Let'em know I sent ya.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

I contacted Sprocket Data because of an advertisement on this site. I don't click banners much, but this one was attractive, and I couldn't believe one could offer a dedicated server for $35/month. But their site was clear (although it worked well only with a few browsers), and it explained the low cost. The cheapest dedicated server was a Pentium 133 with 64 MB ram, which still is overkill for simple web and e-mail hosting.

I didn't expect the small amount of money to buy me this service. I ordered one of their 133's, but because they were out of stock, I got a Pentium 166 at no additional charge. The operating system of my choice (Debian GNU/Linux, of course) came-preinstalled. Every e-mail I have sent them has been answered the same day, and I get weekly detailed bandwidth usage statistics.

17 days back (the current uptime is 17 days :), Sprocket Data needed to move my server. Other ISPs that I know would have done so with only an announcement. This ISP doesn't just announce, they asked if I thought the move was acceptable and waited for my reply before the actual relocation took place. The server was properly shut down (I gave them my root password), and the total downtime was less than 5 minutes. Now that's service!

I wish this kind of service was provided this cheap in .nl, because the ssh connection to .us is very laggy, and I like working remotely.

Currently, I have a vmware evaluation version running on the Pentium 133, and now I have two servers for the price of one. This allows me to try different server setups, and to play around with things.

- Yes, I reinvent wheels.
- Spam: Visit eurotraQ.

This seems like something we should hear more of on PM.

A few recent bits we've heard around our office are:

I've heard things about (but never used) Tier1Host: shared hosting, mod_perl, unlimited MySQL's, unmetered disk and bandwidth, unlimited sub-domains pointing to a directory, etc.

Have heard interesting (mod_perl) things about WebIntellects and CI Host; but I think I recall CI Host only allowing one MySQL database.

This came up under a short search I did some months ago but didn't pursue for other reasons: http://modperl-space.com/ (BareMetal.com)

I'm sure you'll hear from others, but here's a small list of web hosting search engines or directories;

• An interesting mod_perl list at Apache.com
  
• http://www.findyourhosting.com/
  
• http://www.findahost.com/
  
• http://www.hostsearch.com/

Surely there are many more decent hosts that other monks can recommend. I'd love to see a long list from others also.

• Virtula Host (not a dedicated server ;/ )
• CGI/Perl
• ASP
• Microsoft FrontPage Extensions (or whatever the actual name is.. as I haven't use this feature much :)
• ColdFusion (a real cool thing to have for raaaaapid development and deployment)
• MS Access Database
• Extensive site statistics etc.

$"=q;grep;;$,=q"grep";for(`find . -name ".saves*~"`){s;$/;;;/(.*-(\d+)
+-.*)$/;
$_=["ps -e -o pid | "," $2 | "," -v "," "];`@$_`?{print"+ $1"}:{print"
+- $1"}&&`rm $1`;
print$\;}
[download]

Maybe it's just me and I don't know the market very well, but that seems like a pretty good value for $16/month. I do know that mod_perl vhosts are no treat to run for multiple sites, and at $16/month I'd have to guess your ISP's margins are too thin to provide this kind of customization.

One idea for ISPs supporting what you want: check out various software packages that use mod_perl, like Slash or Scoop, and scour their sites of friendly ISPs.

Chris
M-x auto-bs-mode

I've no ISPs to recommend, but you might want to wander over to perl.com and take a look at (the very recently posted) Finding a mod_perl ISP... or Becoming One?

    --k.

Yves / DeMerphq
---
Writing a good benchmark isnt as easy as it might look.