What about a different cohosting arrangement? I've heard some good things about DollarHost - http://www.dollarhost.com/. They're a Vancouver outfit. Of course, if you need the ability to be physically at the server, this is right out. However, maybe there's a local PICLIST member who'd be willing to help should something go wrong with the server. -Randy Glenn Measure twice, cut once, curse, discard. Repeat.================================================= PICxpert@home.com - PICxpert@yahoo.com http://picxpert.dyndns.org Not that the site works yet, of course... ================================================= -----Original Message----- From: pic microcontroller discussion list [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of James Newton. Admin 3 Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 7:36 PM To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Subject: [PICLIST] [OT] The future of piclist.com piclist.com faces a challenge in the next few months. That is, just piclist.com.. none of this affects the PICList mailing list as hosted by MIT. I'm going to have to scramble to find a new connection to the internet for the servers around the first of the year. Keep in mind that piclist.com rides along on the same connection my other (few) "paying" servers ride on. The piclist.com server is an NT box that I slapped together and have improved with donations, etc... from PICList members. It's been fun. It looks like my current co-hosting situation is going to go bye-bye. I have to move my office and there is very little choice for internet access in the available sites. My options at this point are: - DSL: I don't like it. I don't care what anyone tells you, its not faster than cable and it is NOT reliable. Nothing you run over 30 year old unshielded copper wire buried in the ground is reliable. I tried it at the house and it didn't work worth beans. For occasional access to the internet for your wife and kids, it is probably fine, but not for a server. However, it is cost effective, available at most locations and may be my only choice. - Cable modem: Won't be available at any of the new office locations until 1st quarter next year. allegent.com is the ISP and they want about double what I pay now for much less access. At my home, cox@home works, but does not allow servers. cox@work is very expensive and doesn't allow servers, but... Cox has a "T1 times 2" service for a few hundred a month. Hummm.... - T1 Frame Relay: Starts at $700/month $5000 install and only gives me 128Kbps. What a rip. - Pay someone else to host the site: Don't forget, I use lots of ASP pages and a huge SQL server database. So far all the services I have talked to are A) unreliable in the opinions of their own users B) Don't support what I need, or C) cost almost as much as the connection would cost. I'd like to have it on a cox T1 at my house and move the office and all the servers there, but I can't quite swing the financing... The T1 would be about $165/month more than what I have in stable hosting contracts on my own servers right now. There is also an insane setup fee which would take all the "spare" money I have and wipe out my fund for a new PICList server. But it would give me massive bandwidth, 7 separate IP addresses (no more virtual hosting, maybe add a Linux box again), I would have more time to work since it would be at home, etc... So, how can I make $165 more a month? The best thing would be if I could pick up another good commercial web hosting contract separate from the piclist.com site. I specialize in low cost development of tricky little dynamic content pages... not heavy graphics, but special content. I have lots of experience in ecommerce, customer support/service, and research sites. Other than that, here are some things that I DON'T WANT to do: =WEB HOSTING PICList members have always had the ability to host their entire homepage sites on piclist.com free of charge... and that will not change. Here are some examples: http://basic18.piclist.com http://ng--944.piclist.com http://epicis.piclist.com Notice that there are no "ads" or nav links at the bottom of the basic18 site... Also, being including in the search engine at piclist.com is a good thing. We are getting lots of hits, getting indexed by each of the major search engines about once every two weeks and so your page has a better chance to be seen if people search the site for a subject that you have a page about. http://www.piclist.com/techref/stats/exsum.html I haven't been willing to give people ftp access because that does require some time to administer (setup ftp logins etc..) and presents a security risk which has to be monitored. Maybe that's something that would be worth a few bucks a month? I doubt it. mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=I_WANT_FTP_WEB_HOSTING_FOR_CHEAP =ADVERTISING ...and No, I am NOT getting paid for advertisements on the piclist.com site. I just put up things that I think are exciting and that people browsing the site should see, no matter what page they are on. Most of them disappear if you log in as a member. I don't want to have piclist.com influenced by any advertiser, but if many small advertisers came forward, it might not be so bad. What do you think? mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=TAKE_THE_MONY_AND_RUN mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=SEVERAL_SMALL_ADS_IF_NECESSARY mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=BETTER_FLAKY_THAN_COMMERCIAL mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=BETTER_DEAD_THAN_SOLDOUT =SPONSORSHIP Well... I really don't like this one. I don't expect people to do things without a return on investment and I expect that any sponsor will influence the site in the direction of their special interest. Not good. Pay me to develop and host some other site and piclist.com can ride along on the same connection. =SUBSCRIPTION I could charge for access to the archive, etc... but I won't. Not nice. Violates my "free access to free information" rules. =eNEWSLETTER How about a news service that emails you links to PICList posts and new site content that matches your area of interest? The customization of the free info is what gets paid for. That could be subscription based or advertiser supported (or either at the subscribers option) I would have the next couple of months to write the code for it and start collecting payments... PayPal does subscriptions now, mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=I_WOULD_PAY_FOR_AN_eNEWSLETTER mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=I_WILL_READ_ADS_IN_A_FREE_eNEWSLETTER mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=I_WILL_ADVERTIZE_IN_A_PIC_eNEWSLETTER mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com?subject=eNEWSLETTERS_JUST_ANNOY_ME =OTHER? Anybody have any other ideas? Do you know a company that has a need for a specialized, highly automated, dynamic content website that could provide the needed extra contracts for my other servers? P.S. Just a reminder, this is about piclist.com NOT about the list itself. Also, piclist.com will remain on the air and remain completely free, and probably unbiased by advertisers. --- James Newton, Admin #3 mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com 1-619-652-0593 VM 1-208-279-8767 FAX PIC/PICList FAQ: http://www.piclist.com or .org -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads