Is your ISPs email server in Timbuktu?

[ambo]

My international mail actually downloads quicker than my local mail at this point.. Still trying to work that one out

You need to remember that your download speed is affected as much by client side as server side.
The data centre where our server is located has a total of 21 x 1gigabps links - which you can pretty much compare with the total international bandwidth available to the whole of South Africa. This sort of bandwidth is common for overseas servers
Conversely - as i understand it, most local hosts work on Diginet lines... and we all know how much telkom rapes you for a Diginet line. For that reason - you will probably find that many of the SMME type hosting providers are way under provisioning on their bandwidth due to the huge expense. Also there is the constant fight about the IS-SAIX peering link and if you're on one network and your server is on another - you're fighting your way through a very small bottleneck...

 

[Kalvaer]

but out of interest sake, how many concurrent seperate domains can you host with Philex?

OK well my head hurts quiet badly... Sometimes I hate friday nights. But none the less. I did get a response from Philex and i'm just double checking with them to confirm and also checking up about the serverside apps for coldfusion for you. However my initial response to the domain pointers from them was:

You can point any domain to the main domain
There is a one time $35 fee which we can discount to $12 for you

Dont know if you would get the discount I do host quiet a few sites with them, but I could try

 

[Clipse]

I find it strange that a local ISP host their email on overseas hosts.

Its kinda silly, sure it cost less but it can create endless hassles for clients.

 

[Kalvaer]

And got the last info for you from Philex

"If you want to point to another folder there is a seperate plan $10 more a month (flat for all) that lets you point different domains
Each park is a setup feee however.
We do not support cold fusion. It seems to be on its way out.
We support php, perl c, C++"

So I guess each of them have the ups and downs and plus's.. Its still really sad both ways though that these options are better for us to host overseas than at home.

Oh and Clipse, Lately I think the hassles between the peering links and all the other BS we've had in SA.. I think hosting overseas is a lot less hassle. Maybe one day we will catch up. I just hope its soon

 

[kilos]

Hmm Crystaltech.. looks good. I must go through what the over more as well. another reason I went with philex BTW and recommend them to everyone. The have also have a local bank account so you dont have to pay by credit card if you dont want to

EDIT: Actually.. I'll still go with Philex. Just compared the pricing. For the $16.95 a month option (which I'm using at philex now) You get 1000 megs compared to 400, and 5 gigs more bandwidth. There are only 2 FTP accounts with Philex.. but who needs more and you can get more if you want. Everything else looks pretty much the same though

Pros of International Hosting:
* Cheaper prices
* More bandwidth for less
* Good support

Cons of International Hosting:
* No connectivity to Email & Web if International link goes down (should be never)
* Long latency of international routing.

Presently use 4-6Gb of bandwidth on my website and it costs me R60/month.
* 800 Mb space
* 50 Gb bandwidth
http://www.flexihostings.net/detail_us.php
the equivalent with Hetzner is R439 with 5Gb bandwidth & 1 Gb storage space.
Flexihostings went thru a bad patch having to replace my hosting server twice, but all is well now.

We also have a reseller account with them for $25/month and we host our
customers email account on it running fecthmail from local Linux mailserver
sitting on ADSL lines, now that will all change as the fetchmail runs on
port 110 POP3 when it fetches the spooled email.
In 18 months we have had no problems at all with the spooled emails.