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You tell EV1 that you're taking your business elsewhere, you take your business elsewhere, and you tell your friends to stay the hell away from EV1 as a hosting company.

I'm not a hosting customer, but I am a dialup customer. The initial news that they've paid their protection money to SCO annoyed me, but then I remembered why I signed up with them in the first place.

Back in mid-2003, they suffered a transformer explosion and fire. Their backup systems kicked in, and they could have easily gotten away with letting the whole thing pass. But they didn't.

They brought in two backup generators -- one to run things, and one as a backup for the backup. That ain't cheap -- it was a 3000 kVa transformer that exploded, and that sounds like an awfully large item to replace (times 2) in 12 hours -- especially since the explosion happened at 7pm local time, when Generators-R-Us is probably closed for the day.

But that's not all -- instead of sweeping the whole mess under the rug, EV1.net's senior technical personnel were on the message boards with up-to-the-minute updates throughout the ordeal. They even posted pictures of the aftermath. That takes some guts!

So they paid SCO's mobsters. Disgusting, yes, but I see it as insurance... like having a plan for a second backup generator in case the fail-proof first backup generator fails. The chances of SCO prevailing are slim, but non-zero... just like the chances of the backup generator failing.

Stay with EV1, folks. They're victims, like you... they're just trying to limit the damage.

You tell EV1 that you're taking your business elsewhere, you take your business elsewhere, and you tell your friends to stay the hell away from EV1 as a hosting company.

I'm not a hosting customer, but I am a dialup customer. The initial news that they've paid their protection money to SCO annoyed me, but then I remembered why I signed up with them in the first place.

Back in mid-2003, they suffered a transformer explosion and fire. Their backup systems kicked in, and they could have easily gotten away with letting the whole thing pass. But they didn't.

They brought in two backup generators -- one to run things, and one as a backup for the backup. That ain't cheap -- it was a 3000 kVa transformer that exploded, and that sounds like an awfully large item to replace (times 2) in 12 hours -- especially since the explosion happened at 7pm local time, when Generators-R-Us is probably closed for the day.

But that's not all -- instead of sweeping the whole mess under the rug, EV1.net's senior technical personnel were on the message boards with up-to-the-minute updates throughout the ordeal. They even posted pictures of the aftermath. That takes some guts!

So they paid SCO's mobsters. Disgusting, yes, but I see it as insurance... like having a plan for a second backup generator in case the fail-proof first backup generator fails. The chances of SCO prevailing are slim, but non-zero... just like the chances of the backup generator failing.

Stay with EV1, folks. They're victims, like you... they're just trying to limit the damage.

goto Rackshack.net and you'll get the 'official' word (and a redirect to EV1Servers.net)

For some reason there seems to be a lot of confusion about this.

Agreed. It really depends on how you define the Internet. (As weird as that sounds.) I can walk out tomorrow and (with adequate money, which I unfortunately dont' have...) buy some fiber and run 10 Gbps Ethernet over it. The technology exists today.

It really depends on where you draw the distinction between LAN and the Internet, but the trend seems to be running everything over Ethernet nowadays. I'm waiting for someone to bring a new 10GigE backbone online and run something like this.

5 Gbps really isn't a lot. Companies like RackShack chew through several Gbps on a daily basis, but over more than a dozen connections and with thousands (if not millions) of different TCP connections.

There's nothing stopping you from using 10 Gbps tomorrow. Might cost a lot to implement, and you might have a devil of a time trying to generate 10 Gbps of intelligent data, but the technology's there to pump out 10 Gbps. 5 Gbps really isn't all that earth shattering.

Verisign does not deserve to be a "trust company". This sitefinder issue is just the latest in a series of unethical moves by verisign, dating back at least the "godaddy domain expiration letter" scam.

The sooner we slay this beast, the better.... With that said, I recently found out about a heck of a deal "Everyone's Internet" is running: "$25 SSL certificates". It's obvious that as a reseller for GeoTrust and as a webspace provider for small biz, they know that a ton of Mom & Pop shops that would jump at one of these in a second, even if profits from online sales were small, because a "secure order" page is great for their image.

