Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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Subsidized ISP Hosting So far in this series we've examined two alternatives for setting up your own Web site. The first was to install your own server, a dedicated phone line, and be your own ISP. The second alternative was to host your Web pages on an ISP's machine. There is a third option which we've briefly mentioned in previous columns. This is to take advantage of subsidized (usually free) Web hosting services. We'll look at that subject in just a moment. One of the big arguments against setting up your own Web server has been the cost. Web hosting isn't cheap, but for small sites that may be the most economical way for most companies to go. Although there are some ISPs that offer excellent prices for dedicated access lines, the cost of the dedicated line has often been a problem. A few developments over the last few months throw some new factors into these calculations, and are well worth mentioning before we close off this series. First, there were only a few ways to get dedicated lines into your business running to your ISP. These tended to be a dedicated analog line (limited to about 38.8kbps), ISDN (limited to 128kbps), or one of the T-series (such T1 at 1.544 Mbps or the faster T3). Prices for dedicated lines of these types range from lows of a few hundred dollars a month for analog and ISDN (the latter subject to your local switching office supporting ISDN) to several thousand dollars for a T1. At my location, for example, a dedicated T1 line to my ISP would cost about $2,200 and require the rent or purchase of routers, running about $500 per month on a lease. For most companies that's just too much to pay for the dedicated line, especially since it doesn't include the ISP's charge which can range from less than $100 for ISDN to several thousand for T1. Unless you're doing a heck of a lot of business and the Web site will pay for itself, these charges are just too outrageous for most VARs. Help has come along in the form of Bell. Depending on where you live, you may be able to take advantage of one of several new initiatives Bell and it's subsidiaries across the country) have started to capitalize on the Web boom. One program called Work@Home lets you run ISDN or ADSL (the new high-speed asynchronous digital subscriber line service) into your home or business (if it's a small business) for a couple of hundred dollars a month. For larger businesses and those not home-based, Bell's AIBN can provide much the same service. In both cases, Bell can provision the line, install the routers (at a charge, of course), and act as your ISP all for a reasonable price. To have AIBN run a dedicated 128kbps ISDN line into my company, set up my domain, and act as my ISP would cost about $595 per month. A router costs an additional $100 per month if you don't have one. Service depends again on your local switching office's capabilities, and there are competing offers starting to emerge from Bell's competitors, so check out the options and you may find hosting your own Web server is feasible, after all. What to do if you can't get ISDN or T1 lines without paying exorbitant fees to upgrade the local switching office? There's always Frame Relay available. Frame Relay is a networking protocol that runs over standard phone lines. It can be configured on practically any switching office, although it does require special routers. If you live in the country or a suburb that's not digital-ready, this may be a reasonable choice. Returning to our beloved Bell again, they were willing to install Frame Relay (called HyperStream by Bell) to $600 a month for 128kbps service, or $1,500 for 512kbps. The equipment needed to provide Frame Relay interfaces to your server costs about $1695, but again can be leased or rented. There's nothing wrong with Frame Relay. It's just not as popular as digital alternatives. The advantage is it's available everywhere. After earlier columns about the cost of Web hosting and ISP support for dedicated lines (most telling me my estimates of price were way off), I did some checking. All the prices I quoted in columns before this were from my ISP, UUNET. Some of the smaller ISPs in my area offer dedicated service for a couple of hundred dollars a month, while hosting can be as low as $100 per month (limited traffic). Are the smaller ISPs reliable? A survey of local companies using some of these small providers seems to indicate that the service is very good to excellent. Practically all companies I spoke to reported occasional outages, but they are rare. The biggest concern was technical support. Judge for yourself which balance of tech support, reliability, and price best meets your needs. Finally, the last alternative in the Web hosting options mentioned earlier is the subsidized site. These are set up by companies, mostly in the US, who offer to let you place your domain and Web pages on their server for free (or a nominal fee) in exchange for the rights to display ads on your home pages. The quality of the services and the obtrusiveness of the ads varies greatly. I recently auditioned two US-based services for a client, and found both offered free support for a smallish Web page (about ten pages total). One placed relatively discreet ads at the top of the Web page you designed, usually for a large corporation like an automobile or soft drink vendor, while the other had ads peppered everywhere on the page. In the formal, the ads were quite tolerable, with the other, intolerable. Neither made a guarantee of service or the type of ads they placed on your pages (which are assigned seemingly in rotation). You could have your Web page topped by an ad for a US-based wholesaler of computers, for example. Not the best idea for your company, most likely. Do these service work? Yes, but I don't think they're a viable alternative for VARs. Avoid them unless you just want to experiment. |
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