For complete control of the web server hosting your web site, you will need your own dedicated server hosting. You choose what runs on the server and how secure it is. The two main types of dedicated servers you will find upon looking is a server running either Linux or Windows as the operating system.

Linux Dedicated Servers

The free operating system of Linux is installed on these servers, as the name implies. The main configuration setup of software on a cheap linux dedicated server is to use Apache as the web server, in addition to PHP and mySQL. On these servers, root access will be given to control all aspects including php setup configuration, operating system patches and apache add on settings. Linux servers are typically cheaper than the windows servers, as the operating system does not cost the service provider anything.

Windows Dedicated Server Hosting

Windows servers are normally running a version of the Windows Server operating system. You will normally see the newest version of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 running on these servers. Unlike the Linux server, these are typically running IIS as the web server and SQL server for the database side. A Windows dedicated web server is able to run a WAMP (Windows, Apache, mySql, PHP) configuration. Windows servers do typically cost more because windows is not a free operating system, like the Linux OS is.

The owner of the server will ultimately need to decide if they would like Linux or Window on their dedicated server, as it depends on their server needs. Different requirements will lead to different server selection. Those looking for a cheap dedicated server solution will want to purchase the cheaper Linux servers. Anyone running open source PHP applications will almost always want to select a Linux server as their first option. Windows server is the only way to run .Net applications that are built to use a SQL Server database. In the end, the choice of what server you pick will be based on your own web site hosting requirements.

You will need to decide if you want a managed or unmanaged dedicated server after selecting a server operating system. If you want to handle everything including patches and configuration, you will want to go with an unmanaged server leaving all the responsibility with you, while a managed server will take care of this for you, including server backups for a lot of them.