<VV> Hosting Services -- LONG -- DELETE IF YOU'RE SICK OF THE TOPIC

[Steven J. Serenska]

>
> At my work our internet service provider (the company that we go thru to connect to the internet) charges $30 a month for web hosting service, with a 50 meg limit.  That's $360 a year.  that was too much, when you consider we got UNLIMITED server space and a TON more features, for $144 a year.  My IPS provides 5 MEGS of space for $24.95 a month.  I opted for UNLIMITED from another company for $66 a year instead.  Just because that's what you're paying, doesn't make it the best value.
Tim:

I'm sure your math is correct, and what you describe is the going rate 
for space on a simple server designed to serve up HTML, photos, videos, 
etc. for websites.  However, are the prices you quoted above for a 
dedicated server?  Or are you talking about a shared arrangement?

Assuming it's the latter, you might ask your provider if your contract 
allows you to:

 1) Deploy an executable on the server
 2) Write something to the machine's registry
 3) Host webservices
 4) Have root access.

As Bryan points out, you don't normally get these sorts of 
capabilities/permissions for $10/month on a shared server.  I'm not 
familiar with what applications CORSA is hosting, but I assume that 
CORSA needs access of this type of access/permission for the apps it 
runs (e.g., a storefront for CORSA merchandise, processing 
dues/membership renewals, etc.).

I am on the BOD of a small museum in my town 
(http://www.bristolstatehouse.com).  We pay $4.95 a month for web 
hosting and I am tickled to death about it.  I host 
http://www.serenska.com/idealgarage (Corvair Content!) for a similar 
amount of money.  However, the moment I or the museum needed to take 
credit card orders for something, we'd be off those hosting arrangements 
in a heartbeat.

In real life, I own a company that provides technology and marketing 
services to banks and insurers.  We write and deploy software on a 
series of dedicated servers that we lease.  I recently thought we might 
be paying too much for our servers, so we researched alternatives for 
hosting a smaller product we will soon be launching.  Because our new 
product will require that we take customers' credit card numbers -- 
something Lon Wall and CORSA might need, for example -- there's no way 
on God's green earth we're going to process that sort of information on 
a shared server ..... i.e., a server over which we do not have 100%, 
lock-down control.  There are 10 other reasons why we can't run our 
business on a shared server, and I can describe these offline, if you 
would like.

The best price I could come up with in my research for dedicated, 
non-shared servers was $150 per month.  If Bryan is charging CORSA $900 
per year, then CORSA is doing as good as you can do in the current 
market, if my research is accurate.  As someone else pointed out, since 
CORSA's $900 per year also gets the attention of Bryan who actually 
cares about the hobby and the organization, then CORSA is way, WAY ahead 
of the game.

As a point of reference, I am also paying about $1,200 per *month* for 
one of the dedicated servers we lease.  The server was subjected to an 
onsite security and risk audit last year by one of the 10 largest banks 
in the country and it passed with flying colors.  I am ecstatic that 
this server is so *cheap*, all things being relative.  We lease another 
server for another company out of the same facility for $304 per month.  
The company controls the server outright and their clients' sensitive 
personal data is not accessible by anyone else.  They and I are both 
happy to pay that price.

I'm not saying my word is the last word on the subject and I'm certainly 
not an expert on everything (e.g., I wouldn't know where to start if 
someone asked me to rebuild a Powerglide....)  However, I do know 
something about servers and, if CORSA is paying $900 per year for a 
dedicated server, I believe we're doing as well as we can do.  If you 
are paying $10 per month for a *non-shared, dedicated server*, you and I 
need to speak.

As always, thank you Bryan for all the work you do.

Steven "hope this helps" Serenska

'65 Monza Convertible, 110/4
'66 Corsa Coupe, 140/4