Deciding between a Dedicated and Shared server & a phpBB question

[Xee]

I'm planning on moving our forum to a new host and am trying to decide between a dedicated and a shared server. As far as I can tell from limited reading, the main difference is a forum won't run as smoothly/quickly on shared server as compared to a dedicated one. On the upside, shared hosting is dirt cheap and usually comes with unlimited bandwidth and storage. We're a really small group and I think it's safe to say we'd probably only see 20 people on at once at peak times during the day. Would a shared host be adequate? I'm thinking of just purchasing a one-month contract to see how it runs and go from there.

Also, I have a quick question concerning phpBB. We're currently using a temporary barebones version of phpBB (Forum) and I'd like to install phpBB3 on the new host and transfer all the forums/posts/users to that one. Can I modify the skin/graphics on the "new" forum (phpBB3) and then transfer over the posts or will the transfer cause the new form to revert to its default settings? Thanks in advance.

 

[AMDbuilder]

Hey,

If you only get a few users at a time let's say 5 users then you will likely be fine on shared hosting. The servers are typically very powerful servers so if the other users on the server don't have much load then you will have more resources to use for your site.

I would go ahead and start out with shared hosting and see how your site holds up. I suspect it will be fine. As you start getting more users you will notice things slow down some, but with some tweaking you can likely bring the load down and improve how things run.

If you are worried about how things will run you can consider getting a VPS server. They are about 60/m and you have your own mini dedicated server. The Managed/Unmanaged aspect is something to keep in mind and entirely your call.

I switched to using smf so I don't know what to say about moving phpbb.

 

[webdes03]

To echo the above poster, I'd start shared and see how it goes. Pick a host that can accommodate you weather you want shared, vps or dedicated, so that if/when you need to upgrade you don't need to transfer everything yourself. The majority of hosts out there offer all 3 areas of service. We started with a shared server, moved to VPS, and will probably go dedicated in 2009.

Managed vs. Unmanaged is one of those personal decisions you have to go through. Do you have people with the necessary knowledge and resources to manage it for you? We bought a managed package simply because of the response time to issues and monitoring of the server. Often times issues are corrected before I would even know about them, and the response guarantee is far superior than anything I could staff myself for the price point of the managed package. There were more checks for us in the "pros" column to go with a managed package, but you will need to look at your individual situation there.