[Scotttheking]

I've decided to attend the University of Maryland come fall. For those who didn't pay attention in geography, Maryland isn't close to Arizona This will entail many changes for me, but the one that affects all of you is my servers. At this point I don't know of any reason why they can't stay at home, other then the fact that I will not be around to support them. If there is a hardware failure, I have to find someone to go fix it, and possibly walk them thru it. This is a less then optimal solution. I should have a friend who knows computers and linux around, but if he gets busy it could take a few days to get him to go visit.

It is also possible that this house will be sold, but I'll know that by the end of June.

Since UMD is expensive (looking at around $30K per year, for three years), I won't have money to put into increasing server reliability with things like raid1 and better (over 5 minutes) battery backups. I had been hoping to do that this summer, but the budget just isn't there. I was also hoping to roll all web functions into one dual server, but that clearly can't happen either.

I host my own sites, so there's a lot more on the servers then teamstats, although it is by far the biggest and most resource intensive. I'm not completely sure what to do with them, but they have to stay up, along with email (which should be on it's own server within a few weeks).

One hope that I have, but have no guarantees on, is that once I finish some rebuilding and reorganizing, I can open up the servers to use by others, and since there is some extra capacity on them, maybe bring in enough money for them to be self supporting. Again, I won't know this until after I get email working, which should have been done 6 months ago

Basically, I turn it over to you all as to what you all feel is the best option.

--Scott

[siliconman]

Good luck with all ventures. I hope you can keep the servers up, but education is more important than just about anything else, even my stats addiction.

[[APi]TheMan]

That's rad, Scott. Hopefully both you and the team do alright.

[mikkyo]

Electricity is cheaper in Maryland and it is cooler overall.
Your servers maybe be cheaper and happier with you.
Housing should be cheaper out there too.

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by mikkyo:
Electricity is cheaper in Maryland and it is cooler overall.
Your servers maybe be cheaper and happier with you.
Housing should be cheaper out there too.

That's the spirit!

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by mikkyo:
Electricity is cheaper in Maryland and it is cooler overall.
Your servers maybe be cheaper and happier with you.
Housing should be cheaper out there too.

Heh. Housing = approx $1K/month for a 1 bedroom apartment.
Computers stay in Arizona.

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Heh. Housing = approx $1K/month for a 1 bedroom apartment.
Computers stay in Arizona.

Ouch, you are way to close to Baltimore/Washington DC, the Fraud capital of the USA. Don't buy any cell phones on the street, no matter how good the deal.

Still, good luck with the future. As already said, education is more important then our stats addiction. Do the best that you can do, and I for one will support it.

Rent wise, look for some geeky roomates who won't object to computers, and get yourself at least a three bedroom. Got to be some MacGeeks out there somewhere.

[siliconman]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Heh. Housing = approx $1K/month for a 1 bedroom apartment.
Computers stay in Arizona.

If it's a question of space, I live in northern Virginia (DC suburbs) and can put them in my basement, so you could have them nearby if you need to mess with them. I'll provide the space and electricity, all you need to do is handle the routing.

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by siliconman:
If it's a question of space, I live in northern Virginia (DC suburbs) and can put them in my basement, so you could have them nearby if you need to mess with them. I'll provide the space and electricity, all you need to do is handle the routing.

Can you elaborate on that? I might be interested. Especially since it's possible that this house will be gone by the end of the summer.

[siliconman]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Can you elaborate on that? I might be interested. Especially since it's possible that this house will be gone by the end of the summer.

What I mean is that I'm currently only running with residential broadband. If anyone needs to access into these machines from the net, then it will be difficult due to the dynamic IP and the NAT translation on my local router. (not to mention the low bandwidth) That would make running web, mail or other services difficult. (You did mention that you host sites on these boxes)
Assuming that you are already paying for the IP space and connectivity at your current location, it shouldn't be a large expense to transition that service to my location. I would expect you to absorb those costs.

