Re: NETFIRMS DISASTER

["Boatbuilding Ring" <boatbuilding@boatbuildingring.com>]

OK - I think I missed your original question, so I appologize if my reply was 
"out there".
My post was simply a reaction, as I've learned that you don't get anything for 
free forever, and the reason to "pay more than
absolutely necessary" is to guarantee the resources will actually be available 
to back up the plan which you buy.  Virtual account
CGI usage is not often quantified by either buyer or seller, so if you look for 
something too good to be true, it usually is.
With Catalog, are you talking about their ~25/month plans?
Or when you say "virtual server" do you mean this in the technical sense of the 
term (i.e. not to mean virtual account.)?
I have heard about people having good experiences with their dedicated servers, 
but I haven't heard much about their virtual
hosting plans.
From: "Daniel Gwozdz" <smage@together.net>
To: <ringlinklist@gunnar.cc>
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 11:42 PM
Subject: RE: [ringlinklist] NETFIRMS DISASTER
|
| What chuck said.  I was shopping for 3 key features : CGI, SSI, and Mailing
| Lists.  On top of that, I have about 25 meg of images archived on my page, and
| was planning on (now installed) adding a discussion board upgradeable to 
|MySQL.
| I have 100 Meg now (should be good for 3 or 4 years, then I'll have to
| upgrade.)
|
| Your requirements may vary.  :)
|
| Daniel Gwozdz
| The Water-Cooled Volkswagen Ring - http://www.wcvw.org
|
|
| > | That is what you get at catalog.com.
| > | A virtual server.
| > | Why pay more if not necessary?
| >
| > The question is "what do you actually get"?
| >
| > The answer is easy if you needs are few (e.g. serving static html
| > pages with low traffic.)
| >
| > The answer is more difficult if you need to run CGI/Perl or if you
| > need things like SQL, PHP, etc. to run well, especially if you
| > expect lots of traffic.
| >
| > The difficulty arises from the fact that:
| > 1.) it is very difficult to know ahead of time how much CPU time a
| > particular script will take when implemented on a particular
| > platform (e.g. RH linux on a PIII 600 server), or how much it will
| > take in 6 months, so you don't know exactly what you need from
| > a host.  Of course, peak use is what is critical (i.e. you can only
| > use your share of server resources, or say 1/400th of what is
| > available on the server, during the peak usage time for that
| > server.)  The cheaper the package, the more accounts will be on the
| > server, and the less powerful the server will be and the less often
| > the server will be upgraded.
| > 2.) hosts most often don't specify exactly how much CPU and resource
| > use you get with virtual hosting accounts, so it is a gray
| > area.  Almost always these issues are addressed on a case by case
| > basis when an account "disturbs the normal operation of the
| > server"....
| >
| > So far so good with Ringlink on a $30/month account though : )