If you have decided to take all the advantages of having your own dedicated server, there are a few things to know before purchasing it. The common practice to attract potential customers is offering what appears like an excellent deal for a lower price, but ending up with the lack of services, components, software or hardware, which is only available at extra charges.

Since purchasing a Dedicated Server means owning a remote computer, all its resources are reserved exclusively for your own use. Make sure to clarify what the specifications are you need and choose the service provider meeting those requirements included for the tagged price, because remember a Dedicated Server is only restricted by the size of its own resources.

However, the risks of inadequate hardware configuration or specifications not meeting your needs sometimes are not associated to the tricks of selling Dedicated Servers cheap, because being free to manipulate your server as you want and install any software as well, it may be the customer’s inexperience that causes the expensive mistakes. When is not the need of a hardware upgrade to run the server properly, the wrong selection of an operative system or other software may raise the costs.

Compare prices before you purchase a Dedicated Server: paying attention to every detail and trying to gather information if you do not have the experience on determining the aspects of setting up your server. There are many forums and communities where you may find help and advice to know, for instance, that 256MB of memory may not be enough to run a Dedicated Server properly, and knowing this in advance is the standard amount of memory assigned to those bargain offers out there.

Another point of particular attention when it comes to defining your Dedicated Server specifications is related to the proper control panel installed by default on the server. Many service providers do not mention if the server includes a control panel, and without it is hard to run and manage at least the basic tasks.

Although there are several different free control panels for the different operating systems, most low priced Dedicated Servers do not include any, and the very popular control panels like Cpanel are licensed and its cost is not included with the purchase of the server. This can be even worse if you are planning to use your Dedicated Server as a hosting facility to others. The license on some control panels, such as Ensim and Plesk, are limited to a determined number of hosted domains.

The price for five domains license is not the same as the price of a 100 domains license, usually billed monthly, quarterly or yearly. Consider all these aspects in the moment of purchasing your own Dedicated Server because a mistake selecting hardware and software, or not paying attention to the inclusion of unlimited licenses and/or free backups facilities may change drastically your internet development plans or the available budget assigned to this investment.