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by siliconman:
What I mean is that I'm currently only running with residential broadband. If anyone needs to access into these machines from the net, then it will be difficult due to the dynamic IP and the NAT translation on my local router. (not to mention the low bandwidth) That would make running web, mail or other services difficult. (You did mention that you host sites on these boxes)
Assuming that you are already paying for the IP space and connectivity at your current location, it shouldn't be a large expense to transition that service to my location. I would expect you to absorb those costs.

Ahh, ok. Wasn't sure what you meant by routing. I interpreted it as needing to setup a local network.

I'll pass on your offer due to budgetary concerns. I'm cutting costs, and paying for another internet connection really isn't something I want to do. I might not even have one after I move (yeah, right).

[Capt Shane]

dynamic dns and zoneedit.com can handle the dynamic ip and remap it when it changes to your new ip, been using it for years on my cable works great.

[siliconman]

Originally posted by Capt Shane:
dynamic dns and zoneedit.com can handle the dynamic ip and remap it when it changes to your new ip, been using it for years on my cable works great.

I'm doing basically the same thing now, but I'm hosting a couple of minor things, and he said he was hosting sites. It becomes far tricker to handle that with just one IP. We may have been able to consolidate some redundancies, but using a comercial grade service would have been far easier and less likely to conflict between our dozen machines.

[SciFrog]

So we have someone to house the computers and someone to maintain them.

How much money are we talking about to get this connection?

[reader50]

I can possibly host teamstats, since I upgraded to DSL (1500/256) in March. The only issues I'd have are:

1) Dynamic IP, and I'm on a year contract, may not be able to upgrade to static. Solution: leave router connected all the time. It needs to be anyway, for the servers to be online 24/7.

2) Heat. It gets hot here in summer, and it would be hard to keep them below 80 degrees. Better CPU fans might fix that, and I'm looking into some other cooling arrangements.

[siliconman]

Originally posted by SciFrog:
So we have someone to house the computers and someone to maintain them.

How much money are we talking about to get this connection?

I did a little digging tonight and buisness ADSL (1.5/384) with a few static IP's looks to be about $80/month with if you average out the setup fees over a year, about $95/month or $1100/year. I have no idea if that is enough bandwith for Scotttheking's boxes. Anyone think they could find something cheaper/better?

[Scotttheking]

www.speakeasy.net
you trade the 3 months for $20 to instead get 768/1.5 at the 384 price.
Then use http://www.speakeasy.net/rebates/ to get the $200 install back.
$75/month + tax.
What I have.

[siliconman]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
www.speakeasy.net
you trade the 3 months for $20 to instead get 768/1.5 at the 384 price.

I don't see anything about this trade on thier web site. http://www.speakeasy.net/buscompare does show the prices you mention for the 1.5/256

I haven't had time to research it in detail yet, but speakeasy seems to have been listed in SPEWS at one point. I won't be using thier service if they are still listed.

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by siliconman:
I don't see anything about this trade on thier web site. http://www.speakeasy.net/buscompare does show the prices you mention for the 1.5/256

I haven't had time to research it in detail yet, but speakeasy seems to have been listed in SPEWS at one point. I won't be using thier service if they are still listed.

I know it doesn't say it on their site. But it's what I have Don't know how hard it is to get, I was offered it when I ordered.

Speakeasy isn't listed in SPEWS that I can see.

[siliconman]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Speakeasy isn't listed in SPEWS that I can see.

Yeah, my first glance was a google groups look at NANAE, and it was old out of date info. they are not listed in SPEWS and have only one issue open on SBL. 8-)

I don't have the money yet, but it is looking good for late summer.

[Scotttheking]

Barring major problems, I've got an apartment lined up. Nice little two bedroom apartment, $1300/month. It's got space for the laptop, and that's about it.
Still pursuing hosting options, and working on migrating sites off my server and onto other locations.

