Nakijo
fReemade
an angel in Bas-Lag?
Posts: 50
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Post by Nakijo on Oct 20, 2003 18:20:33 GMT -5
I can offer something similar to Loose. but my servers are MS based. and I have never used PHP or any of that, just ASP and ASP.NET.
Mine are probably more stable than Loose's, given they are production web servers that already host a number of sites without problems.
BUT (oh, you knew it was coming, didn't you?) the reason I didn't mention this before is that my business can't really afford to support anything for free. (we are too new and little). So I'd have to charge you.
Then again, it hadn't occurred to me until just then, but maybe that would still be a good deal for you given exchange rates with the Australian dollar...
Of course, that depends on you having any money to start with!
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Post by Doul on Oct 21, 2003 2:31:37 GMT -5
Here's the full email i got from Loose (thanks for the offer, even if we don't take it:)):
There are a few things you should know about my site before you make a
decision. I run it off my home computer using Linux and it uses a
dynamic DNS system. What that means is that it binds a domain name
(example: loosecannon.my-ip.org) to my IP address. That way I can run a
complete server with web and email and everything from my own computer.
The downside to that is that most dynamic DNS services that you get have
weird web addresses that they assign you. I could get something called
mieville.my-ip.org or mieville.no-ip.net or something like that. They
all add something in there. If you are really into doing this you could
register a domain like mieville.com or something (if it isn't taken
already) and bind it to my computer. However, that is something that
would probably be best left to later until the server is up and running
smoothly.
One last thing is that I normally use my laptop for everything so my
home desktop computer (that the site would run from) is almost always
left on and running. If I was running a website for you I would make
sure to never turn it off but I can't guarantee about power-outages,
computer problems, etc.
Other things you want to consider are connection speed. I have a cable
Internet connection but who knows how fast or slow you guys over in
England will be able to connect to me. We could test that out for a
bit.
So, to sum things up:
-with me you don't have to pay and if you need extra features added to
the server itself (PHP, CGI, etc) I can put whatever you guys need on
there. ---The downside is that the connection might not always be
stable or the connection speed might suffer from those outside North
America, and my ISP might find out I am running a server and kill it
(highly unlikely).
If you do I will need a good day or two of work to set up and configure
the server. I can use that message board I showed you before and give
you guys some e-mail addresses as well.
uhm, anyone got any thoughts?
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User
Wyrman
Posts: 12
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Post by User on Oct 21, 2003 3:34:54 GMT -5
i would suggest just getting a normal host there are good free ones about that offer alot, then visit dot.tk to get your baslag.tk or whatever there you can have three .tk urls in one account that can forward to different places one say to the site one to the forum and one somewhere else and on each url you can have 5 e-mail addresses example: admin@baslag.tk webmaster@baslag.tk doul@baslag.tk user@baslag.tk staff@baslag.tk Thats the url more or less sorted for you. For hosting what do you want? |
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Post by Clarkesworld Books on Oct 21, 2003 12:27:15 GMT -5
I just want to say thanks to those who've been coming forward with information about hosting.
A few questions:
Nakijo could you have php on that server? I don't know about the others, but I find php much easier to work with. How much would you have to charge? If you don't want to post that publically, email me at books@clarkesworld.com.
Loose, so you are saying we could register a domain and point it to you without problem? Domain registration is fairly cheap, and honestly, if we're going to do this, it should be done right... with a proper domain name.
-Neil
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Post by Doul on Oct 21, 2003 13:41:58 GMT -5
@neil: You're my "main man" on this project:p. As i'm not partiularly experianced in the web, what solution do you think we should take? Of course, as i've said countless times before, ALL suggestions are welcome:)
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Nakijo
fReemade
an angel in Bas-Lag?
Posts: 50
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Post by Nakijo on Oct 21, 2003 18:38:21 GMT -5
I've checked out some info on installing PHP on a windows servers and it looks easy enough, though way more complicated than is necessary. But, of course, the real barrier is that I'd have to check with my partners. Adding PHP to one of our servers is obviously a policy issue. Although, we've been talking about getting into PHP anyway...
<rant>Tell the truth, though, that installation stuff looks like a pain in the butt. What is with open-source? Haven't they heard of installation programs?</rant>
Don't mind me. I've never understood that stuff...
As for price, I have zero problems posting that (hoorah for free advertising). We charge $180 (Australian) for full domain hosting for 12 months. That includes all the running around to sort out your DNS, getting your domain name held with a responsible registrar (which can be a real pain or was for one client over the last two weeks). It also includes as many sub-domains as you like and as many email accounts as you like. The only coda is that if your bandwidth starts to get seriously heavy, or you start to seriously choke the hard drive (unlikely!) then we might need to re-negotiate. But, hey, we're friendly guys!
Mind you, we're not a hosting company per se. We usually only host sites that we designed. Hence we don't have any fancy hosting management software at this stage.
I dunno. It's an option.
