Disadvantages of shared web hosting?

I am meeting with a client today and he has sent me some questions, one these is Semi-dedicated Server vs. shared server? If anyone can shed some light on this topic, I'd appreciate.

Tom

Since I assume you're not the person who will be hosting this client's site, I'll give you a rundown of the advatanges and disadvantages of both:

A shared server is a (naturally) a server shared amoung many clients. The disadvantage to this is typically fewer features and control over the server. The advantage is cost. I've never heard the term semi-dedicated, but I would guess it would be much like a "virtual server." A virtual server is like a shared server, but typically gives the customer more features and control over the server. The advantage is obviously more features and more control. The disadvantage is, not surprisingly, higher cost.

Depending on who you're hosting with, you need to be concerned how many users they are packing on to that one server. Also realize that if one client causes a problem with the server, starts hogging resources, or starts drawing a considerable amount of traffic, it's going to affect everyone on that box.

"semi-dedicated" sounds like some buzzword / marketing term to make shared servers sound better...

---John Holmes...