[reader50]

Maybe I'm out of touch with rental prices, but a basic apartment should start around $500/month. Are you renting the one with room service, a private pool, and a good view into the ball park?

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by reader50:
Maybe I'm out of touch with rental prices, but a basic apartment should start around $500/month. Are you renting the one with room service, a private pool, and a good view into the ball park?

Uhh.
Basic 2 bedroom apartment, one bathroom, small kitchen (it has a dishwasher!), nothing fancy, but across the street from campus, and that's the part of campus that I'll have half of my classes in. There is a pool, but it's closed because it's trashed. Utilities included, but I pay for phone and cable.
I'm splitting it with a roommate, and he's splitting his room with someone, but it's still costly there. The closer you are to campus, the more it costs, and this is about as close to campus as you can get.

I'll give you the details if you get on AIM sometime when I'm around.

[reader50]

An update regarding teamstats. Scott's house did indeed sell, and the new location only has cable broadband available - no servers. Scott will go to the East coast in mid August, but the servers need to move around mid-late July before school preparations dominate.

At this time, the plan is for me to host from California. In early-mid July, I'll order a decent UPS and a router that can handle dynamic DNS issues for us, and the router will remain connected 24/7, so IP changes will hopefully not be an issue.

My connection is dynamic DSL 1500/256, actual measured speeds of 150 KB/s down and 20 KB/s up. Teamstats' current connection differs mainly in having ~60KB/s up (768 Kb/s rated), but upload bandwidth averages 4 KB/s so my lower upload speed will be enough. Clients may notice slightly slower page loads, but processing time is normally more of a bottleneck than network time, so any added delay will be small. I'll look into upgrading to a static plan with (possibly) higher speeds, but I am on a one-year contract, so chances of an upgrade are uncertain.

Cooling is the most difficult issue. I have a window cooler in the room the servers will go in, and the airflow will blow directly on the servers. Right now the outlet temp is 68º - 70º when outside temp is ~97º, depending on relative humidity. Temperatures in mid August go well over 100º here, this may force the air around the servers above 80º, at which point Scott has concerns. Should the servers have problems, I'll have to add a window A/C later in the summer. I already had the window cooler handy, so the cost figures like this: $0 initial + 3.5 Amps when running. For comparison, adding a window A/C figures as: $199 initial + 7.9 Amps when running. Hopefully we'll be ok with the cooler - or possibly add better heat sink fans on the servers.

So right now, it looks like this: sometime after mid July, teamstats will go offline while Scott ships them my way. Perhaps a week after that, I'll have them up and running here, assuming nothing breaks during shipping. Also assuming I don't do anything stupid to the x86 linux servers, on which I have no hands-on experience. I've been handling teamstats issues on these servers for some time via command line, but Scott always handled issues from the linux and hardware side of things.

If someone else can host, say from a colder location like Alaska, we'd be interested. Regardless, teamstats is going to stay with us. I'll post more as things move along.

/me still thinks $1300 per month for a dinky apartment is highway robbery.

[Scotttheking]

In addition to what reader50 said, I'd like to note that if possible we'd love to upgrade some hardware, or even roll everything into one powerful dual box. The problem is, that's a high dollar upgrade. We might ask for donations to upgrade, I don't know for sure yet.
I'd just like to remind people that the ads on the team.macnn.com page, as well as the links in the thread at the top of this forum, are used to get some funds for the stats boxes. The google ads are pay per click, and for the rest I get a percentage of the money spent.
The upgrade we'd love to get is a dual opteron box, but it's very expensive. Also being looked at are replacing one box with a single opteron, for now, and hopefully moving up later. An athlon 64 system is possible as well, but there's no speed benefit over an opteron, only cost, and there's not that great of a cost difference.
We'd like to reduce the power usage of the boxes, as well as increase their power, allowing us to track more, and have more stats (as reader50 codes them, of course).

--Scott