Radified guide to a video streaming site

Intro Domain name Web hosting Config stream Home

Select a web-hosting provider 

Radified selected web-hosting provider: Communitech, Kansas City. They've been in the business since April, '97 (long time in the internet biz) & have >25K customers worldwide.

* CNet-rated Top 25 Webhosting Company
* Network Solutions Gold Premier Partner
* Member of the BBB On-Line Reliability Program
* Member of the Web Host Guild & VeriHost
* M
ember of Microsoft's WPP for FrontPage 2000

Read more about them here

This is also a good link with helpful info here and also here.

Selected web-hosting plan: Unix Standard, offering the following goodies:

* 350MB web space (this is nice - seems like 60-100MB is the standard with most providers, which isn't a lot if you wanna stream video/movies)

* Unlimited website traffic (sounds too good to be true, don't it?. I’m sure you’ll get a call if things get outta hand, but at least you don’t have to worry about charge$ for going over the maximum. something about a traffic limit turns me off.)

* 100 email accounts (we'll never need this many, but nice to know that plenty are available)
* 25 FTP accounts (I only need a few)

* 25 sub-domains (have not played with these, but plan to set at least one up to see how it goes)

* Real player (server), Shockwave & FrontPage 2000 (Think I read where CT purchased a 100-stream license from Real. That's how Real makes their money. They give the client away (free) & charge for the server. Would be interesting to know what it costs for a 100-stream license.)

* 99.5% guaranteed uptime. In other words, less than 4 hrs of downtime per month (not counting scheduled maintenance, which they notify you of 24 hrs in advance). I read some guying complaining on CT general bbs forum that they don't think CT is meeting the 99.5% guarantee. I have not been with them long enough to know if the complaints are valid. I've been impressed with the sppt so far. They aren't perfect, but they seem to be way out ahead of most online companies I've dealt with. I would dump them if their sppt suked.)

* Price freeze (This is cool. It means they’ll never raise your rates (on existing accounts) – ever. CT claims that some long-time customers pay ~US$10/mo & still get all the cool features as upgrades are made. I like that - as long as their service holds up.)

Read about CT’s server hardware & software here. (worth a peek)

Basically, they're running $30K Sun Enterprise 250 servers w/ Solaris 7 (64-bit OS), powered by dual 300MHz UltraSparcs (64-bit!), 7200rpm SCSI RAID_5 disc storage, dual-redundant everything & a few other performance-enhancing goodies. Doesn't get much better - especially at CT's prices. 

CT’s Unix Standard account will cost you between $23 & $30 per month, depending on length of service selected. A $35 one-time set-up fee is waived on accounts opened for one year (or longer). Minimum contract is 3-months. They'll put you on one of those phat Sun servers with about 300 others customers. That's how they get to charge so little for space of such an expensive server. 

See here for CT's network topology. They have dual OC-12's, providing 1.2Gbps & fiber to Virginia, Chicago & San Jose.

CT will usually set up your account at the end of the day your order. They’ll send you an email when they got it up for you. They email will include all the info you need to set up your site, including login & password. Until the Net updates itself (typically 1-to-3 days) to learn that your particular domain name is located on servers owned by Communitech in Kansas City, you’ll be able to access your web site via your IP address (numbers, you'll get one static IP addy with each acct you set up).

If you haven’t already, go back to the Domain Discover home page & log into the ‘Existing customers’ section using your domain name and password. From there, click on the link named ‘Nameservers’ and change the name of the servers listed to those specified by CT – probably:

NS.HOSTING4U.NET
NS2.HOSTING4U.NET

If you used another domain name registrar or web hosting provider, revise as applicable.

Next -> Configure the stream