How Arvixe set up their Windows shared and VPS hosting servers

This post is not meant to be a review of Arvixe, it is to describe the unusual way that Arvixe configure their shared and VPS Windows servers.

But let me say that I would not recommended Arvixe at all. I like their hosting services but their support is awful. It wasn't always bad but recently it had deteriorated to the point where it is actually almost impossible to get support at all.

Anyway, back to their Windows hosting set up.

When you take out shared hosting you will find that SSL your services - web, FTP, database and mail - are all running on the same server.

This is quite unusual for shared hosting. Most hosts operate separate web, database and mail servers at least.

It's kind of the same for their VPS plans too. When your new VPS server is ready for you you will find it fully installed with DNS server (Bind), web server (IIS), FTP server (Filezilla), mail server (hMailserver), database servers (SQL Server Express and MySQL) and a few extras like PHP. They also install WebsitePanel to allow you easy control of all services.

I'm not sure this set up is great for shared hosting, although it is probably much easier for Arvixe to administer and manage, but I think its great for people wanting VPS hosting for average web sites that don't see a huge amount of traffic. You don't have to install a bunch of software yourself and Arvixe can better support your VPS because the configuration is standardised.

The downside is that you may have things installed you don't need, but if you aren't using them then they are probably not slowing things down, just taking up a bit of space.

This type of VPS hosting certainly wouldn't be good for high volume websites but is great for websites that are coping in a shared hosting environment but you want to step up to the next level where you're not sharing services with many other websites but don't want to have to set up and configure a server yourself.

It's just a shame Arvixe's support is so bad now, and that other hosting companies aren't offering a similar service. Maybe some do... Do you know of any hosting companies that offer this type of all-in-one VPS hosting?