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How Much Do You Pay to Host Your Website?
DosGusanos asks: "I was curious how much people around the U.S. and around the world pay for hosting. Obviously size in cabinets/rack units/square feet, included features such as bandwidth, UPS/generator, management, etc. factor in. The configuration I am particularly interested in is three machines, one www, one search, and one database. The machines would be hooked up to a T1 and networked to one another over Ethernet. Anyone paying for colo or hosting in this same ballpark? How happy/upset are you with your provider?"
"How happy/upset are you with your provider?"
Two words: Rackspace Rules
I get DSL through Speakeasy and they allow hosting of Web sites. I pay $160/month for 4 static IPs and 768Kbps SDSL. Medium speed hosting and I host dozens of Web sites off my connection. Great deal!
PepperHacks - Hacking the Pepper Pad
Check out epinions.com for other people's opinions on hosting providers.
Sex - Find It
If you only want to use a shared dual T1, I don't think you need three machines. One good machine with a better internet connection would be a much better configuration for most applications. Space is expensive at most hosters.
Jan
but, Webhostingtalk's website is basically a forum with user reviews, recommendations, and gripes dedicated to exactly the questions you seek answers too ;)
Also, the WebHostingTalk forums have a dedicated forum subsection for having companies compete over you... it was somewhat amusing when I did so. I got like 5 responses within an hour, plus 5 or so e-mails. But then I realized that the bandwidth I'd require was much greater than I anticipated (or could afford), so I edited my post saying something like that. And they're still e-mailing me. Like once a week...
The same guys who host php.net and mysql.com mirrors have an absolutely amazing deal for website hosting. Ten bucks a month for full Unix development environment (with javac, gcc, crontab, and all that stuff), a real shell account, and a sweet webserver setup: PHP, MySQL, cgi-bin (with Perl and Tcl), anonymous FTP, SSL, and a whole mess of POP features. Plus, they have onsite UPS/generator, a gigabit backbone, and lots of other hardware goodies.
Running your own server loads of fun, don't get me wrong, but $10 a month for all this stuff seems worth it. Unless you really have money to burn, it's impossible to the same kind of performance out of your own server... Do you think Verizon will run a gigabit backone and Hubble power connector to my house for $10?
Hurricane Electric http://www.he.net/
You've just advised people to engage in a behavior which can justify their termination. Did you know that?
Just curious.
C//
I don't usually post but I'm very satisfied with my Johncompanies FreeBSD Box
I pay $65 / Month
- root on your own server
- Full FreeBSD Filesystem
- 2 gigabytes disk space
- 40 Gigs transfer / Month
- Firewall access
- Unlimited tech support
- We supply the hardware
I'm currently running a very kickass apache box with an incredible uptime (they've been down once and they weren't really down, just a network problem, 90% of my customers were able to still reach the sites)
I'm hosting over 30 domains on there, not low bandwidth either. And I'm probably going to be buying more boxes to setup a web serving cluster as the number of users increases
The support is fast fast fast. I get replies in less than 5 minutes in some cases.
http://www.johncompanies.com/
ask the sales team a few questions:
;)
Ask how many internet connections they have and what speed with each one.
Ask how many NIC cards will be in your machine.
Ask what your max Mbps is
(This always gets you put on hold) Ask what the machines bus speed is
Ask if RAM upgrades/HD additions are priced per month or if there is a one time fee.
Ask if they will search your box for illegal materials. (you be surprised how many said yes) That means you are not the only one with root. so throw them out of the list.
Ask if you get unlimited users accounts. (dell host caps you at 100 pops) thats not full service!
Ask what the minimum billing is for support. some have 30 min some have 1 hr.
Ask if they use a in house linux distribution.
Ask if they offer security bullitens and offer links to patches.
call there tech support before you sign up and tell them you are a customer. (play the dumb blonde) see how they treat you.
Ask your salesman for their cellphone. (that gets some laughs)
Look up the server companies IP block then hit em on ARIN and see if they own a substantial block or if they own one at all!!
Ask if you are your own dns or if you have to use theirs.
