[server-admins] Colocation services quote - Phoenix

[Troy A. Griffitts]

We have a bid that comes in at 10Mbps up and down burstable to 100Mbps
for 32hours a month.  They are fully aware of our exact power draw and
will give us a $100/mo commitment.

I am torn between them (below) and another facility which hosts directly
out of the main central backbone here in Arizona, but wants $30/Mbps/mo.
 I've asked for their best price.  If they can compete price-wise, I
believe we will ultimately get better service from them.

Here's the catch to both offers.

Notice below they state that they are simply providing wide open
bandwidth (good) without DNS services (obstacle).  Currently Extreme
Internet handles all of our DNS entries.  I could probably guess at what
our MX and A entries should look like, but I'm not positive, and I've
never setup a local DNS server.  I also don't know if it would be wise.
 I would rather have redundant external name servers I think.  So I
suppose we could do this by utilizing a service with our registrar.

I could really use some help offloading responsibility of this to
someone with more experience in this area.

Advice?

Troy



On 01/07/2011 12:45 PM, Ed LaFrance wrote:
> Hello Troy -
> 
> Inline:
> 
> On 1/7/2011 11:38 AM, Troy A. Griffitts wrote:
>> Thanks for the $100/mo commitment.  We'd be happy-- even prefer, to
>> install our server at your facility.  A few more questions about things
>> other than pricing:
>>
>> Where is your facility located?
> 
> The colo is provided in Phoenix NAP, 3402 E. University Dr.
> 
>> Our current hosting company provides DNS for us.  We have a 10 or so
>> aliases: ftp. www. svn. mail., etc names that all point to our server, +
>> MX entries.  Is this also provided?
> 
> No, you will need to provide your own DNS. Most domain registrars now
> offer this for free or for a nominal fee, and there are many 3rd party
> providers out there too (some free, some paid). You can also run DNS
> right on your own server, register a couple nameservers with your
> registrar (ns1.yourdomain.com, ns2.yourdomain.com, etc) and take total
> control of it yourself.
> 
>>
>> Finally, one of the reasons we're leaving our current provider is that
>> they have incompetent network staff.  The started blocking entire
>> countries from our server for "security reasons".  We're a Bible Society
>> and supply Bibles for many of the countries they blocked!:)   I just
>> want to be sure you don't have any overly restrictive rules blocking
>> packets into your facility.
> 
> No, quite the opposite, the uplink you'll get in our DC will be wide
> open, even more so then with a home or office internet connection. It's
> imperative that you have the firewall up and running on your server and
> other reasonable security steps are taken (strong passwords, block
> unneeded ports, keep software up to date, etc). The only time we'd block
> anything is if an attack is in process, either directed at your server,
> or emanating from your server.
> 
>>
>> We need to decide this week and plan the move for next week.  If we
>> decide to go with you, can we move our servers in next week?
> 
> Yes. If you'd like to take advantage of this, please reply with the
> following info for the paperwork, and I will draw it up and send it to
> you as PDF:
> 
> 
> AUTHORIZED SIGNOR:
> LEGAL ORGANIZATION NAME:
> ADDRESS:
> CITY:
> STATE/PROVINCE:
> POSTAL:
> COUNTRY:
> TEL:
> FAX:
> EMAIL:
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Ed LaFrance
> 
>>
>> Troy
> 
>