Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Trading Spaces... Well, Trading Space, at least... :-D

[Isaac.Eiland-Hall]

As a small, one-server host, if my server goes down for any reason, my clients can't email me -- and I have no good way of letting anyone know what's up...

So the thought occurred to me to find cheap hosting for a single domain, so I could tell my customers: "If it looks like the server is down, email support@secondarydomain.ext" -- in other words, have some off-server means of contact.

But then I thought to myself: Why pay for something that one might be able to get for free?

And so it occurred to me that I might not be the only one in this quandry, and that I might find some other soul here on WHT who is desirous of the same thing, and negotiate a trade.

And thus, my idea is to find someone who might be interested in swapping the following on your server for the same on my server:

- cPanel hosting for a single domain
- 1 email, 1 FTP
- 2 mailing lists (one list for customers who only want major updates, one list for customers who want lots of updates)
- NO DATABASES
- No subdomains, add-on domains, parked domains
- 25mb space, at least 250mb bandwidth

You must NOT be hosted in the iWeb datacentre in Montreal, Canada, since that's where I am - and the point is to provide redundancy, not have a redundant outage :-)

I'm also open to feedback on the idea itself...

My customers understand I'm a one-man shop... And I see this as a way to increase my support level... It's not like I have downtime very often, but it has happened before... And I think registering, say, mydomain.info looks more professional that using somestupid123@yahoo.com... :-D

[al_bickers]

You don't need to use a different email address for the backup mailserver. Instead, you can use a "backup MX".

This is done by adding the backup mailserver to your DNS zone and setting the priority for the backup server lower than the primary.

For example:

MX 10 yourmailserver.com.
MX 20 backupmailserver.com

In this example, if your server is down, mail to your regular address will be automatically routed to the backup mailserver. You can add any number of backup mailservers.

Of course, this only works if you host at least one of your DNS servers on another machine. (This is one reason why both DNS servers shouldn't be run off the same machine.) You could host the DNS with a 3rd party (for example, you can host DNS with eNom if you registered your name there).

Or, better yet, your partner in this deal could host one of your DNS servers and you could host one of his, at least for the primary domain.

Thus, your customers don't have to use a different address. Plus, you don't need a second domain, you only need a mail account on the backup server.

If you do this, don't forget to setup your email client to check both servers.

Best Wishes,

Al

[fbc]

Isaac, if you want, I can put you a server in the another iWeb data center

Let me know

[Isaac.Eiland-Hall]

Originally posted by fbc
Isaac, if you want, I can put you a server in the another iWeb data center

Let me know

lol...

See, I like these guys... That reminds me, I have to start a review on iWeb!

I'd love to get more servers -- but see, servers cost money, and I'm not yet to the point of making enough profit on this server to even pay for itself, much less a second server... :-D So I'm still in the I'm-paying-for-the-server-mode rather than customers-are-paying-for-the-server-mode, much less eeking-out-a-small-profit-mode! ;-)

But have no fear -- as much as I like LayeredTech, I like iWeb even better - my second server will be with iWeb so I can start a cluster :-D

[fbc]

hehe, it's OK I understand but I just want to explain you we can offer you a solution if you can't find it with an another user