looking to upgrade to VPS

[captech]

I am looking at upgrading from free hosting to VPS and would like to speak with someone via chat or phone. Could a x10 rep send me a PM with contact info?

thanks!

[leafypiggy]

If you join the irc chatroom, I'm sure I can find you a staff person to chat with. The members of the channel are also very knowledgeable if you have technical questions. Use the link on the nav.

[Corey]

I'm on IRC right now and will be for most of the day. Just send me a PM on there.

[captech]

Alright, I have been busy the past few days and haven't had a chance to post.

Anyway, I am building a website using Word Press with my free account. I am happy with the way that is working so far. Part of my move is because i would rather use a paid service for reliability purposese. While I doubt it will happen to me, I don't want to worry about down time from not posting on the forum ect.

Also, I am looking to host an ultraVNC repeater to use with my upstart it consulting company. I'll probably have other random things for that I want to host/run.

so, how does the transition work for my website/wordpress account? Can I still access it the same way?

I see there is an extra charge for cPanel which I would like to avoid, how comfortable is everyone with the free option? How todes it compare to cPanel?

How quick are support tickets processed? I haven't been real impressed with the processing time on my free account, is it a lot faster when i switch to VPS?

thanks!

[masshuu]

so, how does the transition work for my website/wordpress account? Can I still access it the same way?

You'll need to set up a site with apache, then installing and accessing it is the same as your free accounts(via ftp and browser).

I see there is an extra charge for cPanel which I would like to avoid, how comfortable is everyone with the free option? How todes it compare to cPanel?

I use webmin, which i downloaded and installed. Its up to you if you want to pay for cpanel or not. I haven't used the system that you install via hypervm, but i have seen people have issues with it.

How quick are support tickets processed? I haven't been real impressed with the processing time on my free account, is it a lot faster when i switch to VPS?

My tickets have been resolved within a couple hours. If you need to, hop on irc and hope coreys around

If you've never worked with linux before, i would suggest getting familiar with the shell and how to do stuff before getting a vps.
You can use http://www.virtualbox.org/ and then download a distro ISO and install it in a VM, then play with it.

[leafypiggy]

To go along with what supermathew said:

if you're going to be using wordpress, Id recommend installing LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP)

On many distros it's a package you can download, install, and configure all at once by using the command:

sudo apt-get install lamp

or

sudo yum install lamp


But yes, Linux isn't exactly as user friendly as Windows (but it's ten times better)

so I'd also recommend getting familiar with the Linux bash commands. You can use google and find a whole bunch (and how to use them. Etc)

[captech]

thanks for the feedback, which Linux OS do you advice me going with?

[Jarryd]

Personally i use Ubuntu 9.04, It's really up to you what you feel comfortable with, if you're totally new to VPS's and have no idea about SSH i'd recommend something like CentOS with Kloxo. Although Kloxo can be a bit buggy at times and takes a bit to work out the kinks. The process of setting up a VPS can be difficult as i've learnt. But there are many people on this forum that can answer your questions and same with on IRC. Although support isn't officially supported for VPS's.

[The Real Rebel]

ubuntu 9.04 is good to use but If you are new use Cent OS

[Mr. DOS]

Debian. Its repositories contain a huge number of packages, and while its stable release is on a long release cycle, it's incredibly reliable.

CentOS would be my second choice if, for some reason, you need something RedHat-based.

I run both; I have the Linux servers at my workplace running CentOS (mostly for legacy reasons), and my home server and VPS run Debian.

--- Mr. DOS