Best IPTV Server For Streaming: How To Select

You have questions about IPTV Servers. Mainly, you’re probably wondering how to select the best IPTV server for streaming.

Luckily, this blog post is for you.

Here we’ll cover why you’d want an IPTV Server for streaming, things to consider, and frequently asked questions about IPTV servers.

What is IPTV and how does it work?

Two acronyms help explain how it all works: IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) and IP (Internet Protocol).

Traditionally television content is viewed through cable, satellite, or terrestrial. However, IPTV delivers television content over IP networks so that viewers can stream from any device with an internet connection.

So, how does IPTV work when it comes to servers?

There’s an analogy we like to use for helping explain how IPTV servers work.

Imagine that each packet of data a server sends to your network is like a car on the highway. If you have a 1 Gbps port, imagine driving a car down a one-lane highway. With a 2 Gbps port, imagine a two-lane highway. A 20 lane freeway will be the equivalent of a 20 Gbps port.

These lanes (ports) all have different capacities for the traffic that can be handled on it at any given moment. If you have too many cars for the number of lanes in your highway, you get congestion. And we all know how frustrating sitting in bumper to bumper traffic can be.

Let’s switch the analogy back to reality. Bumper to bumper traffic is like experiencing “buffering” when streaming content. There’s the constant struggle of stopping and going.

The bottom line is that you need to match the highway you build to the traffic you anticipate. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a bunch of angry drivers (in our analogy, users,) suffering buffering, lags, and disconnections.

Packets move from the IPTV server to the TV over Internet Protocol (IP)

How To Select The Best IPTV Server For Streaming

Let’s bring this back to the practical information on selecting the best IPTV dedicated server for streaming.

The first thing to know about selecting the best IPTV server is that you’ll want an unmetered dedicated server.

Why go with unmetered? Because some days you’ll have large fluctuations of visitors with different video streaming requests.

For example, imagine streaming a sporting event like the World Cup. With a metered server (that is, a server that is not unmetered), you’ll receive a specific amount of bandwidth measured in terabytes per month.

If you use more bandwidth than is offered on your plan, you may receive large bills.

When we say big bills, we mean HUGE. Some companies will charge $0.20 / GB if you overuse a few terabytes in bandwidth usage, which could translate to thousands of dollars.

That’s one of the main reasons why you should get an unmetered dedicated server.

And then there’s the chance that your bandwidth – and ability to stream content – might just get switched off right during programming if you exceed bandwidth limits.

You don’t want that to happen.

But with an unmetered dedicated server, you can use as much bandwidth as your port of choice can handle and you will not be charged for additional bandwidth, no matter how many terabytes of bandwidth you use.

How much bandwidth is necessary for IPTV Servers?

Most hosting companies provide a certain number of lanes (Gbps) to use. For example, 2 Gbps. Those are all the lanes you get to use and if you need more, you will have to upgrade your plan.

With Maple-Hosting’s True-Unmetered Dedicated Servers, you have the choice of either getting a server with a dedicated 1 Gbps (lane) port or a server with 2 Gbps (lane) port or more.

If you get a port that is 2 Gbps or more, you’ll be assigned a dedicated 10-lane (=Gbps) highway. As long as on average you don’t use more than 2 lanes (or the amount of Gbps you purchased), you’re only going to be charged for a 2 Gbps port.

This way, if you experience traffic surges and end up using 3 lanes for a short time period, that’s okay and your users will never even know it happened.

You want that type of flexibility with your Gbps port so that if more bandwidth is required, traffic can move freely and without buffering.

So, how much bandwidth is necessary for IPTV servers? It all depends on how much traffic (bandwidth) on average, will flow through the highways (Gbps).

Lucky for you, we make it really easy. We’ve created a one-of-a-kind server recommendation wizard.

This wizard will ask you a few simple questions and will then calculate the amount of bandwidth and RAM you need, as well as provide a dedicated server recommendation so you can get started right away.

What should I consider when selecting the best IPTV server for streaming?

One of the most important things to remember is that not all bandwidth and networks are created equal.

For example, you could get an unmetered 1Gbps port, and want to stream content to India but because the routing of traffic behind the scenes is of poor quality, the network will not perform well and you will experience high latency.

This is often the case with what’s called “volume networks”. Premium bandwidth is not cheap, so always remember that you get what you pay for.

Cheap unmetered dedicated servers will almost always use volume networks and deliver poor quality bandwidth.

We designed The Maple Network to be highly available and incredibly fast. We’re able to do this by using the Noction Intelligent Routing Platform (IRP), which improves the network performance by adding intelligence to internet routing decisions.

You can think of it as a smart GPS that always finds the shortest and most efficient highway to take in order to bring your packets to their destination as fast as possible.

Noction IRP improves our network performance by up to 50% by bypassing congestion and packet loss.

Picking the right network is the most important thing for IPTV streaming so make sure you pick a quality network.

What are the next steps to getting the best IPTV server for streaming?

If you’re looking for a server to stream IPTV from, you now know that you need an unmetered dedicated server.

Check out our award-winning Unmetered Dedicated Server today. Simply select the configuration that’s right for you or use our simple server recommendation wizard.

Maple-Hosting is a privately owned hosting company that has been offering premium Netherlands Dedicated Servers to partners around the world since 2008. We focus on providing an exceptional hosting experience that allows our customers to focus on their businesses. Our customers love us because we’re reliable and provide peace of mind year after year.