Re: [TCLUG:8058] colocation idea

[Scott Dier <dieman@ringworld.org>]

Quoting Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom <carls@agritech.com>:

> my price range. for a group of people, tho; it might make sense.
>         the economics of it all generally don't justify it (which is why
> it's generally not done); certainly doesn't for me right now. I don't
> need
> *that* much bandwidth; and if I did, it would be cheaper to spring for
> ISDN.

Hate to brag or anything.. but heres how we do it.

We provide some free support to a group that needs it and has bandwidth to 
provide (in the way of 512k dsl).  They provide us (three of us) some bandwidth 
on that connection.  They get us to help out with linux and other issues (for 
example I rigged up amanda with their 12gb dat drive and stuff like that).

So the moral of the story is -- find someone with a nice fat DSL pipe and do 
something nice for them... or many things nice for them...  and see if they 
would allow you to eat minimal amounts of bandwidth so you can have a box up 
all the time on the 'net.  It's totally possible.  If your into lots of 
bandwidth hook up with a few people and pitch in for a fast DSL for 
yourselves. :)  (do the cdr sphiel and all.  *make* people pickup the cd's 
themselves though, (and setup the burner.)  so youd need *tons* of scratch and 
a fast burner so people come - burn - leave. :P)

Now the security/lameness concerns are pretty valid.  I attempt to keep a semi-
tight system that seems to keep most people from pulling shit around here.  
But, with about 40 users on this box, I haven't felt worried about the ongoings 
of this system, and haven't heard/seen anything to say otherwise about it.

But. this is just a 486 that we gathered up and slammed a lot more ram into 
than it really needs.  It works, and it was cheap. (and it runs debian!)

Well, I move into the dorm today.  Guess I should sleep or something.  Been 
wresteling with NT all night trying to get my dads box to do proxying.  Hrm.

---
Scott Dier - dieman@ringworld.org - 612.494.6664
destiny.ringworld.org admin - ringworld.associates member
"HP Calculators used something called 'Reverse Polish Notation.' 
 You entered the two numbers and *then* you pressed the function you
 wanted"  "Ahh...Kind of like the way Yoda talks." -User Friendly