hope this is the correct place
either this or general but thinking between a cobalt and dell app server ??
here are my thoughts

Dell:
app 120 with a pIII 866ghz chip (add a second for $200
would get my own cas2 ecc from micron 512 megs under $200
Scsi 10000 rpm drives can do raid 0,1,5
extra CPU $300
2 cheetah 18 gig $500 (would use the one that comes in it for home use
base price of dell app server $1780

total under $3000 w tax etc...

seems this system would be very strong

when I compare this to a cobalt it seems to be much better
and the control panels seems to be very similiar or am I missing something here ????

please any thoughts etc....
I am not a great unix hack only want to host my clients in a easy way
I am going to do some server maybe a dell app on win2k for asp stuff.

Mahalos

The Dell server sounds good. One thing you need to consider however (especially since you say you're not a Linux pro), is the huge number of informational resources on the 'net specifically for Cobalt RaQs (the Cobalt mailing lists are probably the best, and boards like this one are great too). You won't find anything like that for the Dell server. I mean Dell has a good reputation for tech support, but are you really going to call them every time you want to change something in your FTP config file to find out if it's going to break the control panel? Of course you can get some books or use other Web-based Linux/Apache/Bind/etc. resources, but if you're going to be relying on the control panel you really need to find information specific to your machine and its proprietary software. With the Cobalt and a little bit of research, you can get a good idea what to expect when you want to make a change.

One thing I forgot...

You said you wanted to run some ASP scripts. With the RaQ4r, you have that capability right out of the box (via Chilisoft! ASP). Not so with the Dell Linux-based server(although you can add Chilisoft! to the Dell for *I believe* around $800).

Aloha
thanks
what about my thoughts of using win2k for asp stuff rather than chilisoft
as I have heard that chili soft has a lot of probs ??

I wold think chilisoft and postgreSQL could be a great answer to going win2k and sql2000 maybe not quite as strong but for most stuff plenty ?? and way cheaper ;)
your thoughts ??

Actually I think Chilisoft! has a very low history of problems and is generally considered an excellent implementation of ASP for Linux. There is another open source project that lets you run ASP on Linux (whose name escapes me right now), and I have heard that it has some problems.

As for using Postgres, although it's included on the RaQ I don't know if many people are using it for Web-based databases (I've never tried it personally). Although it's what Cobalt uses for their control panel housekeeping, I'm not really sure how well it interfaces with PHP/ASP/Perl. I belive most people are using MySQL; since MySQL is incredibly easy to install (and it's free), I would recommend using that instead. Several of my hosting customers are using ASP/MySQL, and seem to be very happy with it (although I prefer PHP/MySQL myself).

I use ChiliSoft ASP on quite a few of my sites... it is not bad but does have a few problems still (although a new version is now available). Also you can't run any additional components and you don't even get basic nt sendmail stuff! So yuor really need to buy the spice pack which is another $500.... Alround I've found it does the job, but at the same time I've found it can crash quite easily if you code something with the wron var for example!

Aloha
Mathew
when you say you cna not use any other components
you mean form places like
Server objects or
Persist software
etc...

the chilisoft page says ya can and others like you say you can not ???
man confusing stuff arghhhh

thanks for the input
I keep thinking of going with win2k to do asp stuff
what is your thought ??
I use Ultradev for development and like the way it works with ASP (so far ) you cna develop aps quite quickly so this is my goal

so the extra compnents I like are the asp mail stuff the file upload stuff and the encrypt email are all things I am going to need

what happens when ya try to use these 3rd party they just crash and do not work or ???

Mahalos

>>when you say you cna not use any other components you mean form places like Server objects or Persist software etc... <<

I've not been able to get anything to work :( most of the compinents you get are in DLL format which is MS specific. If you find a pure ASP plugin then it may work but I've had to do everything myself pretty much in basic coding form. With a basic RAQ box and Chilisoft you can't even e-mail someone as there is no CDO unless you get the spicepack ($500?), don't ask me how but somewhere along the line I got hold of SpiceMail on it's own (for RAQ) which at least means I can send e-mails. There are a few other funnies and incompatibilities as well (no ccur!) - I also use UltraDev but can not conenct to my server (Chilli advice is to run a local version), but I have to say if your into serious ASP development then you may be better off with a MS box - I assumed that Chilisoft would do the job, and it does but it is a tad slow, not 100% compatible and I wouldn't want to do any ASP intense programming to run on one.

After saying all that - I run a small website called "e-mail remind" at www.emailremind.co.uk (written in ASP and mySQL) which runs fine, but it's not under heavy usage at the moment. Also RAQ's can't run a ASP script as a job so I had to rewrite the nightly reminders routine into perl! But it did the job, and if you e-mail Chilisoft tech support direct they are normally quite good and fast. Chilisoft is nw under the Sun unbrella which I personally think is good news, and a new version of Chilisoft ASP has just been released which fixes and improves a few things (although still not directly availble as a RAQ pck update)...

Hope that helps and doesn't put you off too much :)

Aloha
cool site ya got there
like the fact it looks fun

well no I want to here the real world stuff
I have 2 clietns that do a lot of aviation stuff adn they have got to be easy for me to do and work all the time
not to involved but resumes adn job searches etc... using scheduling online and that so enough that maybe a win box would be best that way to I can work some stuff out with office extensions for em
thanks you have been a great deciding factor I was wondering if a raq box could do it or not so now I know
man figures well I might still try one for cheap some where just to know what its limits are

looks like I might try to get a dell app server with win2k and a dedicated server to run SQL on (that will come later ;)

was hoping to use chilisoft and a open source DB to save some money
I should be able to get a hold of a NFR copy of SQL so that should be cool
I got win2k workstation, server, adv server all for a $100 from MS they are NFR versions though but at least they are not developer additions so I can actually use em ;)=
did not know a DLL would not work with chilisoft they make it sound as if they will work and all components will work in it

but now the prob will arise in what kind of email program to get for a win box ???
anybody
well maybe a seperate post again
Mahalo

Hi Honu,

thanks for the comments on the site :)


>>looks like I might try to get a dell app server with win2k and a dedicated server to run SQL on (that will come later was hoping to use chilisoft and a open source DB to save some money <<

You can mySQL on a win box and use that as a back end - I've found it to be pretty good, but again with a few limitations (No inner join in 3.22.23 and a couple of other funnites I have with times being written as 16:12:60 instead of 16:13:00!) but other wise Very good...

>>did not know a DLL would not work with chilisoft they make it sound as if they will work and all components will work in it <<
My understanding is that DLL's are formated for a win platform so are no good on a unix box, and as of yet I don't think Chilisoft is capable of running them because of the amount of things that a DLL could do... I'd love to be told different as I'm a Delphi programmer!


>>but now the prob will arise in what kind of email program to get for a win box ??? <<
Is there not a wintel version of sendmail?

(No inner join in 3.22.23 and a couple of other funnites I have with times being written as 16:12:60 instead of 16:13:00!)

not sure what this is ???
but OH well if I do not know it can hurt me
OH wait that is not good ?? hehehehehe

well there are a few mail progys I know of but want a email based web client etc...
so much stuff for win2k is expensive compared with uinx/linux stuff
so that is the prob but I shall see how it goes
thanks for the feedback