On the other side, I've been using GoDaddy for years.

Down with Verisign.... We don't need you anymore.

Ten SSL certificates cost you $3000? Rackshack do them for $25 a piece (total of $250).

On one hand, Verisign wants us to believe they are sufficiently trustworthy to extort as much as USD1595.00 from us for a handful of 1's and 0's (SSL Certificates), and on the other they expect to be able to get away with the dispicable, annoying business practice of hijacking users' web requests? This is annoying enough as it is with opportunistic larrikins buying up misspelt domains, without the custodian of the database abusing its' position by returning effectively forged replies to queries for domains which do not exist. Reminds me of their recent foray into the domain 'Back-Order Domain Acquisition Service business.

I guess with competitors closing the gap by offering virtually the same thing for a fraction of the price, they must be getting desparate.

No kidding. Not to mention the fact that just about anybody knowledgeable enough to be reading slashdot doesn't need to pay Register.com obscene prices for domain renewals in the first place, even with $5 off. Hell, RackShack is selling domains for $5 period, not $5 off $35 like the "winners" of this suit.

No kidding. Not to mention the fact that just about anybody knowledgeable enough to be reading slashdot doesn't need to pay Register.com obscene prices for domain renewals in the first place, even with $5 off. Hell, RackShack is selling domains for $5 period, not $5 off $35 like the "winners" of this suit.

to be wanting to try to repair something like that on your own (well, at least not having a professional do it)...

Ever see a transformer blow up? Check out these pictures of the remains of one.

Bahahahahhaha..
I just sent that post to all my coworkers at www.rackshack.net. Hilarious.

Im going to go shoot myself now

would be a Good Thing

Of course you think it would be a Good Thing, you want Free Software. People who want to sell lots of prescription drugs think it would be a Good Thing if we paid for those. People who want time off to take their pets to the vets think that mandatory leave is a Good Thing. Others think it would be a Good Thing if government subsidized blow jobs.

Unfortunately, it's just another case of taking money from many for for the benefit of a few.

And would it really be more economically efficient? How would they decide which free software to develop? You might want an Outlook replacement for e-mail, but Microsoft's lobbyists might want to have something to say about it. Oracle would squash any attempts at making a better database. Think about it.

It's tempting to think that an "organized" process of development would be more efficient than the seeming haphazard system now in place. But the system's very haphazardness is what makes it effective. People develop the tools that are useful, because that's what they need. Companies happily subsidize open source software when it's worthwhile, but there are a zillion justly unsponsored projects for that one. So the system isn't as haphazard as it appears, and any government planning process would not only become a politcal football, it would also be slow as molasses. Just read your damned tax return form, that'll give you a hint of what a programmer would have to go through to get his project approved.

Remember, we want Free as in Speech, not as in Beer. This suggestion is just free beer.

Of cousre, the natural response is that what you really want is for the government to simply give money to kind-hearted developers who will choose their own projects and standards, and make great free stuff available for the rest of us. Unfortunately, the reality of government is that once it starts giving out money, you find people lining up to collect it who have no business being there, and anybody who would be affected by it, positively or negatively, would be pulling strings and corrupting the process.

If they just wanted to throw a few million a year at some university or something to see what they came up with, then fine. But even that is subject to politcal machinations, and I think you'd be disappointed with the results. Free Software is alive, thriving and prospering, and it's a fantastic phenomenon. That's reality. Suggestions like this are simply dreams.

Sorry, this is half-pure bollocks. Companies can easily distribute via P2P ... Nobody said you'd have to use the "official" client. Many bigger software installers download the bits and pieces they need from the net. There's absolutely no reason why you wouldn't be able to put a P2P technology in there instead of simple http gets.

