[thelist] Unix and NT? Confusion? What? Help!!!

[Ben Henick]

--- Nicole Parrot <nicole at parrot.ca> wrote:
> If it's any help at all, I went the opposite way, and got exactly
> into the
> same situation.
> It's like you speak French and they speak English, and you're trying
> to
> communicate. Some of the terms and concepts just have no direct
> equivalent.

Amen to that.

> Now though, I'm curious. It's been my experience that *nix hosting is
> cheaper than NT. Where are you being hosted, and what were your
> requirements?

The old provider went off the air, and so we had to find a new one on
very short notice.  One (aiso.net) came very highly recommended, and
due to the pulling of strings my client has been able to get quite a
bit of access for less than ten percent of what my pref'd provider
would've charged.  Basically, they're willing to take the hit on fees
and bandwidth (which isn't that bad, I think) in return for the
exposure they get for hosting the site.

Hell, even their normal prices are extremely low.

The price was so good that between that and the recommendations, I'd
just try to seize the opportunity and figure out how to get a site with
decent usable interactivity mounted onto, and working from, and NT box.

I'm starting to regret the decision.  If I could figure out how to get
adequate documentation of their setup I wouldn't be having this
trouble, but I really don't know how to explain to these people that I
need to know what the hell I'm doing, and that they haven't given me
much to work with.

The requirements were PHP and CGI support, and flexibility on
disk-space and throughput (current throughput is at 3GB/mo. and
climbing).  In truth they're very easy to get a hold of, and willing to
listen.  I'm just bothered by the fact that I seem to be speaking Greek
to these people, despite the fact that I'm far from being a guru
myself...

And of course, cost is very much an object.  The client in question is
a syndicated cartoonist, and because he's only been signed recently
(and because the syndicate signed on terms that were extremely
favorable to *them*) there's not much of a budget.  Let's just say that
I'm not getting paid market rate for my work.  It helps, but it's not
making me wealthy.

Given another piece of grief I've had today... I'm starting to wonder
why, generally, it's so difficult to get documentation of the network
setup so that you can program for it effectively.

<tip>When looking for a hosting provider, make sure to get as many
recommendations from CURRENT USERS as you can before you choose them. 
No other decisionmaking process makes sense anymore.</tip>



=====
Ben Henick              |  "In the long run, men hit only
Web Author At-Large     |  what they aim at.  Therefore,
www.io.com/persist1/    |  though they should fail
persist1 at io.com         |  immediately, they had better aim
persist1_pdx at yahoo.com  |  high."  --Henry David Thoreau

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