well put!  hosting your own server requires intimate knowledge of your
server operating system, mail server software, web hosting software and a
number of other little parts and pieces.  Most web hosting providers average
in the $20 per month range for hosting mail and website services.  Most of
slick, user friendly, web based interfaces for you to maintain things like
email accounts and an assortment of features available to your site.  some
shops offer specials and lower rates (i've received junk mail with offers as
low as $6 per month) and others offer slightly higher rates to add features
like database driven content capabilities (you build it but they make sure
it will work), e-commerce functions like credit card processing and shopping
carts.  al these can often be added and keep your hosting ill under $100
with most companies.  typically having your own high speed connection
(excluding the tiny pipe of DSL here) can run from $400+ just for the wire.
that totally excludes the cost of maintaining the box.

another alternative, if you really want to maintain your own server, is to
look at co-locating services.  many web hosting companies will offer such a
service, where you put your machine at their location and connect it to
their high speed lines.  often they have redundant, bundled lines to prevent
downtime, and all at a cost much less than what you would pay for a single
high speed wire. (for those in the know, high speed here is referring to
frame-relay, T1, T3, and bigger).  I've seen services like this offered in
the $200 range.  sometimes, they can also provide the machine and basic
software as well as configuration assistance (at a price of course.)

my vote? i always recommend my clients to go use a web host provider.

Cheers,
Gary Acord

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Steven Allison-Bunnell
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 10:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Web Hosting (was Yaho mail)


There's a difference between the kind of services Yahoo offers and those of
your typical full-service Web host.

That is, Yahoo has tried to attract users who don't want to know how to set
up a server, but who want to try selling things online, or have a personal
web page, or have a mailing list. Many yahoo mail users don't even have
regular Internet accounts and just use the web-based mail from public
machines in libraries, etc.

This is a whole other ball of wax compared to a full service Web host, who
is in charge of keeping the servers running and the pipes connected. Even as
DSL and broadband makes it theoretically feasible to host one's own site, we
still don't recommend it to our clients because a web server can involve a
lot of care and feeding, hardware and software upgrades, and if you are
anything but a tiny organization, you can easily get more traffic than your
infrastructure can handle (especially if you do something newsworthy that
attracts a burst of attention).

The day may well come when we all have such high-speed connections and
high-horsepower workstations that everyone can run their own servers. But we
don't think that day is here yet.

We would be interested if others have different views, though.


On 3/23/02 1:30 PM, "Mike Csontos" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> It is becoming obvious that website hosting is not a big moneymaker. How
many
> museums and similar institutions now have their own web servers and host
> their own sites? I would be interested in the practicality and costs of
this.
> It certainly would give more control and perhaps the technology is
becoming
> consumerized enough to be handled by museum staff.
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Allison-Bunnell
Senior Producer & Writer ~ Educational Web Adventures
533 Blaine St., Missoula, MT 59801-4118
voice 406-829-3876 ~ fax 309-273-3718
[log in to unmask] ~ http://www.eduweb.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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