We don't do Windows on our servers. We think it is just too risky. Recently the attacks of the Code Red and now the Nimda worms have crippled Windows Web Servers throughout the Internet.

We use Linux as our platform of choice for our Web Servers. Linux has proven time and time again to be a safe, stable server platform. Certainly, no platform is impervious to hack attacks, but Linux has a track record that stands head and shoulders above Windows.

If you are hosting your site on a Windows server, it may be time to consider switching to a Linux server. Not convinced of the risks? Take a look at this:

http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/codered.php

This page displays the number of times one of our web servers has been attacked by the Code Red worm. Since our server is Linux based, we had no problems.

We do hope that you consider switching your hosting platform from Windows to Linux - even if you don't choose us. You'll be happier for it, and you will be able to sleep easier knowing that your web site is safer from attacks.

To learn more about our services, visit us at:

http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/

Take care,

Brian

Or you could just use a company that knows Windows, not all servers were affected my Code Red/Blue or Nimda :)

I sleep well at nite with all our Windows Servers.

Originally posted by bteeter
We do hope that you consider switching your hosting platform from Windows to Linux - even if you don't choose us. You'll be happier for it, and you will be able to sleep easier knowing that your web site is safer from attacks.
Brian

Sorry, but this statement is not really true.

It is true that a linux box can not be infected by the latest IIS worms, but it is not safe from the attacks. Go check your apache logs for default.ida and cmd.exe. My guess is you have 1000's of get's for url's with those strings in them. If so the worms are attempting to attack you and stealing your bandwidth.

Just my 2 cents,

Frank

I disagree. Here is a little tidbit from Dictionary.com:

safe (sf)
adj. saf·er, saf·est
Secure from danger, harm, or evil.
Free from danger or injury; unhurt: safe and sound.
Free from risk; sure: a safe bet.
Affording protection: a safe place.
Baseball. Having reached a base without being put out, as a batter or base runner.



Linux servers are safe from being attacked by Code Red or Nimda in all senses of the word, except for the last one. (Unless your Linux Server is also playing baseball while serving web pages. :) )

We don't just advocate Linux over Windows because that is the service we offer. We have experience far beyond our own hosting service to support our claims.

We are currently doing consulting work for the largest provider of funds for mortgages in the US. (HINT, HINT, HINT...) They are primarily a Sun Solaris shop and use primarily iPlanet and BEA Weblogic for web services. The project we are involved with uses this platform with the exception being that we use ATG Dynamo for an application server, not BEA Weblogic

One of the directors in the business unit I work for had an idea about 18 months ago. It was that Microsoft's platform was cheaper and faster to develop and maintain because of the cheaper costs of hardware, software licenses, and ASP development tools. So they implemented one of their largest, most financially critical web applications using a completely Microsoft solution running on Windows NT and now 2000 servers.

Whereas the project I am involved with runs on 6 Solaris boxes, the Windows project runs on about *50* Windows servers. Certainly scale of users has something to do with it, but the fact that at any one point during the business day 20-40% of the Windows servers are down, blue screened, or locked up doesn't help. Oh, and all the latest patches are applied. In fact we have patches that Microsoft hasn't even released to the public.

The poor SOB in the cube next to me is the primary on call engineer this week for that application. He's been real busy. Already this morning, (10:15 EST) he's ordered the reboot of at least 8 different machines that I've heard.

So. I repeat my initial question, do you really want to risk running your web site on Windows? If you do, go ahead. That's your perogative.

I'd never suggest it to my clients. I don't want to spend my time trying to fix it, and I don't want to play the patch once a week game, hoping that it will fix the latest problem and any as yet undiscovered problems.

I see every day I show up at my client's office exactly what happens when you gothat route. I'm quite content to stick with what works, and what is stable.

Take care,

Brian

Certainly scale of users has something to do with it, but the fact that at any one point during the business day 20-40% of the Windows servers are down, blue screened, or locked up doesn't help. Oh, and all the latest patches are applied. In fact we have patches that Microsoft hasn't even released to the public.Maybe they should have hired qualified Windows techs? Also, I would bet they were using NT and not W2K. :)

I think Linux is a great OS, but if you know what you are doing Windows can be just a stable and secure as Linux.

Originally posted by RackMy.com
Maybe they should have hired qualified Windows techs? Also, I would bet they were using NT and not W2K. :)

I think Linux is a great OS, but if you know what you are doing Windows can be just a stable and secure as Linux.

