any companies in the new york city area offering co-location for very low cost? I am looking into this possibility. Please post back or PM. Thank you. Bobby

www.ezzi.net

They're on Long Island and affordable.

Ezzi.net is the only one I think of off the top of my head. No one is going to be able to offer a deal in the city....costs are just too prohibitive.

thank you, I checked out the company, but they offer not as much bandwidth as I was hoping to get for the money. I saw specials on here for awesome amounts of bandwidth for $50 a month, etc. Had a another question...does it matter where I co-locate? Could I just send my server to anyone, like the person in the specials I read about, and then just hire someone to be an admin to the server? Any suggestions you guys can give me is greatly appreciated. Thanks Bobby

Unless you need access to do things like hardware upgrades. Of course, you can always pay the colo for any of those. And most system administration is easily done remotely.

Plenty of good bandwidth deals in other parts of the country. Just search the offers and you will see.

Also, what is the configuration of your server? If it is not top-of-the-line current state then you might want to just lease a dedicated and keep it around for other uses. Many times in today's market dedicated servers are nearly as cheap as colo.

I dont have a server yet. I was thinking of custom building one. Is this a good idea or not? I was looking at the prices on www.pricewatch.com for the parts of computer parts. Even If I were to pay the little extra for the top of the line product, it would still come out to a decent price unless I am forgetting something? How much do you think a good server would cost for me to build?

Incognito, you said remote administration is easy to do? I always thought you should have someone to keep an eye on the server in case (Godforbid) something were to go wrong so you could get it fixed as quick as possible? Is this relatively easy enough for me to learn by myself? Thanks Bobby

There are special considerations in building and equipping a web server. I would doubt seriously that you could build one from parts for appreciably less than most colos can purchase them. The only things you need to be on location to do are deal with communications issues, replace or upgrade hardware, and, sometimes, you may have to upgrade kernels on location. Everything else is done as easily elsewhere. In fact, although I have personnel on location, they do not perform any server administration duties beyond the time of getting the server set up and operating. Everything beyond that is tested and maintained from a central Technical Operations Center. I believe you will find this to be true of 90% of the hosts in this forum.

Another advantage of leasing dedicated is that if you purchase from their standard offerings, many providers maintain the critical parts on hand.

Now, there will be those with opposing opinions who believe they have to be within an hour or two of their data center. Also, if you want to colo rather than lease, choose a colo center and they can probably tell you where to get good prices on servers they are using themselves or have had good experiences with.

Just a couple of examples of the distance issue and how others do it. Among the most reputable hosts in these forums (I know there are many more but these are just examples):

McHost-Canada-Servers in PA
Splashhost-UK-Servers in NJ
PWebTech-NJ-Servers in NJ
Ventures Online-just built their own facility but previously distant
Akashik-Australia-Servers in NJ

Oh...and by the way...the worst host in the world...or at least if you believe what you hear (and I do) proudly has their own center within their corporate office building.

So, unlike real-estate, location isn't the key, professionalism is.

thank you, I checked out the company, but they offer not as much bandwidth as I was hoping to get for the money. I saw specials on here for awesome amounts of bandwidth for $50 a month, etc. Had a another question...does it matter where I co-locate? Could I just send my server to anyone, like the person in the specials I read about, and then just hire someone to be an admin to the server? do you recommend the deal by www.tranxactglobal.com for the dedicated server? Seems tooooo good to be true. But if it is true...WOW!!! Any suggestions you guys can give me is greatly appreciated. Thanks Bobby

I have worked with the people behind tranxact global for a brief time only, but have found them to be very responsive and professional. However, one word to keep in mind. They, like most providers, do not provide a managed server. While they are responsible for keeping the server up and functioning, you are responsible for server administration. Are you comfortable with that?