Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : DSL??

[Rain]

Has anyone tried to use DSL(in one of its forms) instead of say a T1 line? If you have what type of line would you suggest to handle about 50 gigs of traffic per month?

[DanielP]

Personally I haven't, however, DSL lines occasionally go down, and when they go down they are down for @ least 24-72 hours because some idiot cut a copper backbone somewhere while digging.

Plus you'd need to purchase a business dsl line, residential lines do not allow servers ect to be run on them.

Also DSL won't have as good of reliability or speed as a T1. Just because it says it can push 1.1mbps doesn't mean its going to be fast necessarily, as all lines, both cable and dsl share bandwidth with other users one way or another on the ISP's lines.

[Chicken]

I can tell you that although I love my DSL, it hiccupps often. Brief periods where nothing happens, then it kicks in and is fine. Upload speeds are not the same as the downloading speeds mind you, and I am not sure if you realize that the server won't be "downloading" files at those speeds you are looking at. Server send data OUT for the most part and my DSL provides 128K upload I believe. Speeds vary depending on the service, but you want to look at upload speeds, not down.

I think it is a poor choice to use DSL as the connection for a server and I doubt you'd find many who'd recommend it. Personal site, maybe, but your site sounds busy, thus I can't imagine that you'd want to do this.

[Rain]

Interesting... so no one would recommend things such as ADSL? I don't know much about these services, but I think they offer upload streams of over 1.5 Mb/s. Do these services suffer from the same problems as regular DSL lines?

[DanielP]

yes, all DSL is the same and runs over the same lines.

Even business DSL suffers these problems.

No DSL is 100% reliable nor will it be in a long time.

It was built for a "cheap" way to provide high speed access to more people and compete with cable modems.

[Duster]

Rain,

The subject of self hosting using a DSL or cable modem has come up her ebefore. You can do a search or look on my site for the relevant information (or you can just forget it as it is not a practical idea). DSL (ADSL is just Asymmetrical DSL) is line specific as far as conditions. For instance, I have two other friends that live in my general area that have ADSL from the same provider I do, BellSouth. The maximum downstream speed is 1.5 mbps. One friend gets .400 +, while the other gets a bit over 1 mbps. I'm more fortunate. I'm less than 2,000 feet from the nearest colo center so I get 1.472 mbps (and 50,666 bps on my dial up connection).

However, speed is not even the primary issue, reliability is, and DSL just doesn't stack up (neither do cable modems).

[EWS]

I have DSL and I like it but it's strange. As mentioned above, it has brief down-time periods which happen very often. I mean, a matter of seconds. Nothing will happen for about 20 seconds and I just sit there and wait ... The it comes back as fast as ever. NOT SOMETHING I WOULD EVER RUN MY WEB SITE ON

So DSL is about $40/mo ... Does that cover all of the bandwidth you would use? If so, that's CHEAP. Too bad the uptime sucks. How much would it cost for alternatives? Is Cable just as bad? if not, what kind of bandwidth can it handle? Like up to what GB a month would it be capable of transfering?

[Chicken]

The difference with cable (so far as I understand it), is that it is shared thus although fast, it is not consistant. I don't know about upload speed on cable or how that works exactly.

Generally with DSL or Cable, you are not supposed to run web servers with it. I know I can't and most cable services prohibit it. So I guess to answer your question, no.

[webfors]

I almost decided to go with my own corporate dsl line to set up my servers but I decided against it after hearing the recommendations of several people, Daniel and Duster being some of these people.

I think is was Daniel who made a good point about setting up your won dsl line vs using a host like Dialtone. He said that you should be ready to never take a vacation again. That decided it for me. A dsl line is not a reliable as a T1 and good NOC's have several redundant lines, hence there is no contest in reliability and accessibility vs a dsl line.

Leave the network aspect of your operation to the professionals like Dialtone or Tera-byte or...... and concentrate on your hosting business.

[Podge]

I've been looking at http://www.ecui.com for a while. I was thinking about getting a dedicated server with them.

However after some poking around, I have a sneaking suspicion that they host on a DSL line. Anybody know if this is true?

If they are, I take it I should steer well clear. Correct?

I apologise if you think this is a little off-topic, I saw this thread about DSL and I thought I'd ask.

[Duster]

Originally posted by Podge
I've been looking at http://www.ecui.com for a while. I was thinking about getting a dedicated server with them.

However after some poking around, I have a sneaking suspicion that they host on a DSL line. Anybody know if this is true?

It isn't. See http://www.ecui.com/about.asp?section=2

If they are, I take it I should steer well clear. Correct?

I assume this is a rhetorical question, or you haven't read the pitfalls of DSL and cable modem hosting. In case you haven't, the answer is "yes". You should steer clear. You can read why, just know to avoid any such host. There are a few out there.

[Podge]

It isn't. See http://www.ecui.com/about.asp?section=2

I have read it, I take everything a host says with a pinch of salt....(from experience)

Their upstream provider is http://www.bluestar.net, a company that specialises in DSL. They don't offer any other services. While it is possible they have servers co-located with them they could also have a "Fireline" DSL into their premises.

Is there anyway I can find out for sure? (apart from emailing them)

Thanks for the help guys.

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

my $0.05

If you would mind tracing http://www.can-host.com , you would notice that our upstream router is operated by mountaincable.net then that we are routed either through uunet or sprint.

our IP block is also owned by mountaincable.net which you can guess, is a cable (TV, digital and internet) company.

Now, I can assure you that we are definately not hosting our servers on a cable modem. In fact we found one of the best deal out there because it allow them to fully use their fiber links. They use upstream, we use downstream.

We are not really co-located with them, we are... associated (??).

Now, as you see, the fact of being hosted by a company that does not advertise co-location or anything but cable doesn't mean we ARE on a cable. I cannot speak for this company you are referring to, but I just wanted to clear this up.

I think that the best way to find out is:

- find a big file to download to test the speed
- e-mail their provider
- e-mail them

If you get consistent results, you will have a better idea. I doubt someone would lie over this kind of information. Unless they have a really bad idea of how to runa business.

[Chicken]

I think Felix made some good points. This is ture especially if the host is in the same area as the provider. They might be using the nearest local facility to colo their servers.

[iBusinessLawyer]

Just a quick note re upstream v. downstream speeds on DSL. ADSL, or asymmetric digital subscriber line, is called "asymmetric" because the upstream and downstream speeds are, in fact, asymmetric. There is also a product available called "Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line," or SDSL, which is -- you guessed it -- symmetric re upstream and downstream speeds. You can get upstream/downstream speeds up to at least 1.5 mbs. It's quite expensive at those speeds, though, so that using somebody else's NOC for hosting is still probably the most cost/stress effective.

-- Jon