[wplug-plan] options for virtual hosting

[Patrick Wagstrom]

Folks,

As you should know, we're looking at ditching the current penguin 
machine for a hosted solution.  Largely because we don't have a formal 
relationship with the current people at SCS and also because the current 
box is a mess.  The board voted in April to retire the current machine 
as of August 1.

Here are current options I've looked into:

John Companies - Basic FreeBSD VPS
2G disk, 30G bandwidth
root to run whatever - $26/mo (discount for paying in advance)

Pair - Basic Hosting Package
1.5G disk, 50G bandwidth
Mailing lists aren't entirely clear
Not true root - $18/mo (discount for paying in advance)

Tektonic - Linux VPS (Virtuozzo)
10G disk, 100G bandwidth
True linux virtual machine (root)
$15/mo
NO SUPPORT (should not be a big deal)

However, there is a catch, which isn't a big deal to me.  NONE of these 
services have in their AUP the ability to run an IRC bot.  It's just too 
risky because of the problems that most IRC bots introduce.  So, we'd 
need a new host for MonkeyBot.

I'm not sure what way I'm leaning right now, but it will be a board 
decision, if you have feedback or have worked with these companies, let 
me know.  I've had good recommendations for all three.

--Patrick