[quote author=supersparky link=1104667542/15#18 date=1110916067]well, to be honest were not that unreliable [/quote]
Don't take it the wrong way but I reckon a few people were "inconvenienced" earlier today. I must've tried half a dozen times during the day
Quote:and i dont have the time to set anything up, neither does pluggy
Can't speak for the Linux side of things 'cos that's not my bag, but I just FTP all the web content I have on the Internet from my local server to the ISP server, just like copying files using Windows Explorer. Two minutes, mostly just watching the files fly up to the server, jobs a good 'un.
I looked at the YaBB forum software a while back. Not sure of my facts, but aren't the messages held as discrete files in directories rather than in a formal database? If so, piece of cake to transfer to a new server once you've set up the account (10 minutes), just FTP the files and job's a good 'un.
A little time to transfer the DNS obviously, but that's no big deal and a one-off.
I would reasonably expect a one-time setup to take maybe 1 hour of time, after that it just runs and runs. Server goes down, the ISP staff reboot it. And they've got all the firewalls and routers configured to stop the bad guys from giving them a bad hair day.
Quote:also where is that money going to come from?
You mean to pay for the arrangement of hosting at an ISP?
I would reasonably expect you to get some change out of £50 per year for hosting at an ISP (hell, I could provide what you need for that cost - but I'm not offering 'cos doing things for friends never works out!
).
Your (and pluggy's) time for keeping the server running amounts to quite a bit I would think. You obviously won't be billing that time but if you were I would guess it would be a significant amount based upon an hourly charge. I'm talking about keeping the server running here, not keeping the forums operational - that forum time would be equal wherever they were hosted. I imagine things like Linux backups etc add to the time, and ISP's generally backup their servers as part of the grand plan.
Then there's the cost of hardware. You've paid for the server now. But if something breaks down? New CPU and/or motherboard is £100-ish. New disk drive £50-ish. Plus all the downtime whilst you get it fixed. Therein might lie a problem in so far that you want to attract sponsorship-type arrangements, and the sponsors might not be overly happy if the server isn't "reliable". Sod's law says you will have a bad hair day on the day that your potential primary sponsor takes a look.....
Cost of electricity? You are running a PC 24x7. That will be drawing 200w+ of power all the time. I don't know what sort of cost that represents, but 1/5th of a small electric fire will make a dent in the electricity bill which over the course of a year would add up. And I'm running 2x PC's here 24/7/365 so I really ought to figure that cost out.....
Then there's the contributions from the members which may well cover the remote hosting costs (obviously I have no idea what figures there will be in this regard).
HM