[olug] (OT) - Free/Cheap Temporary Colo-space

Tue Mar 15 02:05:38 UTC 2005

Well, I am hosting my churches website at home right now,  I don't have Cox,
so I don't have to deal with the port blocking.  Im taking car eof DNS and
have battery backup and cool for my little data center in my basement,
however, my pipe is only 256Kbps (advertised) Im actually getting close to
900Kbps up and down.  So far its runniing fine, but it's a wireless
connection with line-of-site to the tower, so on really windy days (like
last Thursday) my connection can drop intermitently, so Im looking for an
alternative.  Im really interested into a facility of some sort.  Im working
on a deal with a friend of mine right now, that is looking at moving his
home office into a space in bellevue(close to his residence) he has offered
me some space for a rack to hold my handful of servers.  He is going to have
a dedicated T1 to start, and depending on his revenue and requirements might
be increasing that.  This at least will be a good start for me, to host my
web/dns/smb/mysql/postgresql servers.  Myabe there is a site somewhere in
Omaha that could do something similar for our needs,  where are OLUGS
currents servers residing?  Maybe there is a little space avaiable in that
area?

Trent 

-----Original Message-----
From: olug-bounces at olug.org [mailto:olug-bounces at olug.org] On Behalf Of
Craig Wolf
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 4:29 PM
To: olug at olug.org
Subject: Re: [olug] (OT) - Free/Cheap Temporary Colo-space

Folks we are onto something worth looking into IMHO.  I am looking at
setting up a small webserver/file server at home with my registered domain
name but I am having to figure out how to "get around" cox's residential
plan/blocking to do it.  I say that our next meeting should be just this
discussion or setting the means to continue down this road.
 How many "members" would be willing to put some money upfront/ongoing to do
this, put forth hardware to get it started, dedicate time to upkeep,
paperwork, expanding it for "non-profit" reasons to meet our needs, etc?
Who will lead the effort?  This would not be a weekend event every 6 months,
this would be ongoing.  I know that I would be willing to donate time and
some money but I am in that position right now in my life where as some of
our members are not.  (That could change in the next month with the baby
coming but so goes life.)  This community of "geeks" is good but are we
ready to take this next step and continue down it or are we just happy with
no "dues" and going to the bar once a month??  Something to think
about.......  

Craig Wolf
Linux Web Server Support
Desktop/Network Specialist
402-894-6283

>>> Sean Edwards <cybersean3000 at yahoo.com> 3/14/2005 >>>
The idea of a non-profit organization is to spend as much as you bring in,
thus the term non-profit.  The problem soon becomes "as much as you bring
in" part. 
Many businesses and other organizations give to non-profit groups for the
tax deduction, but the non-profit organization needs to have a goal a little
loftier than "sponsor our electronic playground, please."  If OLUG is
already set up as a  non-profit organization, there should be a mission
statement and/or a purpose for being in the articles of incorporation, on
file with the State of Nebraska.

Install fest is a good goal, to promote Linux in the community.  If you look
at other similar ideas in the Linux community, you have Open Source
projects, Linux distributions, Source Forge, and many other entities
operating as non-profits.  There are other companies which offer OpenSource
projects with commercial support, such as JBOSS and MySQL.  The trick is
finding an angle that attracts interest from the business community.

Treasurer:
* getting the bills paid ?

Mebership Director:
* collecting "fees" from "customers" (or "dues"
from "members", if you prefer) ?

Secretary, President
(isn't OLUG already set up as a non-profit?)
* putting up with the gov'ment (they can get antsy if they think we're
running a business and aren't paying our taxes)?

Secretary, President, Treasurer:
(don't forget liability)
* insurance (vandalism, fire, flood, etc) ?

Plenty of volunteers for this:
* sysadmin issues - infrastructure configuration and maintenance, defining
and enforcing an AUP and the like?

Organize a Data Center exploration committee:
* getting all of the above figured out ?

-=Sean Edwards=-

--- Phil Brutsche <phil at brutsche.us> wrote:
> Jay Swackhamer wrote:
> > If you wanted to have an independant Data
> Center...
> > 
> > The industrial park at 156th & Center would be a
> good location
> > If I remember correctly, you can get bays in the
> size range of
> > 1000 square feet and up for around $800/month, so
> figure on
> > 
> > Space  $800-$1000/month
> > Utils  $300-$500 /month
> > T1/DSL $300-$500/month
> 
> That's on the low side for a T1, and we haven't done any research as 
> to DSL availability in that area to know if it's available.
> 
> Cox Optical Internet may be a better idea
>
(http://www.coxbusiness.com/systems/ne_omaha/coxoptical.asp)
> - last I
> heard they run the fiber line to the premises.
> 
> > Initial Wiring Costs ~$3000(unless someone's an
> electrician)
> > Commitment would probably be a minimum of three
> years.
> 
> And let's not forget other materials - UPSs, switches, rackmount gear 
> (shelves), etc.  Much of it is cheap enough that some people could 
> donate hardware, but some of it isn't.
> 
> OK, just for the sake of argument, let's say we did it (rented a bay 
> in an industrial park and set up a low-budget data center).
> 
> Who's going to be the point man (people?) for:
>  * getting the bills paid ?
>  * collecting "fees" from "customers" (or "dues"
> from "members", if you
>    prefer) ?
>  * putting up with the gov'ment (they can get antsy if they think 
> we're
>    running a business and aren't paying our taxes) ?
>  * insurance (vandalism, fire, flood, etc) ?
>  * sysadmin issues - infrastructure configuration and maintenance,
>    defining and enforcing an AUP and the like ?
>  * getting all of the above figured out ?
> 
> Is it worth it to start a non-profit organization of some kind (note 
> the question above about the government)?
> 
> Assuming a worst case of $2000/mo in expenses we would need several 
> dozen "members" @ $50/mo - how much are people on this list willing to 
> pay?
> 
> Assuming that we'll need more "members" than the list can provide, can 
> we find enough people to be "members" to make it work - alternate 
> hosting methods to help take up the slack, perhaps?
> 
> Are there cheaper alternatives, such as renting a cage at one of the 
> already established colocation facilities (ie IP Revolution or First 
> National)?
> 
> And no, I am *not* volunteering to do anything right now, I'm just 
> trying to stimulate some discussion.
> 
> --
> 
> Phil Brutsche
> phil at brutsche.us
> _______________________________________________
> OLUG mailing list
> OLUG at olug.org
> http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
> 

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