Thanks Steve - advice much appreciated. At this stage I'll avoid it if I can.
Phil. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Soars" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CFAussie Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 4:26 PM Subject: [cfaussie] RE: OT : The perils of semi-self-hosting??? > Phil, > > if unwise, please let me know why. > Speed (adsl transmits data in one direction only - 256/64 may seems fast > enough to download but it's a pig uploading - especially if your client > has broadband) > Reliability of your service (some people have found this to be an issue > - I personally havent had any problems) > Redundancy (this should be gauged by the speed of your client to ring > you after a problem and the tone of their voice) > Power outages (you would have been in trouble if you were in new york - > or even some parts of sydney recently) > No more holidays (someone will need to be around to fix the thing - > there is an automatic setting that breaks stuff on most servers, it > activates at the most inconvieniant time for the sysadmin) > Your clients ringing you in the middle of the night :) > Cost of setup: if this is the only thing you are going to do and your > client is happy to pay you may be better to look at a dedicated server > somewhere. > > If wise, > * can I isolate this PC from the rest of my office network, which is > currently connected to other ports on the adsl modem? > Yes - Put your firewall behind the adsl modem then the Firewall - 3 nics > : red network card to adsl, green network internal & safe 192.168.X.X, > orange network 10.0.X.X this is your web box. > (this can be done using a crappy old machine and a linux firewall (ip > cop or smoothwall will do the trick, these also provide the routing > ability) or a dedicated firwall/router > * how do I set up my home network so requests to the shared IP address > go to the correct PC? > Router - passing port 80 (or whatever) to the dedicated machine > > Hth > Steve Soars > Interactive Redlands > > www.i-redlands.net > > Shop 2 Cleveland Town Square > Cnr Queen & Bloomfield Sts > Cleveland Qld Australia 4163 > p: +61 7 3821-5800 > f: +61 7 3821-5811 > > Instant Messaging > msn: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > icq: 298661060 > yahoo: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Phil > Evans > Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2003 3:04 PM > To: CFAussie Mailing List > Subject: [cfaussie] OT : The perils of semi-self-hosting??? > > > Hi All, > > I have a site hosted on a shared server. The response and reliability of > the site is very good, with the exception of the crystal reports > component. The reports produced via crystal are the central purpose of > the site. > > Crystal does not cope well in a shared server environment - it was > difficult to install, reports are only accessible via active-x, and for > some unknown reason Crystal hangs about once a week, with the only way > to correct it being a server reboot. As you can imagine, my previously > good relationship with the ISP is getting a little strained, and I am > investigating options. > > One solution would be a dedicated server, but the income from the site > makes it difficult to justify the costs. > > I have a 4-port adsl connection into my home office, and am using a > reasonably powered PC to act as a backup crystal server. If crystal is > hung, the site users can store a report request in the db, my office PC > uses an odbc link to poll the ISP every minute, and if a report request > is found, creates the report in Word or pdf format, zips if required and > then emails the report to the client. This fall back process works > reasonably well, but means the client has to wait 5 or 10 minutes for > their final report once they have finished their data entry. > > What I am wondering is, are there pitfalls to the above setup? > > Also, given that crystal is far more stable on a dedicated box, is it > wise to attempt the following: > > * purchase a PC for home office with say winXP Pro > * load crystal > * setup an odbc link on the home office pc to the database at the ISP > * connect the PC to one of my adsl ports (adsl connection has a static > IP) > * use a cfhttp call from the ISP to the PC to request reports > * PC uses odbc link to create the report in word or pdf format, and > return it to the client via the browser > * setup a means of terminal serving in to the PC so that if I go away > for a weeks holiday, I can access the server via modem if required > > If unwise, please let me know why. > > If wise, > * what are the potential pitfalls to watch out for? > * can I isolate this PC from the rest of my office network, which is > currently connected to other ports on the adsl modem? > * how do I set up my home network so requests to the shared IP address > go to the correct PC? > > Thanks, > Phil. > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > MX Downunder AsiaPac DevCon - http://mxdu.com/ > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > MX Downunder AsiaPac DevCon - http://mxdu.com/ > --- You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MX Downunder AsiaPac DevCon - http://mxdu.com/
