Re: [cobalt-users] Product inquiry

["Steven Werby" <steven-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Joseph.  Your reply was a lot more informative.  See my responses interspersed
below.

Andrzyczak, Joseph (J.) <jandrzyc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  Direct yearly costs of $1324 yr.... hosting costs (PLUS ISP costs of $540
> residential cable access)

In order to connect your server through your residential cable connection you'll need
to ensure that your service agreement allows that (probably not) and that you have a
static IP address.  I personally recommend hosting from a co-location facility.
Given the overview of the sites you'd be hosting, you'll be able to do so for a very
reasonable cost.  And you'll have power protection, climate control, fire protection,
redundant routers, redundant backbone connections and facility security that you
won't likely have from your residence.

> Current actual DEALER cost for 8 sites $1164 a year. My own
> business/personal account bring total to $1324 a year. Total sites hosted =
> 13(small profit margin. Purely a volume of clients game)

You are very close to being able to justify co-location of your own RaQx on a cost
basis alone.

> No. Currently I have 8 clients and would like to host about 15-25 MORE small
> business/personal websites.  (I am a Reseller, but clients don't know that).

Now you definitely will be better off co-locating your own RaQx.  If you have full
control of your server you're more likely to be able to install the software you
need, you don't have to worry about the number of sites your provider is packing onto
the server, etc.  Of course, you'll either be responsible for applying patches and
upgrades or need to find somebody who can.

> Current situation is I am spending more than I feel is necessary to host my
> own business accounts. If I did not utilize my Reseller account I would be
> spending  over $400 per year in hosting charges for my own accounts. It is a
> violation of my Reseller contract to run separate subwebs off that account
> for anything other than Web Reselling. The Domain forwarding charges alone
> run me $160a year. I would like for each account to have there own cgi bin
> and control panel.

Out of the box, the RaQs allow the server admin to enable/disable CGI by site.  The
site admin can put CGI files in any directory they want (not just cgi-bin), but
that's not an issue for me.  With a little hacking you can even limit them to the
cgi-bin directory if you want.  As you probably know, there is a GUI for each site
that allows the siteadmin to add/remove/edit users, create mailing lists, etc.  I
don't give my clients access to it, but it can be useful.

>  Bandwidth is not a high priority to most of my clients,
> due to fact they are local business whom just want to be on the web because
> "everyone else is" mentality.

Then you should be able to find a co-location facility that can host your server for
a price that will make you happy.

>  The clients I host do not pull much bandwidth.  I host, design, register
> domains, administer and maintain most of the sites for them.

If you don't need much bandwidth you should be able to co-locate cheaply.  And you
don't need IPs for each site unless each site needs anonymous FTP or SSL.  A lot of
providers charge for IPs so don't get more than you need.

> >Would the server you'd be leasing be a RaQ2 or a RaQ3?
>
> Which ever would be most cost effective due to type of service I provide.

I have RaQ2s.  Be aware that they run on the Mips architecture (which isn't highly
supported), while the RaQ3s run on x86 architecture (highly supported).  Also, I
think the difference in support b/w the RaQ2 and RaQ3 will be very noticable over the
life of your server.  Just my opinion.  I'm happy with my RaQ2s, but you may consider
looking at the RaQ3.  If you assume the life of your server will be two years then an
additional $1,000 in fixed hardware cost is $41 a month over the life of the server.
You probably don't need much RAM and you can always upgrade later, but I'd recommend
getting at least 64 MB even if you project your usage will be light.

> 1. Your experience and skills
> The only server dealings I have experience with was a Half-Life Game server
> that I left going 24x7. A friend asked me to set it up for him due to my
> outrageous system configuration (back then). I'm 30 but can still learn new
> things and quite enjoy it. Due to Flash 4, and am learning ActionScript and
> JavaScript. I currently register and administer domains through
> BulkRegister.com

If you haven't already, I'd spend some time looking over the archives to get a feel
for the kind of server administration that most people end up doing.  You'll have to
install Cobalt upgrade/patch packages which is easy and can be done from the GUI.
There are also packages for installing MySQL (a database program I recommend) and PHP
(a very nice server side scripting language often used in conjunction with MySQL) and
some other programs.  You may find a need to install other programs which you'll have
to install from RPM or source.  You may also need edit server configuration files
from time to time.  You can usually find answers on this list, the list archives or
from a lot of very friendly and helpful list members.  There are even people who are
willing to take on bigger jobs for a reasonable fee, including myself.   <smile>

> Traffic levels are low due to type of sites hosted. Only a few get over 200
> hits per month, and then those pages are optimized for extremely quick load
> times.

Chuck was nice enough to post an attachment of a matrix of some co-location options.
You'll notice most provide a base monthly traffic allotment of 20-40 GB.  I suspect
that will be more_than_enough for your needs.  Do your own estimates to make sure.

>
> Only CGI will be forms, image upload script and a Perl shopping cart.
>
> None of my clients use databases yet that I host. I have no experience in
> that. Been lucky.

I think you'll eventually find that some of your business clients will want database
support.  MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/) is free unless it's being used as part of a
commercially sold software package.  I use it.  Lots of others on this list do, too.
You'll probably want to install it and get familiar with it so that you can offer it
as a value-added service.

> By "better" I meant more for a person just entering into the server side
> world. As I said, advertisements make product look easier that they are to
> actually use.

Cobalt claimed that it could be setup in under 15 minutes out of the box and I agree.
You're not doing anything real fancy so you'll be up and running in very little time.
It's designed to do basic webhosting and it does it well.  A lot of people try to get
it to do more than it's designed to do and then get frustrated and complain.  It can
do a lot more than is advertised, but it's silly to think that a $1500 box is just as
capable of an enterprise solution as a Sun box.  Hope this helps.  Feel free to
contact me off-list if you like.

Steven Werby {steven-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx}