I have seen the term "Virtul Dedicated Servers" thrown around by hosting companies. I know that a dedicated server is a dedicated machine. I know a virtual server is just a standard hosting account which is just a directory on a shared server. Since the two are conflicting what does it mean?

Is this just another trick to get people to belive they are getting more than they really are? Or is this actally a real thing?

That's a great notice. I think that a Virtual Dedicated Server is the same as Dedicated Server. I've even seen Shared Hosting being called Virtual Hosting. Virtual term just stands for that this server is for "virtual stuff"... Myself I would not confuse the buyers with this word, especially when it comes to dedicated servers, but nevertheless, some find it interesting to use.

Best,

artashes - the virtual servers are just directories on the server. apache is configured to point domains to those directories and each can be set us as if it is its own server. You can even point ips to each. But they are still on the same server. That is the virtual part.

You cannot share a server and have a dedicated server at the same time. Yet I see it everywhere. So I was wondeing if anyone could actually explain that to me.

virtual servers store ram and cpu usage for each person on vps

From my experience a "Virtual" Dedicated Server is just a jail on a BSD box. A little more secure than a standard "shell" account, but still not "Dedicated".

If you want dedicated service, get a real dedicated account.
If not, you'll probably be alright with a standard reseller account / shared hosting account.

The hosting industry does not have standard nomenclature. The terms virtual, virtual hosting, virtual servers, virtual site, virtual dedicated, virtual private server (VPS), and virtual machine hosting (VM Hosting) may have some commonly accepted meanings but each provider seems to use them for anything they want.

The best approach is to carefully review what is being offered in terms of features, quality, service, and price and pay less attention to what it is called than what it really is.

I think you guys completely missed the point! Virtual dedicated serevr is 99% as good as dedicated server, even thought physically its not a dedicated server. You get the root access and can do anythign with your server. It gives to complete freedom and security just like a dedicated server.

For details about how it works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Virtual_Server
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Mode_Linux

Well, I suppose VPS's give you some of the same benefits of a dedicated server, but it's hardly the same as a dedicated box. With a dedicated machine in some hosts you can wipe the OS and install literally anything--it's your machine. There are still some (albeit small) limits to a VPS.

Considering you can get a dedicated machine for as little a $50 a month at some spots (e.g. www.ez1web.com ) I haven't seen the great benefit to a VPS. I've used a dedicated machine for some time and it's be great.

I'll admit that I haven't used the VPS appraoch.

Hi,

A Virtual Dedicated Server and a Virtual Private Server is the same thing.
The word virtual means that they appear/act like private or dedicated
Servers.

On both dedicated and virtual dedicated systems you have full
control. On virtual systems you often get managed support whereas with
dedicated servers you are most likely on your own when it comes to
update the system, secure your server....

The main difference between the systems is that VDS/VPS accounts share
one complete server, each on their own partition. A partition is physically
separated, that's why they call it private/dedicated. You still share your
server with other VPS/VDS accounts but only a few compared to a few
hundred on a shared hosting account.

Also shared hosting accounts reside all on the same partition, that's the
reason why you can not have full control over the server. With VPS/VDS
you can have full control since they act like a dedicated system. A dedicated
server makes sense only if you have a very, very, very large site like
(dababase extensive/very high traffic sites) Sedo.com, CNN.com,
Godaddy.com ..., and only if you are experienced in server setup
and maintenance.

I hope this review helped.

Chris
PANOPHERIC Virtual Imaging
http://www.panospheric.com