Arnold, It all depends on your time and the level of effort you are willing to expend on managing your own service. (1) No matter what you use the "free" server for it will need to be both accessible and secure. It will need to be physically secure from someone tampering with it (like accidentally unplugging it to plug in a vacuum cleaner -- it happened to me once), accidentally or deliberately, it will need secure and reliable power (UPS) and network connections (firewall, antivirus, maybe intrusion detection). But at the same time you will need to allow authorized users into the server. This could mean some sort of VPN to allow in "friendlies." (2) You will want a secure processing environment. This could be an Apache web server front end and MySQL on the backend with some custom Perl or ASP (or something) in between them. Unless you are a coder and familiar with the latest in secure programming techniques your firewall and IDS may be worthless against an SQL injection or buffer-overflow attack. (3) Don't forget heating and cooling. A single server in the basement might be okay (so long as your basement can't flood!) but more likely you will want the server in an unused closet or your office space where you may require special accommodations for air conditioning, especially if your "data center" includes UPS, network gear and perhaps a multi-terabit storage device. (4) You will need backups -- lots of backups to restore service when your environment crashes. You may require redundant hardware -- a second processor, dual firewalls and diverse routers and Internet connections depending on how mission critical your server is.
The good news is that a reliable web hosting environment can be had that takes all these concerns into consideration. I'm not familiar with Godaddy's facility but here in Northern Virginia there are plenty of web hosting businesses that are quite reasonable, especially if you are looking to support mission critical applications. MCI's datacenter in Ashburn is pretty pricy but in addition to the physical security you also get world class Internet backbone connectivity. Bottom line: there's a hell of a lot more to setting up a secure, reliable computing environment than just getting your hands on a server and a "Windows for Dummies" book. My two cents... -Mike __________________ Michel David Lowe Purcellville, VA > -----Original Message----- > From: Computer Guys Announcements and Discussion List > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Arnold Kee > Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 1:29 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [CGUYS] Online vs. IBM Server > > Greetings all. > > I'm interested in your thoughts. If you had a choice between using an > online server like godaddy.com and obtaining a free standalone IBM server > which would you choose? Now if the standalone is chosen, some training on > managing a server would be necessary. But the training would likely be > limited since the only real need for the server (in the short term) is to > share files with a remote staff. > Brainstorming might lead to a more robust use, but that has yet to be > revealed. > *by the way, I'm very happy so far with the suggestion to try the apple > refurbished link > > Arnold > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ************************************************************************ > * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== > * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== > * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name > * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST > * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L > * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress > * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ************************************************************************ > * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml > * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived > ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