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Post by Clarkesworld Books on Oct 21, 2003 22:53:02 GMT -5
$180A is about $125 US dollars. That's a little over $10 a month. Based on what I've been seeing, that's pretty good. for what you have described. PHP is a handy language, so if you happen to get it installed, that's great. I meant to ask before if there was database access (dare I mention MySQL?) I know what you mean about the installation on some of these open source projects, but in my experience, it's all been worth the initial investment of time. Don't know what I would do without Apache, MySQL, and PHP.  -Neil |
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Post by LooseCannon on Oct 21, 2003 22:57:24 GMT -5
@neil - Once the domain is registered you just have to point the DNS entries to my server. In this case it would have to be pointed to the dynamic dns server I use as my IP isn't static. There are a bunch of dynamic dns services out there and I have used a couple but the ones that are free require you to use one of their domains (no-ip.com, dyndns.org, etc). I found this web site that that offers you the ability to point a domain that you registered to a dynamic IP server (me). It is $24.95 annually in American dollars so that isn't a lot of money. Another one calling dns2go is also very reliable. They charge $19.99 American a year. One more I found is located at dyn.ca and offers you a free service with yourserver.dyn.ca or you can pay $40 a year to have your own domain name point to the dynamic IP address. I also found a few free ones that look fairly reliable. Anyway as I said before, the downside to getting me to host it is potential stability issues and the speed of the connection if all of a sudden you guys start getting 100,000 hits a day  . |
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Nakijo
fReemade
an angel in Bas-Lag?
Posts: 50
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Post by Nakijo on Oct 21, 2003 23:14:57 GMT -5
"Based on what I've been seeing, that's pretty good." Well that was kind of the point when we started the business... ;D Glad to see it's working! As for PHP, yeah, it's handy. But I've always found ASP easier. Presumably because I used to program in VB. Since then I've used Java occasionally and I now often program in C#, but PHP still doesn't cut it as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately, it's one of those open-source vs Microsoft things (which is terribly one-sided, shouldn't it really be O-S vs Closed Source , or whatever the appropriate term is), in the long run that means that no one ever compares the languages without crapping on about platform and how Bill Gates is a sod. Personally, I think it is obvious that Bill Gates is a sod, but I don't see the relevance to whether or not one programming language is better than another. Regardless, I'll soldier on... Database access for sure. We have SQL Server 7.0 and MS Access on the servers already. One of my partners is playing with MySQL currently, and struggling to get anything done apparently. However, the big question with MySQL is whether this classifies as commercial use or not... Obviously this forum and associated fansite are unlikely to relieve suckers of their money with my spam. (although, who knows, maybe we could sell cool Bas-Lag tshirts and mugs...  ) So the question is, would my company providing MySQL on a server constitute commercial use? I'd have to check the licensing pretty carefully, but I think it probably would. In which case, who's going to pay the $500 (US) licensing fee? Obviously, as a service we offer, my company pays. But just as obviously, we are not going to pay that for only one site to use it, and we don't currently have any other customers requesting MySQL... "Don't know what I would do without Apache, MySQL, and PHP" Use MS probably! |
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Post by Clarkesworld Books on Oct 22, 2003 10:30:48 GMT -5
In my case it's not so much anti-microsoft, but moreso what I used when I started. Microsoft really didn't make anything reliable. Apache, MySQL, and PHP never gave me any heartache, so I've been loyal in the past few jobs I've had. Didn't help that I started while working for a university... and they never have money. So the price was also right.
I can't imagine that we'd be considered commercial for this project, but you might be since you're selling service to us. I'm sure PHP can be interfaced with SQLserver, just haven't done it myself.
Loose, I see your point. It looks like we'd be better in the long run going with Nakijo's service.
What's the next step here?
-Neil
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Post by Clarkesworld Books on Oct 23, 2003 10:57:53 GMT -5
I probably should have looked earlier, but I spent some time poking around some of the other CM fansites. Seems that there are a few good ones already. runagate-rampant.netfirms.com for example. Before we go much further, it might be a good idea to consider working with some of these folks. -Neil |
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Post by Doul on Oct 23, 2003 11:24:56 GMT -5
pretty much all teh current fansites are obsolete and haven't been updated for ages, inclduing runagate rampant. Luis (who runs Runagate Rampant) says he will be moving his site from netfirms soon and then he will be able to update it more often. But until then there are pretty much no good CM fansites on the net...
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Post by Clarkesworld Books on Oct 23, 2003 15:58:18 GMT -5
There will be. We should be able to get some historical information from those folks though. I noticed that they were a bit behind. Thanks for the information about what Luis is up to. I suppose you've been in touch with them about linking to here? -Neil |
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Voramorak
Wyrman
Beware the hunter's gaze...
Posts: 29
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Post by Voramorak on Oct 23, 2003 19:48:58 GMT -5
I'm still alive!!
Suggestions for the website--
A New Crobuzonian AND an Armadan calender
Species descriptions (as best we can ascertain. I've drawn a few pictures and could get them scanned if you'd like artwork for them)
Fanart page
Whatcha think? I could help work on the species descriptions, with input from you guys, of course!
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Post by Doul on Oct 24, 2003 4:45:31 GMT -5
Neil: lol, i haven't actually  Luis was on the forum a while ago and told us about his site. But yeah, we should get some info from those guys. More ideas for Fansite: Character profiles. Book summaries (chapter by chapter) Pics of the book covers Links to interviews. Other recommended reading (China did a "top ten weird fiction" list for the guardian once.) uhm, all other suggestions welcome. so whats the descisions? We're going with Nakijo? |
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) So the question is, would my company providing MySQL on a server constitute commercial use? I'd have to check the licensing pretty carefully, but I think it probably would. In which case, who's going to pay the $500 (US) licensing fee? Obviously, as a service we offer, my company pays. But just as obviously, we are not going to pay that for only one site to use it, and we don't currently have any other customers requesting MySQL...
Luis was on the forum a while ago and told us about his site.