[sllug-members]: Host my own, or pay someone?

[Jeff Day]

Hi Chad,

Xmission is a fine hosting choice and they provide great service. 
However, if you need total control over your server you need a virtual 
host. I like Advantagecom.net and have used them for 6+ years and 
referred many to them. Though their rates have increased recently they 
are still cheap compared to Xmission. You can find their rate page for 
virtual server here:

http://www.simplywebhosting.com/plans-vps/index-vps-x.shtml

For under $40.00 a month you should be able to get what you need.

With a virtual server you have full root access over a (virtual) Fedora 
Core 2 server. You can load and compile any software you need. Their 
service has been great and I know of no outages for us over the past 6+ 
years.

FYI, I have no connection whatsoever with these folks--just a satisfied 
user.

Alternately,  Google "virtual web hosting" or checkout one of the many 
sites that rate web hosting companies.

Xmission may now offer virtual hosting--don't know for sure--but last 
time I looked they did not.

Good luck,

Jeff

Chad wrote:
> Hello there linux fans!
>
> I'm about 2 inches away from my 'go live' for my business (shameless
> plug http://www.pauselivetv.com ).  Right now it's being hosted on a
> residential dynamic Comcast IP (my home linux server).  By the time
> it's actual Go Live day hits I'd like to have it hosted correctly, on
> a Commercial IP.
>
> So, I'm looking at hosting providers and Commercial ISP's.  I've not
> completely decided upon these 2, but this is what I've narrowed down
> to in my browsing:
> Comcast Workplace vs Xmission
>
> Here's my problem, and hopefully you great folks can help me with 
> deciding:
>
> I have Comcast as my home ISP, and pay ~60/month for the internet and
> extremely basic analog cable TV.  That's ~4mb/sec down and ~384kb/sec
> up.  Comcast workplace will give me a static IP, ~6mb/sec down and
> ~768/sec up, no port restrictions (though I don't have any with my
> residential either), email blah, and other blah (the blah are things
> that are of very little interest to me).   All at ~$110/month.  If I
> went this route I'd drop my residential line, and use the Workplace
> account for my home internet; meaning I'd see a new output of ~$50
> additional bucks a month.
> The benefit of this option:
> I host my own.  I can do pretty much anything I want with my server,
> including extremely niceties such as NFS'ing image directories, and
> MUCH MUCH more.  I have pretty much the world as my oyster as far as
> what my server includes; and what seems very important to me is
> basically unlimited storage (currently capped at 750GB, due to my HD
> sizes ;) ) and unlimited bandwidth.
>
> My other option:
> Minimum account I'd even consider at Xmission costs me ~$50/month.
> Obviously bandwidth far exceeds that of what I'd have piped into my
> house as Xmission would host it on their >450mb/sec connection.  I'm
> not sure how limited I'd be with what I can do with the server, but
> I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be as easily tweaked as my own home server
> (it's a decent IBM eServer P4 series), at least not for the $50
> package.  I do get their excellent supply of geek knowledge!  And if I
> keep my residential Comcast service, and add this, I'm at ~$110/month
> here too; so money washes out if I go with the $50/month hosting
> package at Xmission.
>
> So, in the end, anyone have any responses on which one to go with and
> why?  Or even better, another option to throw into the mix?
>
> I linked to the site at the beginning of this message, so hopefully
> you can see what I need and see what the site requirements might match
> with (with other hosting providers and such); but, basically I need at
> least 2 mysql db's, Apache with PHP enabled, >/=PHP 4.x, ~300mb
> storage (for now), and if possible a SSL cert.
>
> Any ideas?  If I'm not clear on something, please ask, I'll be happy 
> to clarify.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Chad