Is mt Dedicated Server really "Dedicated"?

[invulnarable27]

Hello,

I am in the process of renting 3 dedicated machines for my website. I have read stories of customers having unauthorized websites hosted on their personal Dedicated Server without permission. I am using VPS hosting and probably share a server with 20 other domains. Just a guess. However, when I log in to Active Directory, I am the only User displayed. VPS hosting can do everything a Real server can.

My other reason: I have run both Windows 2008 & 2003 on my Windows 7 machine using Virtualbox. The hardware components reflect the exact same hardware as my Windows 7 machine.

1. Can't a shared VPS hosting account do the same thing? Reflect the overall server's hardware even though running at a quarter of speed?
2. Can someone please tell me how to detect if I am given a Shared server?
3. How to see if there are unauthorized accounts/usage on my Dedicated Machine?

Only difference I see on virtual versus real, is I am not able to access the BIOS in virtual.

[NinjaRicer]

Well, let's see..

1. If you mean showing the same exact hardware as the physical computer in software, then yes, it should be able to.
2. Not sure how to do that.
3. Also not sure how to do that.