Virtual private servers. Cost effective?

[Eric Dunbar]

On 01/01/07, Matthew East <mdke at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> Hiya again,
>
> * Eric Dunbar:
> > Thanks to everyone who's responded to my queries. My current setup
> > isn't great but I can host my server for less than what it seems most
> > VPS hosts charge. The one big advantage they have is that their
> > out-going bandwidth is much higher than mine at home (80 K/sec) but,
> > on-the-whole, that's acceptable. I'd like to reduce my overall energy
> > consumption but that's not possible yet :-(.
>
> Out of curiosity, what's your reason for rejecting standard shared
> hosting? I've played around with a Linode server and now use shared
> hosting. For me, the only difference is that you don't get root on the
> latter and the former is cheaper, but that doesn't mean anything since
> you can install any software locally. I run a local copy of spamassassin
> to filter my email and it is beautiful.
>
> I blogged about my experience so far with Dreamhost here:
> http://www.mdke.org/?p=71

I don't really have anything against "standard" shared hosting. I run
my own server right now from my home ADSL connection and like the
control I have (plus, it means I have a 24/7 Linux machine that I can
use to play with by loggin in with X remotely and still remain in OS
X). When I saw that virutal machine for $10/mo my curiosity was piqued
but the virtual machine is probably not powerful enough. But, you've
now drawn my attention to another interesting option -- the cost of
your hosting company is roughly equal to what I'd pay in electricity
costs alone (not even counting the costs of my own server) and they
have a fantastic amount of storage space.

Hmm. A tough call. I like being in charge, but, this would get rid of
one of the things that's limiting the utility of my site somewhat --
slow outgoing bandwidth (provided it has full PHP support). Plus, part
of the reason for wanting to upgrade my server (right now it's a
G3/266) to a PIV 1 GHz+ is that I wanted the excuse to get an Intel
box so that I could run Windows XP at a decent speed (though, I guess
the junker PIII 450 MHz I have is fast enough to run ArcView at a
decent speed (and, that's all I really use Windows for anyway ;-)).

Thanks, Eric.