhosts, especially the fiber. I know in my area you can get this:

http://www22.verizon.com/content/businessfios/packagesandprices/packagesandprices.htm

and these options with the static IPs would be phenominal for hosting websites. And you can be pretty sure that the ISP won't be blocking any protocols/ports, but I would always confirm before installation. Fiber is not available everywhere though... What area are you in?

In New Brunswick, Canada

What's the difference between a dynamic and static IP?  and I am located in New Brunswick Canada. I'm checking for Fiber availability now.

What kind of upstream should I have on average to install this server?

I'd say for a public website 1Mbit UP as the minimum, 3+ would be better. My 15/15 connection would host a website very well, but my port 80 is blocked by ISP - and the dynamic IP makes it pretty much impossible.

What about Ethernet Access and Asynchronous Transfer Mode. Could they be used in this situation?

We are searching ISP's for services in Moncton, New Brunswick and need to know what the average upstream amount we need to run the server. One of them said something about Ethernet Access and Asynchronous Transfer Mode as a choice and I'd like to know if that could be a part of the solution for me.

I am at a critical juncture and really appreciate the help you've given me so far. If you could help me out again with this...so I can get my server going...I would really appreciate it. I've raised the point value as this is EXTREMELY important to my business.

I don't think so. ATM is an alternative to ethernet, and I don't see it's application here with web hosting. You want to utilize standard TCP/IP traffic if this is a public serer

"During the early years of ATM, it was seen as the unified choice for virtually every networking. IP was not a big player at the time and certainly not a threat to ATM. Now things have changed. IP has become the dominant networking technology, and we face the issue of how these two mesh together. The nature of the two collide with each other: IP is connectionless protocol while ATM is fundamentally connection-oriented. IP is a packet-routing technology routing variable length packets with no delay guarantees while ATM is a cell-switching technology with strict quality of service."

from:
http://www.tml.tkk.fi/Opinnot/Tik-110.551/1999/papers/07ATMvsEthernet/iworkpaper.html#2.


But I haven't installed or used ATM so I can't vouch for sure.

*server

Well we could not find FIOS in our area and T1 and T3 are super expensive. Is there no other option than T1, T3 or FIOS?  and Operable option that can get me up and going?

If you want your website to be fast, you are going to need a good connection. You could try hosting it on a "business" static DSL/Cable, but you will notice a speed difference between that and hosting companies. What about renting a VPS? 1and1 has their VPS2 on sale right now:

http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/VpsWindows;jsessionid=68FCF5494366B96DFC1196275D905451.TC60a?__frame=_top&__lf=Static

first 3 months free, $39 a month after that. That plan gives you 1000GB/mo transfer, and 20GB of storage space. It's a VPS so you get a full fledged remote admin login (either linux or windows, you choose).  They include 1 domain registration, and up to 30 subdomains. With a server like that you could host multiple sites pretty easily. This would be great for hosting your website(s), and would not require buying any costly hardware or server software. Let me know if you have more questions!

http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/Vps   if that link doesn't work

Thank you.  I will investigate this option. You help in this matter is greatly appreciated

no prob!