Achtung, Internet service on Hillbilly Island has been as spotty as granny's back these days. So much so that I have, once again, followed in the footsteps of James Kovacs, this time by switching to GoDaddy for reasons similar to his own.

Based on his experience, I went directly with a virtual dedicated server but quickly decided that it was going to be insufficient for my needs and I'm now the proud owner of my own bouncing baby dedicated server.

The main (and upon reflection, only) downside to the virtual dedicated server was the physical limit of 10Gb for the disk space. That is unupgradeable. The only way to get more disk space is to get another virtual dedicated server. (Note: This is for a Windows 2003 server; the Linux packages could be upgraded to 50Gb.)

And since two virtual dedicated servers is almost the same price as a single dedicated server, it doesn't take an actuary to add up those numbers. Twice the price for over ten times the disk space. Assuming you need the disk space.

Among the reasons for increased disk space:

  • One of the apps currently hosted on the Bahamian server is a web-based document repository of almost 1Gb of word documents (oil & gas-based contracts and fiscal terms from around the world)
  • An app I'm building for a client/my dad that will host, among other things, AutoCAD files
  • My online music library, which currently stands at 12Gb alone

Yes, the last one isn't exactly mission critical but it helps my argument so I'm using it. In addition to these apps are the many other little web apps I have built and/or plan to build (including possibly turning my dad's app into a Sharepoint site).

Early impressions of GoDaddy are good to excellent. Startlingly prompt (i.e. almost no hold time, especially compared with my recent numerous calls to Expedia who are perpetually, "experiencing an unusually large number of calls"), friendly CSRs, timely service, and great prices. The only minor complaint I have is that the server I was provisioned had Windows Server 2003 installed but not service pack 2 or the .NET 2.0/3.0 runtimes.

Anyway, it's good to be back in civilization, if only virtually. As it is, I still haven't been able to get my old dasBlog site.config file or the log files moved from the cess pit that is Cable Bahamas yet. But to you, my faithful reader(s), who have been wandering Hillbilly-less these last three days, thank you for not forsaking me.