[TriLUG] Re: virtual hosting

[Scott G. Hall]

Jason Tower wrote:

>a buddy of mine and i are setting up a dedicated linux server to host our 
>domains for web and email (using apache and postfix virtual hosts).
>[..snip..]
>if anyone is interested in getting an account on the server let me know.  
>hopefully we can get enough people to keep the monthly cost around $10 
>or so per domain.


Jason,
It is a good venture, and I wish you well.  I tried this myself, and found
that cost-wise I could not keep up with the big-boys, and didn't have very
many customers.

I am now hosting my own websites - and my previous customers - on Fat Cow,
http://www.fatcow.com/plan/ at $99 a year with full FTP, telnet, PHP, ASP,
MySQL, JSP and compiled Solaris Sparc binaries; 100 MB storage, web mail,
SMTP & POP servers, email forwarding; search engine and shopping cart tools;
management charts; all on a Sun cluster farm (load balancing) with 3 DS3's
to the Internet.

Linux can certainly do all of this, but the administrative nightmare is one
I am glad to be rid of.  I did learn a lot trying though (I tried on a
UnixWare pseudo-cluster).  Especially programming remote maintenance of user
accounts w/service & usage charts, and building automatic repair scripts for
detected problems from logs and such.

As a comparison, Intrex is offering a similar service for $210 a year --
$329 a year to match Fat Cow's.

-- 
Scott G. Hall,
Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net