Even if you don't go the P2P route, look at the many dedicated server providers out there. If your tech staff is half-way decent, they can set up a "simple" fileserver in a very short amount of time ... And at prices of $105 for 700gb burstable @ 100mbit/s (rackshack.net) or $99/1000gb burstable to 10mbit/s (unitedcolo) or even full 10mbit/s for $350/month (and similar deals at other places), I'm sure you can get a decent price for your needs.

The poster stated a few megabytes to 30000 users. Let's say "a few" is 10m in this case. that's 300gb. One of the above servers is enough for that ... and if you need more, just get another one; or pay the overuse fees of $0.50-$1.50 per gb, whichever will be cheaper for you). Of course you'd benefit by knowing in advance how often you are going to push these files, and how many downloads you expect, so you can plan accordingly.
Even at a million users, we'd have 10 terabyte of data to be transferred. Take 20 of the above servers and add more as you grow -- possibly from different providers and some good DNS load balancing. It's really not that hard.

True, there are ISPs (akamai, for example) that take almost all the work off your hands. They also charge quite a price for their services; It all comes down to whether you have enough money to pay for that kind of service.

For $100/month you can get a box at Rackshack with 60GB of hard disk space all to yourself. Plus 400GB/month transfers which should be more than enough. Granted, the $100 deal is only for a Celeron 1.3GHz box, but faster machines are available for a little more money.

I've got one of those servers with them now, and their support is really quite good, and the connection has been rock-solid.

Whoops, pasted the wrong link in there.

I meant, on THIS page, at the bottom it says $1.50 per additional gig of transfer. Heh.

If I pay $0.25 per GB I'm sure those companies can get an even better bulk deal.

--

Some of the things you're asking for:

• PHP,
• MySQL,
• raw log files,
• FTP,
• decent bandwidth (~10 GB),
• around 300 MB disk space

Are available from almost any host. The competition out there is fierce and I wouldn't be surprised if you could get this for $12/year. But for that price I'd expect pretty hit and miss service (get two plans at different providers, copy data between and plan and keep control over your DNS if you need to switch!)

Some of the other requirements you requested will probably 'bump you up' a hosting level:

• the ability to configure my server somewhat (htpasswd, htaccess),
• crontab,
• SSH,
• POP accounts,

Most semi-decent shared plans will have those features.

Also, you may want to consider a Virtual Private Server. The host server will run several VPSs. Each VPS will get its own IP, memory and will share disk IO and bandwidth. You would get root access with the ability to install your own software, compile your own code, set up cron tabs, init tabs, etc.

There are a few companies that are offering VPS services now, including my own, Rimu Hosting. And our VPS plans start from $29/month.

Whatever you do, A good place to do some research on this is Webhostingtalk.com They have a 'requests' forum that you can post your requirements in and people will reply with offers. You can check the posters profiles and search for meantion of their outfits on the forums to guage how reliable they are. BTW: WHT is owned by Rackshack IIRC (And if you're after dedicated server hosting Rackshack is pretty decent).

I've used RackShack for the last year. They are a little more expensive than you listed ($99/mo), but you get your own machine (Celeron 1.3, 512MB RAM, 60GB drive) and 400GB of monthly bandwidth.

- Tony

I've been using Rack Shack and have been very happy with the service. They have a very interesting way of selling hosting, they build a bunch of servers, post what they have to their site and you can order and be up and running that day.
The only weird/bad thing I've found is that by default they enable telnet by default. Obviously it's easy enough to turn off but IMHO it shouldn't even be an option.

Their support has been decent (I say only decent, since it typically takes them a half day to get back to an issue) but they've always dealt with issues well, and never ignored any. Their uptime has been 100% as far as we can tell for over a year now.

When you figure the cost of the hardware, these guys are essentially giving away the bandwidth, which sort of makes sense given that they appear to be buying it at $1000 per 100 Megabit from Cogent.

