|
|
|
|
There is nothing quite like a monumental computing cock-up to destroy one's plans for an evening.
I have a server, a homebuilt Pentium 4 running Linux, situated in a rack in Sovereign House, a server colocation facility in the London Docklands. It's a secure facility, which means I can't get there myself without making an appointment and coming during working hours. (And I live miles from that part of London, anyway -- it would take me at least a couple of hours to get there.)
I have just spent the best part of four hours talking to my ISP (the people who provide the rack space and network), because I made a slip and specified the wrong location for my root (system) partition in the partition configuration file (fstab). I carried out a routine remote reboot, and waited for the system to come back up again.
And waited, and waited ... and waited some more.
It is one of the most ominous feelings in the world when a much-relied upon server (responsible for my email, my web site, and those of half a dozen other people) fails to resurrect itself, for though one usually has an idea why that might have been, one can never be sure. Has a hard disk failed? Has the power supply surged and killed the motherboard? Did the software upgrade I did just before rebooting break something? Did I make a mistake in a configuration file? I fully believed that I might be charged on the order of £150 to call out an engineer to plug in a monitor and see what was going on. (I'd never have been able to pay that, so I'd have had to wait until at least Monday, and still probably been charged £50 or so.)
Very fortunately, in the end, I will only be charged £20+VAT for the privilege of using a semi-automated KVM over IP (keyboard, video and mouse over the internet) service. The actual fixing of the configuration issue took about two minutes. Getting the ISP to set it up -- and then fix it when it wasn't working -- and then fix it again because it stopped working -- took about three hours. A colossal waste of time.
I need a very stiff drink. Unfortunately I don't have any to hand, so I will have to make do with Diet Coke.
David
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
whats worse for me is i've always considered myself good with computers, but i understood very little of that...
surely, if you're at uni, you must be able to get you hands on a drink in short order, you can't live that far away from the nearest student bar!
Odi et amo: quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
Nescio, set fieri sentio et excrucior
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TBP said,
>whats worse for me is i've always considered myself good with computers, but i understood very little of that...
Oh dear -- I was actually trying to use layman's terms! In that case it's my fault, because I didn't succeed.
>surely, if you're at uni, you must be able to get you hands on a drink in short order, you can't live that far away from the nearest student bar!
Very true -- but I'm terrified of leaving my computer in case it stops working again.  Seriously, I tend to become a bit agoraphobic when I'm stressed out (as I am this evening).
The worst thing of it is that my parents use my server for email, and my father gets even more anxious when the internet or the email goes down than I do, as he doesn't understand how it works. Even if it's plainly not my fault, he usually blames it on me. So the main burden, whenever a technical problem comes up, is getting it sorted out quickly enough that he doesn't notice...
David
[Updated on: Fri, 26 January 2007 23:05] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
 |
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
|
|
|
How much does a colocated server in the UK cost, especially bandwidth?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am paying £39 (+ VAT) per month, including 2 TB of guaranteed bandwidth. The hardware is mine so I don't have to rent that, though there are lots of places that will rent that as well if you want it.
http://www.rapidswitch.com/
Rapidswitch Ltd. (also known as 49pence)
They are technically competent and have a good UK-based network and data centre (with an office actually on-site, during working hours).
Support has generally been good, today notwithstanding (and I think the reason it was incredibly time-consuming today was that their staff were only on call and they were themselves negotiating with someone else to plug in the equipment for them. They will go in for people with 'proper' service-level agreements. It would probably have eased the anguish enormously if I'd rebooted the system during working hours!).
For London-based hosting you won't pay any less than that (many places will quote you twice or even five times the amount). You might be able to find something similar elsewhere in the country for £29 pm, but you would probably get only a tenth of the bandwidth (and in many cases far less). Rapidswitch are probably the cheapest in the country on that front.
I use it, among other things, to run a virtual private network, so wherever I am I can connect to it and access the internet through it. There's easily enough bandwidth to do that. It's a godsend on the incompetently-run but extremely locked-down university network, as I can feel that the university isn't snooping on what I do (like visiting this site), and I get full, unfirewalled inward and outward connectivity from my desktop machine.
David
[Updated on: Sat, 27 January 2007 00:52] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hey now I dont feel so bad about what I am paying here in Minnesota thru Qwest as I have 1.5mb dsl for $27/mo and that includes the ISP! I can have 5mb if I am willing to pay another $10/mo. I am not sure of the exchange rate but I am sure that L39 is more than $50 so I feel fortunate.
I have never been told that I have exceeded my bandwidth either, so that is also a plus.
Ken
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's apples and oranges, I'm afraid, Ken.
Your bandwidth is almost certainly highly contended -- you're not guaranteed 1.5 Mbit all the time. You may also have a 'cap', above which you're not supposed to go. It's quite likely that 1.5 Mbit/s applies only to downloads; uploads are restricted to around a quarter of a Mbit/s.
My server's connection is limited only by the network card itself, which is 100 Mbit/s. That is both upstream and downstream, uploading as well as downloading. (At that speed it's usually the rest of the internet that is slower than you, not the other way around.) The cost covers the space it takes up and electricity, and this is worth having because it is plugged almost directly into the UK's internet backbone in London (with tens of gigabits/s of bandwidth available through my ISP alone). It's also much more reliable, unlike a home internet connection, which may grind to a halt any minute. £39+VAT per month is actually a little under $90 USD a month, including VAT (value added tax), though the exchange rate probably makes it seem more to you than it is to us.
I know it's pretty expensive. But actually it's not much more expensive than many/most people's mobile phone bills. A little is subsidised by my father, whose web site and email I run. It's a luxury I have not weaned myself off since I worked in the British internet industry a few years ago.
Over here you can get an equivalent 2 Mbit home internet connection for roughly £20 a month (about $40), sometimes less (depending on the restrictions on the account), sometimes a few pounds more (if you want 8 Mbit or a good contention ratio). Equivalent business internet connections can cost anything up to hundreds of pounds a month.
David
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi, Deeej,
Apparently, there are only the two of us using Linux here. :-/
Horror of horrors, indeed, and with your server miles away! You had deserved more than diet coke to drink that night (we know someone who would have recommended a couple of whiskies). I hope that your computer is working all right now! While it would be easier to have your server at home I understand the benefits of having both a high bandwith, stable power supplies and security.
Maybe it's an idea to move your parents' email away from your server. Then they can't blame you, at least, except for not having you to blame.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You are probably correct but I know that I never seem to experience any problems. I have had months in the past where I downloaded several gb of stuff and never saw a cutoff of any kind. At least it beats the hell out of having a dial-up connection. I can get 5mb for $36/mo incl the isp. So that is not too bad. What you apparantly have is something way beyond us mortals will ever see for our internet service.
I am thinking of getting a Slingbox so some of my friends can have a go at getting some of my videos over the internet. I am still looking to see how good it will actually do that and it is around $230 so not too cheap for my income. Thanks for the price comparison.
Ken
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Often it's against the terms and conditions to run a server on a home internet connection. Even when it is not, and the connection is fast enough both ways to fulfil a purpose, you'd be surprised how often it slows or goes down entirely -- most of the time one simply doesn't notice. I have scripts that monitor the connection and email me if there is the slightest problem. Iomfats goes down, or its network becomes momentarily unavailable, rather more frequently than my server does. Not that that is meant as a criticism of this site -- it's just an observation.
David
[Updated on: Sun, 28 January 2007 13:25] |
|
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
|
] 
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
