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

[Chad]

On 5/31/06, Adam Barrett <dragen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Chad,
>
> I went down this path recently too. Different hosting options,
> different needs, basic same problem.
>
> The conclusion I had was based on uptime. Obviously you will want to
> have a guarantee that your site is going to be up, and stay up.
>
> Erase any notions you have about Comcast and any memory you have about
> downtime. They are an on-demand service. Which means there is lag, and
> possible outage. They offer NO QoS at all. Not even on the workplace
> account. If it goes down there is no failsafe, there is nothing to
> help you stay in business.
>
> Hosting through Xmission will supply you with the backbone, a QoS, and
> uptime that is great.
>
> Talk to the boys at Xmission about what you can and can't do to the
> server. You mention one of your concerns is storage space, think
> realistically about what you will be using the storage for on the
> server. Don't mix you business with your pleasure (ie, music storage).
> Keep the business end of this deal, business. If you really need the
> 750GB for storage, well then I would think your site is a little
> heavy, but more power to you.
>
> Personally for business, I would go with Xmission (or other host) to
> make sure that my site will always be available to the end user, cause
> they dont care if it is hosted in your basement or in a warehouse,
> they just want to get to the site.
>
> BTW - Site looks good, I need to take a longer look!
>
> On 5/31/06, Chad <masterclc at gmail.com> 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
> > ______________________________________________________________________

Thanks for all the replies!

I definitely don't need the 750GB, that's just what I have piled into
my server (as you noted, it is for my personal use).  I just like the
idea of having total control which is why I mentioned basically
unlimited storage.  I don't like worrying about how much space I'm
using or how much bandwidth I'm at; but definitely see the advantage
of using a real hosting provider.  Always on, plus the backbone are
very inticing options.  I thought about just calling them and telling
them basically what I emailed you guys to see what their thoughts
were, but I didn't want to insult them by saying "I can do what you
can offer me, but for cheaper".  :D

The virtualhost sounds a lot like what I'm after, I'll check Xmission
and see if they offer that.  I'll also definitely check out the
mentioned links in these replies.

Thanks again!

Chad