Which should i use?

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by WEfail, Jan 1, 2014.

  1. WEfail

    WEfail Regular Member

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    HostGator or my home computer to host a new forum?
     
    WEfail, Jan 1, 2014
    #1
    GasMan320 likes this.
  2. AWS

    AWS Administrator

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    If you have an ISP that allows servers then do it from home. This site is on Comcast Business Metro-E. The servers are in a rack in my home office.

    I have always been a proponent of running home servers if the ISP you use allows it. The only time I ever hosted offsite was when this house was being built. Then I had servers co-located in Softlayers data center in Chicago.

    There are many advantages to running server at home. There are some disadvantages too, but, the good far outweighs the bad.
     
    AWS, Jan 1, 2014
    #2
  3. GasMan320

    GasMan320 Regular Member

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    What are the disadvantages?

    Also, can we see a picture of the rack setup in your home office? The idea of having servers at home is interesting!
     
    GasMan320, Jan 1, 2014
    #3
  4. AWS

    AWS Administrator

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    One disadvantage is redundancy. If you don't have a secondary connection when the network goes down all sites are down.

    I have a regular Comcast Business line for my business and use it as a backup with round robin DNS.
     
    AWS, Jan 1, 2014
    #4
  5. Big al

    Big al Regular Member

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    Hostgator does not enjoy a good reputation and personally my experience with them has not been good.
     
    Big al, Jan 2, 2014
    #5
    Peace likes this.
  6. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    I agree with this. They were fine for the first year until our traffic started to rise. Then our "unlimited" bandwidth kept mysteriously getting throttled without warning. The customer support wait is 15+ minutes at best, so by the time you're talking with someone, the issue is usually fixed, at which point they declare your problem solved.

    I finally got fed up and asked if I could receive a refund for the rest of my unused package (3 years) if I canceled. They said yes, so I canceled. They never sent me the refund, and any time I called, they claimed their billing system was down. I finally escalated past 3 supervisors and the guy told me I was never getting a refund. I told him that was unfair, because I obviously wouldn't have canceled 3 years of hosting if I knew I wasn't getting a refund - I would have just kept it up and running for storage. He told me "I guess that's your loss, buddy" (his words). He claimed account deletions were irreversible.

    I mentioned the Better Business Bureau, and magically my account was reinstated :)

    I've never even used it since, to be honest. Sometimes I just get caught up in my little justice battles.

    Also, avoid BlueHost (HostGator in a wig)
     
    Peace, Jan 4, 2014
    #6
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  7. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Same here, I wouldn't go near them today.
     
    cpvr, Jan 31, 2014
    #7

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