Self Hosting
Ages ago, I used to host my own server. I was running everything off an fast ASDL account with Speakeasy.net. I had a small box sitting down in my basement that I rarely touched and it just chugged along with very little maintenance needed. I had a battery backup on it to survive the ocassional powerflicker and beyond that, everything just worked with very little downtime.
The issue I ran into was spam related. Spammers were able to take down my box (via mail and/or blog commenting). I got comment spammed once so bad that it basically trashed the harddrive into a click of death. That was the first time my domain went down. Never did figure out what happened the second time and by then, I had enough. I just had a box online and web-rat.com was for the most part, just sitting there idle.
About a year ago, Verizon FiOS (Fiber Optic) was finally available in Pittsburgh and I was hesitant to switch since I had a solid (yet, expensive) experience with Speakeasy. Switching to FiOS meant putting my website back out onto some random shared server and I was just cringing at the thought. I went looking for VPS instead. In order to feel like I had more control over my VPS, I made some changes in my setup. I refused to install a mail server and I wanted DNS external to my VPS so that I could be free to move to whatever service I wanted as quickly as I wanted.
Mail server wise, I switched to Google Apps. I'm a big fan of gmail anyway and doing this has just made my life easier. It also allowed me to reclaim an email account that I had long since abandoned since the account was just drowning in spam. There's still a difference between a gmail account and a google app account for some reason, but they're minor and not worth complaining about. DNS server wise, I switched to DNSMadeEasy.com. The VPS was initially at Slicehost and the recent switch from Slicehost to Viviotech was a money / value situation. I was getting more value for my buck at Viviotech and I've been really happy with the service / uptime. Doing all added bills, but the bottom line was still cheaper than what I was doing when I was on Speakeasy's service and I upgraded my internet at home which is silly fast.
That being said, there have been times I've been considering switching to a commercial FiOS account which would give me 5 IPs again and being able to host at home again. I would no longer be limited hardware wise and bandwidth would be crazy on a 35 Mps / 35 Mps Fiber. Not really so concerned about getting spammed again since all my spammy services are someone elses problems. I would still have an issue with http service, but the Verizon FiOS router has a built-in throttling controls. I can set the max incoming for a particular port and slow down the service so it doesn't go overboard.
VPS is a nice inexpensive solution, but it still doesn't hold a candle to a dedicated server unless you're willing to throw money at it. Keep in mind, I'm not even thinking of Amazon or Rackspace Cloud services.
Ben Nadel wrote on 03/03/10 2:11 PM
At work, we're going to start experimenting with some more Cloud type hosting. Apparently, it's like a VPS, but one you can add disk space and processing power to on the fly. I wonder how much it will fee like a nice cross between VPS and Dedicated.
Lola LB wrote on 03/04/10 6:35 AM
How much does commercial FiOS cost?
Robert Zehnder wrote on 03/04/10 8:01 AM
There is definitely something to be said for being able to put your hands on your own server. The biggest down side to VPS's is generally RAM unless you don't mind the extra little dent in your pocket book and I am definitely not a fan of shared hosting.
Todd Rafferty wrote on 03/04/10 8:29 AM
@Lola:Up to 25 Mbps / 25 Mbps - $104.99 (1 IP address)
Up to 25 Mbps / 25 Mbps - $124.99 (5 IP addresses)
And other prices too ( http://smallbusiness.verizon.com/products/internet/fios_pricing.aspx )
Joshua wrote on 03/03/10 11:25 AM
I love having my own server. Love it!