Virtual private servers. Cost effective?

[Jonathan Carter]

>> Have any of the sounder-denizens had experience with VPSes? Are they worth
>> it or should I stick with my own "bricks and mortar" setup which also
>> hosts a network file server?
> 
> I've been extraordinarily pleased with the reliability, support, management
> and general clue of Linode <www.linode.com>. I host my personal domains (me,
> Pia and a few family things) and two businesses on my Linode UML. Though it
> took a bit of work to set things up to run nicely in a somewhat RAM-limited
> environment (though I have 150MB now, thanks to Linode's generous upgrade
> gifts to loyal customers), I've found it quite capable of troublesome loads.
> 
> That said, it's really only worth going with a dedicated machine or VPS if
> you have the time and skill available to properly administer it. Otherwise
> it just ends up being a costly pain in the butt. Less costly if it's a VPS
> though. ;-)

Someone might also want to consider Xen virtual hosting. A very reliable
local ISP here does it for quite cheap:

http://shop.frogfoot.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=76_97

And you can have up to 512MB RAM on your Xen box. I share a Xen box with
a friend and it has been super stable. The downside is, that it really
takes someone who knows how to admin 'a real system'. There's no
cpanel-type of things, but it's real nice and cheap if you know what
you're doing.

-Jonathan