Re: NETFIRMS DISASTER

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

| Thank you for your thoughtful response.
| Much needed insight into what us newbies are unaware.
|
| Chuck
I must admit that I am somewhat of a "hosting newbie" too.  I stayed with the 
same NT host for three years before deciding enough
was enough as they never upgraded their servers.  I then surveyed 150 hosts 
over a period of 3 months and with everyone there is
always a catch.
-Uptime / Upgrades (Hardware)
-Service (People)
-Value (Dollars for Resources)
After trying a few "too good to be true" hosts, ironically including CIHost, my 
conviction now is that it is best to trade a
little value so you don't have to trade uptime or service.  For a few dollars a 
month, I sleep much better knowing that my site is
still running smoothly.
|Virtual server = shared
|server, since dedicated servers are usually way out of my price range.  :)
|
|Daniel Gwozdz
OK - I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't having the wrong conversation.
You can get low-end dedicated servers for $200-250/month, so if you do websites 
for others, it wouldn't be that difficult to get
8 - 10 people together and have a really powerful setup for yourself (Dialtone, 
Rackspace, Catalog), if you wanted to spend the
time administering the server.  A few hosts offer "high capacity" solutions 
which essentially place 10-15 people on a server vs.
300 - 400, though I have no experience with these packages.  Maybe it would be 
better at that price to just arrange for a
dedicated...
Anyway, my comments have probably drifted sufficiently off topic, so I'll hit 
send before I move the conversation any more off
track : )
| ----- Original Message -----
| From: "Boatbuilding Ring" <boatbuilding@boatbuildingring.com>
| To: <ringlinklist@gunnar.cc>
| Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 10:11 PM
| Subject: Re: [ringlinklist] NETFIRMS DISASTER
|
|
| >
| > 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 : )
| >
| >
| > | ----- Original Message -----
| > | From: "Daniel Gwozdz" <smage@together.net>
| > | To: <ringlinklist@gunnar.cc>
| > | Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 9:04 PM
| > | Subject: RE: [ringlinklist] NETFIRMS DISASTER
| > |
| > |
| > | >
| > | > If you're going to pay $99, it's more or less a small step to pay $160 
|for a
| > | > virtual server.  (That's what I did.. can't wait until register.com 
|updates my
| > | > DNS away from nasty NetFirms.)
| > | >
| > | > Daniel Gwozdz
| > | > The Water-Cooled Volkswagen Ring - http://www.wcvw.org
| > | >
| > | >
| > | > > I too had Ringlink set up on Netfirms and due to endless problems with
| > | > > the sendmail, I moved to catalog.com that another member recommended.
| > | > > I'm very happy there and have had no problems with it. However in 
|order
| > | > > to get the free hosting, you must register a new domain with them at 
|the
| > | > > price of $35 a year. To move an existing domain there cost a one time
| > | > > fee of $99.