Rackshack was selling Geotrust certs for $29. Had this story been posted a day or two earlier you could have gotten in on it :). They seem to be selling them now for $49, which is still *much* better than you'll find from say Thawte/Verisign. They've worked in every browser I tried, though I believe I just saw someone say they don't work in Opera. Oh well, small price to pay to save $120+ on a cert.

Rackshack.net has a link to a $49 QuickSSL certificate. I haven't used them, but it sounds like a good deal.

Rackshack.net has a link to a $49 QuickSSL certificate. I haven't used them, but it sounds like a good deal.

"When Users Attack" ... I guess this gives a whole new meaning to being 'slashdotted'. Sorry man, we really mean no harm.

We come in peace. Take me to your lizard.

How about another hosting provider, such as freeservers, or webpipe, or rackshackor one of the gazillion others? Maybe they actually spend their money on having more than one server so that they can handle a day of bursts on one of their sites... geesh.

No it wouldn't! Check out RackShack, you can rent a PIII/1gHz/512MB RAM/40 GB HD dedicated Linux server with permission to transfer 400 GB per month (not a typo!) for $100 per month with no setup fee.

This stuff isn't that expensive, if you know where to look. :)

Hate to say it but this guy has a great point. For less than $12K a month I could analyze, comment and link my ass off. (And go home in my Porshe each night.)

Scenerio:
My kids really suck up much of my free time, and my job is about 45-50 hours a week -- still I could most likely eek out about 10-15 hours of "hobby time" each week....My "mad money" could support about 400 gigs a month bandwidth I think....If I were to get together with 3 or 4 people in my same situation -- we could easily run a site like LWN....Or play in a garage band...Or make quilts....Or run a soup kitchen....Hell -- why is it nowdays that everyone running a website thinks they have to make a living from it. Does not anybody make a hobby from this type of thing anymore? Some of my fondest memories of the past came from running my BBS for 10 years. I could buy a whole bucket full of bandwidth for the cost of 5 phone lines.

It you were to pay for a Dedicated Server at RackShack, it's cost you $99 (plus a one-time setup of approx $200).

Since that $99 buys 400 Gbyte/month of bandwidth at RackShack, distributing 100 GB would not only not cost "many times more"... it would cost exactly the same $99 as 10 GB.

Of course, there is the minor issue of their AUP prohibiting distribution that infringes copyright... but if it were 10 or 100 GB of something you has the right to distribute, 10, 100 and even 400 GB would cost exactly the same, if you used RackShack!

Just to give one more example, stepping up from the bargain basement to Verio's Dedicated Hosting (which happens to be how amy own website is hosted), you'd pay $395 per month which includes 50 Gbytes of bandwidth. Verio sells bandwidth in $150 GB allocations for $150, so 10 GB would cost you $395 and 100 GB would cost $545. That happens to be a 38% increase, which is hardly "many times more".

FWIW, I got a great deal at Verio in the dot-com bust and they sold me an older dedicated server at approx 1/2 of the normal rate, so in my case going to 10 GB to 100 GB would approximately double my bill. (my site uses about 15 Gbyte/month, and it's slowly and steadily growing as the site expands and more people find it)

There are thousands of other companies on the net offering hosting for larger and higher bandwidth sites.... but here's at least two solid examples that flatly disprove the absurd notion that 100 GB costs a lot more that 10 GB.

sometimes this does not help. I for one lease a server from rackshack and sell hosting accounts on that server to others under the name of zortera. If you search for zortera on a spam list you will not see it, but rackshack may be on that list. my point, try to find out yor hosting company's upstream provider and see if THEY are on the spam lists.

Oops that is Rackshack.net and not rackshack.com (I will forego my /. cool idea commision fee for that one.....Sorry taco.)

P.S.....I do have 50 karma to burn so mod away (I will empty out my kids penny jar if I have to buy them back.... But since I wont use paypal....I will have to put them in a box and UPS them to the front steps of VA.)

You might check RackShack.net. They offer a RAQ4i for 99/month. The rules are basically no DoSing, no Pr0n. I've been very satisfied with them.