Upgrading hosting - advice needed

[tattoos]

Hi all, I asked this question over at the Google webmaster help forum but it seems that either no one knows, or no one wants to reply. Anyway...

A few years ago, I started my first site, I got a basic windows hosting package to begin with, then a few months later upgraded to the next level hosting package (still windows) so I could host multiple domains in the one account.
This has been working fine so far, although there are a couple of things that concern me about this setup, I have not noticed any indexing problems so I have not worried to much about it.

The domain I used to build the first site on became the root domain for the account, and any other sites I want to add, are added to sub folders in the main account, and domains are pointed to said folders.
This works, but I have noticed that when I check server response codes in some tools, the folder I have my "sub" sites in, shows in the content-location URL

EG: http://bit.ly/C3L8j

URL=http://www.example.com
Result code: 200 (OK / OK)
Content-Length: 15478
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Location: http://www.example.com/folder/index.html

Like I said, I am not sure if this has any sort of negative impact on a sites SERP's or not, so yeah.

The reason I want to upgrade hosting is because one of the sub sites has been steadily growing since I started it just over a year ago and now receives 10x more traffic than the main site, so I think it's time to get this site its own hosting. And that's where I need some advice.

The site does not use much bandwidth (around 20 gig a month) and is plain/static HTML, no database stuff, So I assume it does not need much server power to run it.
It does get quite a bit of traffic though, (From Analytics: Jun 1, 2009 - Jun 30, 2009 | 210,394 Visits | 1,551,874 Pageviews)

I have whos.amung.us installed on the site, and I can see that there are between 90 and 190 people on the site at any given time with an average of around 115. These numbers are somewhat of a concern me.
I have only had to ring my host once since I got the account, and while I was on the phone to them, I asked a few questions and found out that even though I get 1.5TB of bandwidth per month for the account (which I will probably never need), I can only have 100 simultaneous connections/downloads at any given time on all sites in that account.

I was somewhat reassured by the guy I was speaking to when he said that once a page had been fully opened, the connection is dropped, so having a few hundred people viewing a site is usually no problem if they are viewing fast loading web pages (which mine are).
I am not sure how many users it will take before people start being cued up and the site starts slowing down.

Anyway, I have decided to get a virtual dedicated server for the site.

My options are.

OS:
1. Linux: CentOS (4 or 5)
2. Red Hat Fedora
3. Windows Server 2003 - Add $6.99

I want to be able to use .htaccess to 301 non www to www, so I guess that counts Windows out of the equation.
So my options are 1. CentOS or 2. Red Hat Fedora.
From a bit of Googleing, I have found most people prefer CentOS for its stability, so I will probably go for that unless there are some good reasons to go for Fedora.
Any good reasons you know of?


Control panal:
1. Simple Control Panel Unlimited - $0.00
2. Plesk Control Panel 30 Domains - Add $4.99
3. Plesk Control Panel 100 Domains - Add $6.99
4. Plesk Control Panel Unlimited - Add $9.99
5. cPanel Unlimited - Add $9.99

I have no idea how plesk, cpanel and the simple control panel differ from each other or even what they do to make them worth the extra money, so any advice appreciated.

At the moment, with the windows hosting I have, I just log into my Godaddy account, and manage everything through there site (I guess this is the simple control panel), any files I need to upload, I do via FTP in windows explorer.
If adding cpanel or plesk will make life easier for me in the long run, then I may as well add it.
But as with choices, which one is better and why?


Ram:
256MB Guaranteed, 1 GB Bursted
512MB Guaranteed, 2 GB Bursted - Add $14.99/mo

I don't think much ram is required at the moment or if there will be a noticeable differance if I upgrade to the 512mb guaranteed, but more may be required in the future as I add to the site, so I will probably just go for the 512mb straight of the bat.


So far, I have decided on...
Server: Virtual Dedicated Server
Bandwidth: 500GB
Hard Drive: 10GB
RAM: 512MB, 2 GB Bursted

Need advice on...
Operating System: CentOS or Red Hat Fedora
Control Panel: Simple Control Panel, Plesk or cpanel.

I would also like any advice on the best way to implement the changes, to try and reduce any chances of being de-indexed, penilized or a drop in SERP's

To try and avoid any downtime to the site, I will probably ring Godaddy and ask if I can setup the hosting and upload the sites files before I assign the domain to that hosting account. (if that's possible)

So, is there anything I am overlooking? Anything you would do different, add or recommend?
As you can probably tell, I am rather green when it come to hosting, so any advice is appreciated.

Cheers
James

[4u-domains]

Pay more for a decent VPS or fully managed Dedi.
Can highly recommend www.wiredtree.com or www.surpasshosting.com
I have VPSs at both.

Go for WHM and Cpanel. It will make your life so much easier and you will really benefit from the ease at which domains are separated and you can apportion unique IPs easily to each of the main sites.

Most companies will even transfer the accounts ove for you, if the old ones are Cpanel based.
Certainly, you can set up your new server and place all the accounts over here one by one and access them live via the IP address and then change the DNS on the domains when you are ready.

The headache will be detaching some of your domains but it wont be too complicated and you will definately benefit down the line.
Your PR should remain the same if your content remains even on a new IP.

[jdk]

CentOS for Operating system and cPanel

Yes, you can assign hosting to the account and then later switch over the DNS. Your host can minimize the downtime by updating the server 24-48 hours before-hand.

[tattoos]

Thanks for the reply guys.
I ended up going with CentOS and cPanel.
I haven't switched the site over to the new sever yet (still trying to figure it all out).

I paid for it for two years (up front) to get the best price per month that I could afford. I sort of regret that now.

As I am a total noob with this sort of stuff and not wanting to stuff anything up, I asked GoDaddy if I could pay them to have one of there techs set it up for me, transfer my site over, make sure it was secure and working properly, then change the DNS.
They responded with...

Unfortunately, we do not offer server configuration services for unmanaged servers (servers without an Assisted Service Plan). You would need to upgrade to an Assisted Service Plan, where our Assisted Support department manages your server for you.

That would take the cost from about $40 per month to about $150 per month (I think). I cant afford to do that, especially for two years in advance..

Oh well, lesson learned.
I will try and find someone who lives in my area and pay them to come over and walk me through it, just to make sure I am doing it right and give me a few tips on tweeking and maintaining it.

The site that I plan to move over to the server is still running fine on the shared hosting account at the moment, so even though I would like to have had it done already, there is no real hurry.

Thanks again for the replies.

PS: Anybody living in south Brisbane that can help me out, message me

Cheers
James