[DGD] Pro's and Con's of <insert favorite hosting strategy here>

[bart at wotf.org]

On Mon, 25 May 2009 04:03:41 +0000, Shentino wrote
> After finally beating my router into submission and making it play 
> nice with dyndns.org (read: rtfm'ing for the zillionth time and 
> finally hitting D'oh point), I can now reliably get stuff inbound to 
> my desktop.
> 
> So, I thought I'd take a little survey and see if anyone has 
> opinions about hosting strategies, pros, cons of anything.
> 
> Strategies include but not limited to:
> * Self hosting

+ direct access to your server
+ no cost for renting a server
+ you determine what goes on your server

- many ISPs don't allow this without extra payment
- reliability of a domestic internet connection is usually not as good as a
business connection (SLAs)
- bandwidth may be an issue when you also do other things on that connection
(mud itself seldom is a problem since its bandwidth use is usually rather
small, but it is very sensitive to latency)
- Domestic IP, which will be blocked for some server uses (such as running
your own smtp service)

> * Borrowing a shell account from someone else's server

+ Free.

- Works till they decide to change their mind on you.

> * Professional hosting, such as at a datacenter

+ SLA means you generally get better reliability
+ When combined with renting a server, fewer worries about hardware defects
+ Better connectivity usually
+ Fixed IP in a range that is recognized as such.
+ Few or no restrictions on server use (beyond legal ones)

- Cost
- You may depend on someone else to get stuff fixed when hardware or software
fails
- You may not have a choice in what OS is used on the server


I went with the professional hosting option for Way of the Force, with a
rented server. If you go for this as well, shopping around for good providers
is paramount. I'm using the services of a relatively small local company,
whuch has worked out very well for me bt YMMV.

For testing and my current gurbalib development however I use self hosting.
The pros of professional hosting hardly matter here. (note that gurbalib
development muds run on a small server at my home, but the svn repository and
download site are on the hosted server for wotf.

Bart.
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