I would consider the folks we have here top notch. We've also had Microsoft's engineers here to try to help. They initially rolled out using NT and it was pretty much an abysmal mess. They've since gone to 2000 and it is marginally better.

Still, I'm glad I'm not on that support team...

Take care,

Brian

While reading the WashingtonPost.com I found this article this morning:

Title: Nimda Leads Fairfax to Unplug Web Site

URL: http://www.washtech.com/news/netarch/12696-1.html


Excerpt:

Fairfax County has fallen victim to the worst computer virus in its history, forcing it to shut down its Web site until each of the county's 9,000 computers and 300 servers has been screened, officials said yesterday.



Being that I live in Fairfax County and need to get some government work done, this kind of sucks. However it does support our position that hosting on a Windows Server Platform is just not safe.

Thanks - Brian

Well, if they used linux servers that were not maintained properly and were taken down, I don't think one could say that this is an example that Linux servers are not safe. Do Windows servers have problems? Yes, they can, as can linux servers (I'm taking about the services or the OS not the server hardware itself of course).

To me, the best solution is keeping up with the inevitable problems that crop up, maintaining the server, patching the server, no matter what type of OS and server software is installed.

Your opinion is, "that hosting on a Windows Server Platform is just not safe" which is fine (I'm certainly not going to *tell* you what your opinion should be :D) but I can see this thread going from an Ad. Forum thread into a huge debate over this and I'm just not certain this is the place for that.

Maybe this thread should be tossed, replaced with just an offer, and the issue debated in the main forums?

Originally posted by Chicken
. . . . .Maybe this thread should be tossed, replaced with just an offer, and the issue debated in the main forums? It hardly resembles advertising :rolleyes:
Seems to have detracted from the original posters desire, although he started the whole "Windoze suck" thing. :stickout


:D

I can't agree with Chicken more.

I mean, what's the offer here? Are you offering any special incentives for moving from Windows to Linux ? If it's a general invitation to Linux virtual hosting then I suppose almost all the hosts here are already offering it.

Anyway, it seems way off topic

Cheers
B

Not all advertising is the same you know.

Have you ever seen the banners which advertise east cost web hosting/colocation? The whole "pull" of the banner is the first part that shows your server based in California losing its power. (For those unfamiliar with California's power situation - they haven't got enough and rolling blackouts have occured in the last.) After this, they show their servers hosted somewhere on the east coast unaffected by California's power problems.

If I were hosting my servers or site in California, that would have caught my attention for sure. More so than seeing a price that was a few bucks lower than what I was currently paying.

Understand where I'm coming from now? Lots of folks have been affected by the Windows worms that have been attacking sites in the recent months. If I were a Windows web server customer I think reading my ad would have at least sparked their interest in my services. Which of course is the whole point of the advertisement! :)

So, like I said, not all advertising is the same. Not all ads are "Our plans are great, our prices are low. See the specs below." Frankly, I think the readers of this site are too savvy to go for ads like that. Anyone who is a regular here has a lot of experience hosting, looking for hosts, etc. Chances are that they could find an offer better than any advertised offer they read here within just a few minutes of research. In fact, because of this (and other reasons), the moderators had to begin moderating the ad forum. What used to happen was company A would post a plan offer, and companies B, C, D, and E would chime in saying "we can do better" and then posting their links, plans, etc. Or in some cases customers of companies B, C, D, E, and F would make posts saying "I work with company B and my plan is (insert cheaper, better, more feature rich, etc) than the plan you offer".

My original intention was to attract individuals who were hosting on Windows now to a potentially better, safer solution that we offer on the Linux platform. As you have seen, I STRONGLY believe that Linux is the better choice of platform. As you have also seen, the Linux/Windows Holy war has broken out in this thread as well. It is an unintended side effect of the original posting, but I hardly think it warrants the thread from being thrown out, or moved. The thread still contains our advertisement, so it wouldn't fit anywhere else on the board... Now if the moderators could move part of this thread (the holy war part), that probably wouldn't be a bad thing.

Of course, this is just my $0.02. Whatever the moderators decide works for me. I won't lose any sleep over it. :)

Take care,

Brian

Originally posted by bteeter
We do hope that you consider switching your hosting platform from Windows to Linux - even if you don't choose us.

Well, this part is the commentary part and helped to create the 'holy war' (heh) as you put it. I'll let the thread stand as is, but I think it would be better to actually offer something next time.