COME STAY IN MY DATA BARN

Warning: This is an Advertisement. I'm Trying to Sell You Something.

I'm Sick of Crappy Connections.

I've been connected to the internet some way or another since 1989, and I've had really great bandwidth and really sucky bandwidth. Usually the great bandwidth was at work or in a college lab, and the sucky bandwidth was the stuff I did my actual browsing on. I've been there through 9600 baud text windows and multiple T-3s through redundant providers, and I know what I like. I like fast, I like dependable, I like freedom.

Hard to get all three at once, I know. Either you get something nice and slow that no one cares about, including you, or you have the speed beyond speed and every click that you do on a pair of boobs or on a game-playing site is one more reason in their pocket to fire you. It's really horrible.

But what could I do? I was renting apartments and there really wasn't better for me than DSL or Cable modems. I tripped along with DSL, but it's only OK for downloads and completely horrible for uploads. As for Cable, well, they don't like you running servers or downloading a lot or, basically, having any fun. But I was a renter, and that was that.

Egad, a Homeowner

Then, in August of this year, I bought a house, a nice big one in Waltham, Massachusetts, conveniently located near Interstate 95 near the intersection with Route 90. The house is 102 years old and has many rooms and space.

Almost immediately, after arranging my office and getting the bills and mortgage straightened out, I set into motion the process of building some sort of hosting facility in the basement. While I know I could never hope to measure up to a professional company, I know I could come up with something reasonable to host a small amount of folks along with myself on the network. I have about 7 years of experience with working in datacenters, and I know what works and what doesn't. I also know what I personally could fulfill and what I couldn't hope to provide in a million years. I cleaned out the basement, plotted where to put racks, and began putting my own machines up to prove the whole system can work.

Opportunity Knocks

Finally, I found a deal that made it worth it... I found out I could get a 3mbit connection to the house for $500 a month. It doesn't get much better than that in the current Internet connectivity world, without giving up an awful lot of control to your upstream provider. So I'm in great shape, right?

Well, yeah, but now I'm setting myself up to be dreadfully poor. That's a lot of money. I can't afford it alone. So I've decided to open up my basement empire to a select group of what are soon to be my best friends in the world.

Basically, I'm looking for a few "roommates" to host with me to drive the monthly costs down. These people would host servers with me, do what they want on the pipe, and generally have a great time. Maybe you're going to be one of these people.

The Images

Here are some (hopefully) informative images of the soon-to-be Data Barn:

Looks Cute; What's This Going to Cost Me?

To become my new best friend will cost you $100 a month per server. That's unlimited bandwidth, run what you want on the box, sub-sell it as a virtual hosting company, I don't care. At this rate, 5 or 6 people will make the place float its own boat and I won't keep trying to stack more people on after that. Then I have the bandwidth being paid for and I'm just paying the electricty and other fun stuff.

If that number scares you, that's OK. It's not for everyone. You'd probably want to meet me anyway, and we can do that. We can chat, we can write, you name it. I can be reached at jason@textfiles.com or by leaving a message at 1-617-COW-TOWN.

I am a professional, like I said, and that means I am used to being woken up at 4am (or at noon) with problems with servers. Problems that need to be fixed RIGHT NOW and I better hop to it because every moment costs major cash. This is my background and my training, and you would have access to that. If you find your server is down or the connection's gone to crap or in some way your online presence is beginning to suck buttock, you know you can page me or call me on my cell phone and get things in motion.

Anyway

Hopefully this page gives you an idea of what's going on with the Data Barn Project, and even more hopefully, you'll want to talk about signing on. If so, your best bet is to e-mail me and talk about coming over and chatting. We can discuss your needs and expectations and whether this would be a good fit. I'm not going to be right for everyone, but maybe I'm right for you.

Here's hoping we talk soon.

SUMMARY FOR THE IMPATIENT/UNWILLING TO READ: $100 A MONTH FOR A SERVER, IN MY NICE BASEMENT, WITH NO LIMITS ON YOUR USAGE OR CONTENT.

E-MAIL JASON WITH YOUR QUESTIONS