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Comment by blhack | Hacker News Reader

Linode x1000.

I actually have a VPS at both linode and slicehost (originally this was so that I could have a "dev" and "prod" server for my projects. A stupid decision [because it's expensive and my projects don't get much traffic], but an educational one) and the linode one (at least according to ab) outperforms the slicehost.

If you're thinking about getting a VPS, do it immediately. The $20/mo I started spending (now $40) a couple of years ago was probably one of the most important things I've ever done towards furthering my education.

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Would a Linode VPS be much different than an Amazon instance to host a couple of projects without traffic?

I've been thinking about getting something more "proper" than the GoDaddy plan I've been barely using for a couple of years, and was looking at getting a micro instance with Amazon. A reserved micro instance is only $54/year. I've seen Linode mentioned often but I'm wondering if the $240/year are worth it compared to what I would learn using an Amazon instance.

Reserving a micro instance only means that you get discounted usage hourly usage of that instance. You have to pay usage fees on top of that. By my math, 24 hours * 365 days * $.007 per usage hour (VA datacenter) = $61.32 in usage fees. Don't forget the cost of elastic block storage, too, especially if you're going to save snapshots. A full-time micro instance will cost ~$150/yr.

AWS pricing can be complicated, so make sure you read:

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/purchasing-options/

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Oh I see. I figured my number might be a bit misinformed. Yeah, AWS pricing is not simple and I'm not surprised I forgot storage and other things...

Thanks for the reply!

Micro instances are good for certain things, but I wouldn't want to use one for general purposes. I'm not a guru with server performance, but the micro instances seemed very poor. In my case, compiling from source seemed to always take way longer on an Amazon micro instance compared to a VPS with pretty much any other provider.

Amen to both points:

1) Linode's been nothing short of great. Simple, quick service and a VPS that's always lightly loaded.

2) Absolutely agreed. I had Linux installed on a home "server", but really never got cranking on web work until I got my own server-in-the-cloud. Hadn't really considered that renting the server might drive my activity (rather than merely enabling it), so that's a nice point.

I have a home mac mini server but not sure how to set it up so useful for my needs. How do you user your home server with the cloud server? BTW I am not the programmer in my startup aspiration. LOL

To make use of your home mac mini server, you're going to need a couple of things...

The first is probably going to be a dynamic dns updater (since your cable modem IP address will likely change). Here is one: http://www.dyndns.com/index1.html

Either that, or call your ISP and ask them for a static IP address. They might charge you a small fee for this (ask to talk to tech support for this).

After you have that, you'll need to log into your router and set up something called port forwarding (I apologize if this sounds obvious. I promise I'm not trying to talk down or anything like that, just trying to cover all of the steps).

Forward port 80 (it might just be called "WWW" or "HTTP" in the router settings. This is how it is on one of the sonicwall appliances we use at work) to the internal IP address of your mac mini server.

Make sure that you set a static IP address for the mac mini. You can do this by going to system prefernces -> Wireless and Networking -> Network -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> select "manually" from the dropdown menu and fill in an IP address, subnet mask (probably 255.255.255.0) and a gateway.

Once you have port 80 forwarded to your mac mini, and a DNS record set up, you should be able to access your mac mini's web server from the rest of the internet.

I took down the home server when I switched years ago. It's weird, but paying $20/month forced me to figure out how to configure the server to suit my needs, put up a Wordpress blog, etc.

That said, I play 'developer' about 50% of the time, so it's very helpful for me. If you're not a developer, the home server might be enough to keep you tinkering.

If you do want to play developer: install Ubuntu on the Mac Mini. Mac package management is nowhere near as nice as Debian/Ubuntu and, since most servers will eventually wind up running that or CentOS, you should get used to it now.

I have:

  - 7 linodes.
  - ~12 websites hosted collectively.
  - 0 problems
  - 0 complaints.

Highly recommended.

Is that really cloud hosting?

"...and the linode one (at least according to ab) outperforms the slicehost."

I wonder if this is true across the board though. I imagine both providers have quite a dynamic collection of machines. New machines are being added, plans likely change over time as cash flow increases, etc. Surely not all their machines have the same performance. Some of that might just be luck of the draw. But I have never worked for a hosting provider before, so I wouldn't know.

There is another reason to choose Linode over Slicehost, Linode has consistently improved their offerings over the years through ram increases, hard drive size, etc while slicehost is now at half the ram and other shortcomings for the same price as a Linode.

I really like linode and have been a customer for a few years now so I might be a bit biased.

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