Hey everyone, I'm looking for some input.

I mostly run the maintainence side of my friends gaming forum. Recently, there have been server issues, since it's under a shared hosting account. The forum itself utilizes roughly 15-20 GB Bandwidth per a month and 200-300 MB Space. The staff was thinking of looking into a dedicated server, but I think it might be a bit too much resource wise and cost wise. So I'm wondering if a VPS is a good solution or if it's best for them to just find a new provider and get a shared hosting account? At the moment, I believe about 35 users visit daily.. but there has been a peak to 100 per a day.

The current server they are on, which provided by thrillinghill is always going down. So there is LOT's of downtime and I think they are looking for a solution not for the present time, but mabye towards the future too.

I know the prices of dedicated servers, however I'm not sure what price ranges VPS hosting would be roughly at?

Hope someone can shed some light.

Thanks.

I think a good shared hosting account would still be their best option, especially economically speaking.

Agreed, shared hosting is still okay for a low budget, but if you really want to go higher, get a VPS.

You could probably use a cheap VPS, something around $10 per month, and upgrade it as needed.

I would never trust a $10/month vps.
That doesn't even cover the cost of the license.

does anyone have an actual range for VPS prices? If I could find a good server, that actually doesn't host too many sites, then I wouldn't mind shared hosting. I just find some shared hosting isn't great, because many hosting companies will throw on as many websites possible.

For reliable VPS hosting with very good customer service this would be a good place to start looking.
Cheaper than a lot of others but you don't sacrifice quality of service.

http://knownhost.com/services/vps-ca.html

I am afraid that you are mistaken. We use HyperVM/OpenVZ and a single license is nowhere near $10.

Sorry, but I trust Virtuozzo far more than an open source VPS solution.
I think my clients deserve to have the best available software.

Well that is your opinion. By the same standard Windows would be better than Linux, and Using CentOS would be out of the question. Personally I am not a fan of any of SWsoft's products (Virtuozzo, Plesk, HScomplete).

Back to the OP's inquiry, When you find a provider, VPS or shared, search Google, this and other similar forums for reviews on them. It may help you stay away from some of the unreliable providers out there.

Not to take things off track by what do you mean?
How is Windows a better server platform than Linux and what is wrong with the CentOS install of Linux?

You implied that Virtuozzo was the best available and most trust worthy solution because it was not open source.
Linux and especially CentOS are both considered very reliable by many, but they are open source.

Touché ...

Harry,

I have experienced an average price of $40 per month for a VPS solution with guaranteed resources available. I am sure there are cheaper out there on the web, but 35-45 for a low end VPS solution is what we have experienced.

You dont need a dedicated server, a good VPS would be more than enough IMO, I've tried powervps.com around 2 years ago and they were great.