Managed / Unmanaged Dedicated

[othellobloke]

What exactly is the difference between a managed and unmanaged dedicated server?

What DON'T you get in an unmanaged one?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by othellobloke

What DON'T you get in an unmanaged one?

Support for the server

[gtgeorge]

Originally Posted by _Sam_

Support for the server

The unmanaged is also on a 10mbit port aren't they?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by gtgeorge

The unmanaged is also on a 10mbit port aren't they?

IIRC it was just my server that had a 10mbit port, not sure if gwyneth and Yukon (and other DediKiddys got 10 or 100

[GvilleRick]

Mine is on a 10mbit port as well.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by _Sam_

Support for the server

This is half true. They'll answer any questions and partially guide you, but they won't actually go into the box to make changes, upgrades, or fixes unless you pay them an hourly support fee.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

This is half true. They'll answer any questions and partially guide you, but they won't actually go into the box to make changes, upgrades, or fixes unless you pay them an hourly support fee.

I think this answer is misleading.

As one of the Gators pointed out a month or two ago, "unmanaged" does not mean "unsupported", and that HG doesn't strand the unmanaged customers without any support.

You have to do more work to set it up at the beginning--the box is not empty but you have to do some more configuration. But the difference between managed and unmanaged here couldn't be so great if a lot of the managed customers buy configserv's $140 setup service.

Support still fixes some stuff, and there are still a handful of things it takes support to do (such as reverse DNS).

In terms of ongoing "management", many of the threads in the dedicated forum over the last year and half have stressed that there's still a lot you've got to be aware of, even with a managed account.

One of the key differences does seem to be that with an unmanaged, if you break something yourself, you either have to fix it yourself or face the possibility of paying to get it fixed.

That said, it's a terrific learning experience. Never having seen WHM before I got our unmanaged dedi, I've found its subtleties more of an issue than Apache and Linux/Unix (which I've been using off and on for almost 15 years). Not to say Apache is easy as Dr. Seuss!

_Sam_ and George, I think the port thing isn't so much a managed/nonmanaged issue but that there is no configuration equivalent to the DediKiddy(TM) in HG's managed servers. But each of the other server packages come both managed and unmanaged (I think).