Dreamhost: Illustrious History and Ongoing Upgrades
In 1997, four undergraduate students from Harvard Mudd College – Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez and Sage Weil – got together and created Dreamhost under New Dream Network, LLC. They began with a single Pentium 100 web server named Destro with shared bandwidth on a single T1 line. Today, Dreamhost has grown to include over 1,500 servers, a full time staff of 70 and hosts approximately 800,000 web sites.
Dreamhost is particularly adaptable to the Linux Operating System. They utilize Apache as their default Private Server but you do have the option of, on their Private Server network, accessing Nginx, which provides for faster upgrades and configurations than Apache. In addition, Nginx uses less memory than Apache. Therefore, PS Nginx users will be able to handle much more traffic. Another Dreamhost PS option is Lighttpd, which is a very flexible web server that is secure, compliant and very fast. It is optimized for high performance environments. Lighttpd is used for heavy CPU-load functions and has a very low memory footprint.
There are also a plethora of upgrades that you can accomplish easily with Dreamhost. As one example, you can get their 24 hour e-mail support as well as blog and wiki support, which comes free with every hosting plan. Then you can upgrade to their Premium Support package, which includes all of the basic plan’s support features in addition to 3 phone callbacks per month and unlimited live chat, all for $9.95 extra per month. Another fantastic upgrade is particularly helpful for e-commerce websites. You can obtain a SSL (secure socket layer) Secure Certificate – which requires a unique IP address – for a nominal fee of $15 per year. In addition, Dreamhost lets you import your own SSL Certificate free of charge.
Virtual Private Servers are Dreamhost’s premium hosting solution designed for the ultimate control when it comes to how many server resources you use. Their Linux-VServer allows you to have your own private server virtually while protecting your RAM and CPU from all other users for the ultimate in stability and security. VPS is offered for as low as $15 per month and you can have more than one VPS running at one time. In addition, you can also add or delete VPS services from your account easily as the need arises.
Newer upgrades have made Dreamhost easier to use than ever before. In 2006, they introduced their new Files Forever feature. Control panel account holders can pay a one-time fee to upload and store files permanently on their database. Thereafter, even though you cannot delete the files from the system, you as well as anyone else you give permission to, will be able to re-download the files as much as you or they like. Dreamhost continues to add applications and functions to their packages according to the needs of their customers. This enables them to accommodate customers conveniently, completely and comprehensively.
Dreamhost started out as a little project by 4 undergraduates in 1997. They started small but now host more than 800,000 web sites. They offer exceptional features for their Private Servers as well as their VPS systems. Upgrades are ongoing with Dreamhost to accommodate their customers’ needs completely.