Hello,
Im trying to find a good linux Red Hat server that we could rent from someone. Below are the requirements that we would need. I will probably need the server by mid-April, so any deals will have to last until then. The server can come with more than this, but these are the minimums.

PIII 800 mhz
256 MB of RAM
20 GIG HD
Chilisoft ASP
PHP4/MySQL Support
100+ GIGs of Transfer/month
at least 2 IP addresses
Red Hat 7.0/Free BSD (either is fine)
Real Audio/Video (Streaming)
FAST CONNECTIONS (OC)
24/7/365 Tech Support
24/7 Toll Free Phone Support
GOOD WEB-BASED CONTROL
99.999% Uptime

Average Price per month: $199


Thanks, if you could just post your respones here, that would be great.

You might have trouble finding that for that price. Chilisoft ASP is expensive, unless you have enough people intereted to justify the costs. Also, control panels usually add a price, and the 100+ GIG's of bandwidth on top of that. I wish you luck, I don't see many people giving you that for under $200/mo, if any. I think it's possible to happen if you could do without the ASP plugin, but someone might have that deal included. Good luck finding what you need. :-)

Originally posted by jimb
99.999% Uptime

Does *anyone* guarantee that much uptime (except, perhaps for special High Availability services)??

They dont need to have a guaranteed, I just want a past record of about 99.999% uptime or even 99.9% uptime. I just dont want it to be down everyday, thats all. And the chilisoft ASP does not have to be included, just something that would be nice to have.

I can do the above with
866 instead of an 800
for $225 without chilisoft and only 50GB data transfer. 24/7 live support.
With 16 IPs

We have 15 DS3 OR BETTER connections.

Control Panel your choice of
Plesk Free
Cpanel/WHM $100 per month
Sphera $200 per month.

[Edited by jayglate on 03-15-2001 at 07:34 PM]

Hey, Shpera sounds good, I just looked into it. Anyone have a shpera server that is under $200/month?

That is impossible sphera alone is $200 a month.

You mean Shpera the program costs hosts $200.00/month/server, or is that just what you charge?

That is what it costs.

Perhaps something free, like Webmin can do what you like? That will get you closer to the price deal you're seeking.

Ive seen the webmin and the interface does not really seem to work for me. I dont know, maybe I can try to do use it. I really like the Plesk at this point.

If you want to chat about the server and maybe some other options for it drop me a line at the below ICQ#

Originally posted by jimb
Ive seen the webmin and the interface does not really seem to work for me. I dont know, maybe I can try to do use it. I really like the Plesk at this point.

Perhaps then, you can find a provider that offers a good deal, such as you said, whom may or may not have an ASP plugin, but offers their own control panel as part of the hosting package? This is certainly possible and control panels aren't that complex when it comes down to it. It just really depends on what you are wanting or needing, especially what you want or need it to do, simply because you might not know how to do it without a control panel. This can be an issue, depending on what software you are or are not wishing to run and in what manner you wish to run it.

However, once things are set up, the control panel issue is pretty simple. Maybe you can locate a provider that built their own general one and have it included? Although, I don't think you'll find too many dedicated server deals for $200/mo. that the bandwidth and RAM/CPU alone, let alone offer a free control panel. Well, hopefully you'll find what you're looking for. Look at it this way, for $200/mo. on 100 GIG's of bandwidth exactly, just by itself, that's you paying only $2/GIG, which is a good deal that few provider's offer.

You're talking about the $200 just covering the bandwidth. Add on the system with 256 Megs RAM, an 800 to 866 MHZ CPU, a 20 GIG drive, tech support, etc. Most provider's don't have any way to make money. For what you're looking for, you'll probably have to settle for a provider that offers a free control panel, settle for a free one, or not one at all and go with maybe 20 to 50 GIG's of bandwidth or buy it in a large block of like 20, 40, 50, 75 or 100 GIG's of bandwidth. Also, maybe use mod_gzip, and reduce your bandwidth by 30% or so and not have to use as much bandwidth and save money that way and not need a large bandwidth deal, or not as much. Good luck.

