Hi,

So I'm new to the forum obviously. Normally I'm on Web Hosting Talk (WTH) when I research hosters, but after 2 years of being away & now being bullied on there & the mod saying it was just a disagreement, I can see the forum has changed & they don't protect their members, so I'm hoping this forum is different & I can get educated answers plus FINALLY find my new hoster.

So I read the other thread in this area that asked what is virtual hosting. I'm not sure if he was asking what VPS means, but if he was, then I got it now. The Google definition doesn't say all of that, it talks about being able to use any software you want.

What I don't understand is the difference between VPS & semi dedicated. I only started learning about semi dedicated the other day.

I'm a loyal customer not to mention it's hard for me to switch from hoster to hoster when you have so many sites & e-mail addys, so I've been avoiding moving from my current hoster for 6 years, but this last bout of stress that's gone on for a month b/c of my time being wasted since their tech support is CLUELESS, has convinced me I have to move.

I'm on a reseller account with them (my first) & prior to that I was with another hoster for 5-6 years & they were (I think) a colo-cation host. They didn't use CPanel, they had their own backend.

My budget is on the low side, but based on the prices I see, I guess I've been paying a lot more & I'm not sure why. I know part of it is b/c I also have 6 dedicated IPs on top of the one that comes with the account.

The IPs were to keep the types of sites I have separated from one another if someone wanted to do a search & see all my sites. Now someone on WHT told me there's another way to avoid that from happening, so if that really DOES work, I won't need the IPs anymore which would be GREAT

The only reason I would be looking into semi dedicated is b/c when I FINALLY move over to Magento (it's a big move obviously), I know that a shared host won't work. I'm not even sure a VPS would work which is why I'm asking.

Unless the VPS is within my price range & of course managed, I'd have to stick with a Reseller account, but I want to be able to move up to VPS or semi dedicated when the time comes & not have to change hosters again.

Sorry for the long post, I figure it's best to give more information.

Oh & one last question, are hosters allowed to contact me here or via PM, or do I have to contact them like on WHT?

Thanks a ton