Ask if your on a virtual dedicated.
Ask what the levels of discount are per GIG over allocation.
Ask who owns them
Ask about offsite back ups storage., how far away is it?
Ask if you are allowed on their property
Ask the price of additional IPS
Ask if you can tour the facility
Ask if you can ethernet multiple boxes to bypass bandwidth fees.
Ask if you can host adult sites
Ask if your machine has a control panel that support insists you use. (cobalt!!! ahhhh!!!)
ask how long they have had a business license.
and last, ask about the spam policies and what they consider spam and what the fine is per message.
that should help with the fodder
pretzel_logic
$2/GB traffic
$.50/GB/day storage
$.15/minute CPU time (for scripts)
It's easy to track your usage through their website, and create multiple accounts with different privilidges. For any site with less than 100 visitors a day, this is perfect, because there's no monthly charge. I've maintained my church's website for 6 months there, and haven't exceeded $.15 yet.
nearlyfreespeech.com is cheaper, but they don't allow ssh (or telnet) access. This is a big downside for those of us who enjoy unix because of it's user interface ;)
Unfortunately, I can't help you if you need more bandwith than those guys can give. Good luck!
Free unix account: freeshell.org
Find one that looks adequate for your needs, then ask about it on webhostingtalk.com, to make sure it's reputable.
Free unix account: freeshell.org
Support also sounds about the same. Which would be fine, except I had a bad experience with them when they gave me a server with a bad hard drive. Bad hardware happens sometimes -- but they denied the problem and tried to blame it on me for quite a while, which shouldn't happen.
But most of the time I don't need them to do anything, and everything works well.
When I first signed up with HE.net, the $200 rate was for 1U or 2U of rack space, but I'm quite sure they sent me a card more recently quoting the same rate for 4U of space. I think they offered a half-rack for a really good price (maybe $400 per month?). Their rates might be cheaper now, or they may have different specials. You didn't say what size or shape your three servers are, so I have no idea whether your equipment could fit in 3U of space, or might need 12U or even as much as 21U. (A rack unit, or RU, is 1.75 inches vertically, by something like 26x39 width and depth, sorry I don't have the actual dimensions handy.)
They provide all the features of a good colo facility: enclosed, locked racks (so someone servicing a machine in another rack can't knock out your cables, as sometimes happened with other colo providers I used); 24/7 staffing and access if needed; UPS and air conditioning; staff that will power-cycle your server at no charge, and they even hooked up a monitor and keyboard to see what was wrong when my server's power supply failed, and they didn't charge extra for that. I think they also have the fancy oxygen-reducing and fire-suppressing equipment.
I was extremely happy with Hurricane Electric, by far the best of my three experiences with colocating a server in the area. They have facilities in San Jose and Fremont, California.
Beware: When I was shopping for colo services, I often found that the salesman's claims were not honored in the contract or in practice. One colo provider told me for THREE months that my outages were not their fault, then when I spent money and proved they were at fault, they agreed and allowed me to terminate my contract, but wouldn't make good on any promises (thankfully I did not sue, since they filed for bankruptcy several months later).
In some cases, you may be promised 24/7 access, but when you need access at 2am you find out that there is no staff from midnight to 8am and the on-call tech just refuses to come out because he's really tired and you're not an important customer. Or they promise redundant internet connections from multiple backbone providers, but they are connected to those providers through a single Pacific Bell T1 line (e.g. they had one T1 line that connected to a facility served by multiple backbone providers, but if the T1 line is lost, your connection is lost). And of course, with the domino of bankruptcies of colo providers, many facilities close with only a week's warning, and sometimes a facility may be closed and your equipment disconnected and shipped to another facility without your knowledge -- so your server is offline for several days, and then when you want to pick it up from San Jose, you find out it was shipped to Virginia.
Read the fine print in your contract.
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ Pleasanton California
Pair rocks. I've used it for years. They're rock solid, great customer support, and cheap. I recommend Pair to everyone looking for a domain. I also use Fatcow for one domain. Nice perks for $99/year, but the servers could be faster. Sometimes web response is slow, as is checking mail.