[Edited by Tim_Greer on 03-15-2001 at 09:19 PM]

Yeah, I think thats what I am going to have to do, just buy more bandwidth as needed. I think the control panel should be good, since that is mostly all of the server you will ever see. Also, clients like the actual control panels to set up their emails and stuff like that. Plesk comes with a user interface, which I like. I don't think webmin comes with a user inferface, does it?

Originally posted by jimb
Yeah, I think thats what I am going to have to do, just buy more bandwidth as needed. I think the control panel should be good, since that is mostly all of the server you will ever see. Also, clients like the actual control panels to set up their emails and stuff like that. Plesk comes with a user interface, which I like. I don't think webmin comes with a user inferface, does it?

Unfortunately, I'm pretty useless when it comes to suggesting control panels, since I don't like them myself and never use them, other than rarely and on severs I work on or for. Nonetheless, I've used about all of them, but I just don't recall many that had any options beyond the basics. I know that Alabanza's control panels have a lot of options, but they are specific to Alabanza and they still lack some of the common things that ought to be there. Also, they make up for it by running ancient software and poorly configured web servers.

Anyway, I didn't know you were looking for do web hosting, or I'd not have suggested you do without a control panel. Unfortunately, even if you want to do without and don't like control panels, the client's still want and need them, and that's a good thing, certainly. Personally, I'd just build my own, if I was going to do web hosting and I have about 80% or more of one now, but I don't expect many other's will want to or be able to choose that option. With the proper knowledge, in a week or less, you could write a control panel that would equal all the same options that Cpanel/WHM offer.

Of course, I say this because I've been doing this for so long, know the exact commands and manner in which I'd have it function, plus the programming knowledge to accomplish this, but I again don't expect many people can or will choose or consider that option. So, I'd do a search and try to find the best control panel that is free or the lowest price and offers all the features you and your client's want. Also, if you do know any or much programming or can hire someone to modify an existing GPL/GNU free one, or get permission to modify a licensed one, then it can also save you money, rather than paying a lot per month for one. It's certainly not easy to offer hosting to people without offering a control panel solution and it's going to cost money to get one, or the time to build one. I'd suggest to anyone to use whatever they can afford and to build their own or modify a GPL one for their needs, in the meantime, if they are able... it will save you money.

Hey, thanks for the info! Do you know where I could find a free, or cheap control panel that I can modify myself? Something that costs less than $200.00? This could be of use to me since I need to host people, but I have the ability to make some programming changes.

Originally posted by jimb
Hey, thanks for the info! Do you know where I could find a free, or cheap control panel that I can modify myself? Something that costs less than $200.00? This could be of use to me since I need to host people, but I have the ability to make some programming changes.

Well, I have 3 different type's of control panel's I've coded a while ago. They are all about 80 to 90% done and all of them are coded to run with Apache via https or via a special port, since people often enough have Apache crash and don't know how to fix it via shell commands and editing and you couldn't fix it via a control panel, if Apache is down and makes the control panel inaccessible. So, I have different versions and versions that work different ways. Different one's use C, Perl and PHP. All of which, are or can be used on a special port via https, or via regular access if Apache is running, also via https.

If I get time to finish these, I might do some cheap licensing, since I don't see *any* reason why people are charging so much for these control panels that only do basic things that are only there to make it easier with a graphical interface. There's nothing complex about it, unless you don't know how to program. So, when I do finally have time to do this, I will either license them myself, or through a company I'm involved with. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to be soon enough to solve your problem. So, I can only suggest the option of seeking a free one to modify, but I don't know any programs or URL's off hand. I'll look later today, if I have time to, and let you know what I can find.

However, again, I will eventually complete my own, which are already (and any should be anyway!) compatible and portable to any Unix variant. I've been dealing with NT for too long to want to bother porting it there, even though it'll run on it, I don't want to bother changing all the features to work on it. The only challenge is doing checking, and how the interface works, making sure things don't error, screw things up, create problems or conflicts or allow people to abuse or make a mistake in syntax, etc. or a bad entry and function accordingly, or not.

These things are all very simple and are currently implemented, so the quality is superior to all the control panels I've been dealing with thus far (and fixing the problems they create on servers), so I'm confident that when I do finally get the time to complete this control panel, that it will be highly desirable and I will cut the licensing costs ridiculously low, since I don't see this as something that ought to cost anywhere near $75 or $100/mo. to license!