madoctopus
Supreme Member
- Apr 4, 2010
- 1,388
- 3,709
So, you need a dedicated server or a VPS and not sure which host to go with? I'm going to tell you a few important things you have to keep in mind.
The reason I am writing this is because I've seen some threads with reviews for xsservers.eu and some are positive and some are negative and people wonder why. Most don't get it why some are positive and some are negative but I will explain.
There are two things you have to pay attention to:
Then, we have the network specs. I include network card and bandwidth and transfer speed here because these things have to do more with the throughput (throughput = real actual bandwidth that can be reached as opposed to the one on paper) than with the server computing performance.
Generally speaking bandwidth is expensive but host companies have to provide it for cheap. That means they rely to marketing techniques to make you think you get a lot but also make sure you don't really use a lot. So what happens is, they will engineer the offer to have a massive bottleneck. They might offer you a 16 core server with 24GB of RAM but a 10mbps connection. Or if they give you 100mbps connection you have only 2TB bandwidth in a month and you pay if you go over that. All hosts that are cheap or seem affordable have a bottleneck like this. You might even have multiple bottlenecks - some at network level others at server hardware level. Explaining all the factors at play here is beyond the scope of this short guide though.
A lot of you need servers for programs like ScrapeBox and XRumer. As opposed to a web or database server where a lot of RAM helps, in this case you don't need a lot of RAM. Also, I am not sure if ScrapeBox or Xrumer or whatever software you use makes use of multiple cores or not. Sine they are multithreaded they probably do, but I am not 100% sure. So to begin with, you don't need a lot of RAM. 2GB is plenty. Naturally if you plan to run lots of such programs at the same time you would think it's a good idea to have more RAM. NO! What happens is, you never reach a RAM bottleneck because you reach a network bottleneck much sooner.
Which leads me to throughput. It is important to understand that the bandwidth the host offers and the speed they say they offer is A BIG FAT LIE. The speed is not a constant, it always depends on other factors including the Internet provider (carrier) of that host, peering (connectivity with other Internet providers/carriers) and also the computer you connect to. That means they might offer X terrabytes of bandwidth but they know you will never even consume half of that because it is impossible to do that on their network.
To explain this better let's take xsservers.eu as an example. You make an account with them and you do a speed test for them. This is what happens:
The perfect setup would be to have 2 servers. One in USA and one in Europe. You would split your URL lists by region and have a list of URLs from Europe and another for the rest of the world. You blast one list from the European server and the other from your USA based server. This way you get optimal speeds.
Back to server and network specs, a 100mbps dedicated bandwidth would give you 31TB monthly bandwidth. So, if you want the ultimate scraping/blasting machine go and buy a dedicated server with dedicated bandwidth and make sure you have enough CPU power to handle 70-100 requests/second so you top your bandwidth and not get bottlenecked at CPU level.
The only way to get a good server that works well for you is to test it. There is no other way. That means you want to look for hosts that have a money back guarantee otherwise you have to be OK with the idea that you will just waste the price for a month so you test it.
The reason the only way is to test the server comes down to the fact that there are multiple carriers and multiple peerings. That means while the host might say they give you unlimited shit and even dedicated bandwidth, there might be a peering bottleneck 2-3 routers away from their datacenter, the end result being lower speeds for you and all their servers for that matter.
Hopefuly this will help you understand some key factors in finding a good server and host. Keep in mind that it is a very basic guide and I even "bent" facts a bit so it is easier for you to understand them.
The reason I am writing this is because I've seen some threads with reviews for xsservers.eu and some are positive and some are negative and people wonder why. Most don't get it why some are positive and some are negative but I will explain.
There are two things you have to pay attention to:
- Server specs - for a dedicated server this is the number and type of CPU(s), RAM, HDD, etc. Basically the hardware configuration. For a VPS it's the same plus the architecture the VPS runs on (Xen or OpenVZ).
- Network specs - server bandwidth, server network card type, host internet provider and network peering, etc.
Then, we have the network specs. I include network card and bandwidth and transfer speed here because these things have to do more with the throughput (throughput = real actual bandwidth that can be reached as opposed to the one on paper) than with the server computing performance.
Generally speaking bandwidth is expensive but host companies have to provide it for cheap. That means they rely to marketing techniques to make you think you get a lot but also make sure you don't really use a lot. So what happens is, they will engineer the offer to have a massive bottleneck. They might offer you a 16 core server with 24GB of RAM but a 10mbps connection. Or if they give you 100mbps connection you have only 2TB bandwidth in a month and you pay if you go over that. All hosts that are cheap or seem affordable have a bottleneck like this. You might even have multiple bottlenecks - some at network level others at server hardware level. Explaining all the factors at play here is beyond the scope of this short guide though.
A lot of you need servers for programs like ScrapeBox and XRumer. As opposed to a web or database server where a lot of RAM helps, in this case you don't need a lot of RAM. Also, I am not sure if ScrapeBox or Xrumer or whatever software you use makes use of multiple cores or not. Sine they are multithreaded they probably do, but I am not 100% sure. So to begin with, you don't need a lot of RAM. 2GB is plenty. Naturally if you plan to run lots of such programs at the same time you would think it's a good idea to have more RAM. NO! What happens is, you never reach a RAM bottleneck because you reach a network bottleneck much sooner.
Which leads me to throughput. It is important to understand that the bandwidth the host offers and the speed they say they offer is A BIG FAT LIE. The speed is not a constant, it always depends on other factors including the Internet provider (carrier) of that host, peering (connectivity with other Internet providers/carriers) and also the computer you connect to. That means they might offer X terrabytes of bandwidth but they know you will never even consume half of that because it is impossible to do that on their network.
To explain this better let's take xsservers.eu as an example. You make an account with them and you do a speed test for them. This is what happens:
- If you are located in Europe, you will see good speeds and eventually write a good review for them.
- If you are located in Europe and your ISP has peering with Frankfurt, Germany you get awesome speeds and eventually write a good review for them.
- If you are located in US, China, Japan, or anywhere else in the world, you get shitty 1-5Mbps speeds hence you write a bad review for them.
The perfect setup would be to have 2 servers. One in USA and one in Europe. You would split your URL lists by region and have a list of URLs from Europe and another for the rest of the world. You blast one list from the European server and the other from your USA based server. This way you get optimal speeds.
Back to server and network specs, a 100mbps dedicated bandwidth would give you 31TB monthly bandwidth. So, if you want the ultimate scraping/blasting machine go and buy a dedicated server with dedicated bandwidth and make sure you have enough CPU power to handle 70-100 requests/second so you top your bandwidth and not get bottlenecked at CPU level.
The only way to get a good server that works well for you is to test it. There is no other way. That means you want to look for hosts that have a money back guarantee otherwise you have to be OK with the idea that you will just waste the price for a month so you test it.
The reason the only way is to test the server comes down to the fact that there are multiple carriers and multiple peerings. That means while the host might say they give you unlimited shit and even dedicated bandwidth, there might be a peering bottleneck 2-3 routers away from their datacenter, the end result being lower speeds for you and all their servers for that matter.
Hopefuly this will help you understand some key factors in finding a good server and host. Keep in mind that it is a very basic guide and I even "bent" facts a bit so it is easier for you to understand them.
