Newbie wants Idiot's Guide to dedicated server

[nemonoman]

Hi:
I think I may need my site(s) to move to a dedicated server. I know very little about what work is involved in maintaining a dedicated server. I assume there's some DNS type stuff that needs doing, and some mail stuff, and web and ftp stuff, etc.

Anyway, with a vague idea that I need to get a lot smarter than I am now, I started googling for a sort of Idiot's Guide to Dedicated Server Setup and Maintenance. Tried a number of search strings, and looked at a number of sites, but mainly just found hosting services offering their wares with the expectation that I understood what happened next.

Can somebody point me in the direction of a site or book that will raise my IQ on this subject from 0 to moron level?

Thanks.

Nemo

[Frank Rizzo]

You will be better off googling for webhosting forum.

There are many around, but beware that most are inhabited by hosting providers so you may not get unbiased opinions.

With dedicated you can either get managed or self maintained.

Managed will be the easiest option as you just tell them how you want it configured.

Self maintained is easy enough but some hosters may not setup the basics for you and may impose an extra charge.

e.g. how will your mail be configured? Catch all address or seperate mailboxes?

You may have to learn sendmail/qmail/exim etc.

DNS should all be configured for you by the hosters, but beware that you may have a day or two of downtime when you switch as the info has to propagate around the web.

There should be a control panel with your server. Some have ensim, c-panel or just plain old Webmin.

Once you have decided on a hoster then find out what they will configure for you as part of the setup, and find out what control panel you will get to use.

[nemonoman]

Thanks, Frank. If you have experienced a particularly good webforum, please post the link.

I manage my own shared host reseller accounts with a control-panel based interface. Should I expect similar funcationality on a dedicated server? I got the impression I'd more or less get a bare box and an email saying "You're on your own...Good Luck (sucker!!)."