Re: [cobalt-users] Need advice on Colocating or Self Location

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'll reply inline at only a few spots <smile>...

"E.B. Dreger" wrote:

> I prefer 65 grad Fahrenheit.  Humidity control is also a good
> idea, although nowhere near as critical as temperature.

Good air-conditioners do humidity control to some extent.  If he's only
going to have one RaQ, 70 is fine; I actually wrestled between that and
75.

> One won't notice any speed improvement between DS3 and above.  In
> fact, rarely is there much speed difference between DS1 and DS3.
> Latency and IP stack play a much larger role than most people
> realize.

I said "advertise the benefits".  When all is said and done, at the end
of the day it's what the consumer thinks that controls his actions, not
what's real <wry grin>.  I started my first hosting company with 128mb,
but that was in the days when the local college had 56k for the entire
campus.  My partner and I started that company I referred to with one
T-1 with a very good provider and a very good contract; the line NEVER
had unscheduled downtime.  NEVER.  But we were lucky.  And I'm a firm
believer in watching "headroom" (never use above 60% of capacity without
ordering more <smile>).  But still, there's nothing to beat the
advertisement of "Multiple OC3s" in the mind of the client <smile>.

> An OC3 provides more _capacity_, not more speed.  And, when one
> has 10 Mbps bandwidth, one does not have even single-DS3
> capacity.

Yes, I know.  We limit each colocated system to 5 mbps unless they pay
for me.  But more is available if they need it.  Without ordering a T3
and waiting for the telco to isntall it... that's an advantage.

> A good colo also separates its customers via VLANs to eliminate
> sniffing, and runs anti-spoofing on each virtual interface.  All
> it takes is one cracked machine (not all colo "rackmates" run
> secure machines) with a sniffer to play some serious hell with a
> network.
> 
> Recall also the poster who inadvertently bound his/her colo
> provider's DNS server IP addresses and brought everything down.
> Another classic case of a clueless colo that didn't understand
> how to segment their network.

Now I finally ralize what you mean.  Inflow isolates us other cabinets
from the others in just this way.  When we decide to put in our own
router are you available for consulting so we can protect our clients
from each other?  Might be soon now <smile>.

> Run a sniffer such as tcpdump to check up on _your_ colo.  If you
> see traffic that is neither from nor to your machines, it's time
> for a little network fixing. :-)  [Yes, that's a shameless plug.

Yes, I guess you are <smile>.

> I'd say it really depends on what scale you want to play.  Small
> scale, colo is often better.  Large scale, go it on your own.

Jay spent $35,000 for his new colo room.  Plus his monthly nut of about
$5,000.  He's got 3,000 hosting customers.  I think he'd have done
better with a cabinet at Inflow.  Just my opinion.

And for those of us with less than a quarter-rack full of machines,
going with the small colocators (like us <smile>) is probably a more
cost-effective solution.

> Another thing to consider:  There are many competent, yet
> unemployed, network gurus looking for jobs.  (No, I am not one of
> the unlucky unemployed.)  You might be able to strike some
> balance between hourly, retainer, salary, et cetera, and get
> excellent service -- without hiring full-time people.

Yes.  But how do you find the right ones?  Any suggestions?

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Linux and Cobalt/Sun/RaQ Consulting
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672, Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 778-9980  *  fax: (702) 548-9484