Moving personal server offsite

[rsriverrat]

i must say i am a bit impressed with your site, and offerings, may a take a min and explain my situation and see if your company may beable to help me out a bit.

I am an experienced linux user currently using a popular (Clarkconnect) Centos based mail and web server in my house just for my family and friends, i am wanting to get rid of my business class internet and the hassles involved with maintaining my own server( i have better things to do). I currently have about 5 websites, all with their own email address's (about 20 total email accounts). We only use webmail (HORDE) to access our email as the kids like to corrupt their windows installs often and this assures that we always have our email, no matter what happens to our pc's or where we are traveling. However with old age, hurricanes, power outtages and the like i need something else to relieve me of some stress.

OK thats my situation now for a few questions regarding your service?

We are currently looking at the Budget 5 star plan to fit our need.

1. Our mail server uses imap mail folders so everything is currently stored in /var/spool/imap/d/user/dale instead of the old way with users folders and mail in their home directories. will it be possible to upload those to my account so we can still use our existing mail?

2. Webmail only. We do not want to use any other mail program other then a webmail based approach. We are familiar with SquirrelMail and Horde, however we have been looking at RoundCube as of late for a change. will this be ok aswell?

3. Backups are crucial as all our mail would be stored on the server at any given time, if something were to happen would our mail be safe? The websites i am not so much afraid of losing as i would have them stored locally on our file server.

4. Can the backups be downloaded by me for safe keeping here in my house just incase i need to access them for some reason or another?

5. If additional disk space or bandwidth were needed could additional be purchased as needed to prevent going over?

ok thats all i can think of for now, i may have more questions for ya...

Ratt

[Matt]

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

i must say i am a bit impressed with your site, and offerings, may a take a min and explain my situation and see if your company may beable to help me out a bit.

Sure, we are happy to answer anything you might need to know.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

I am an experienced linux user currently using a popular (Clarkconnect) Centos based mail and web server in my house just for my family and friends, i am wanting to get rid of my business class internet and the hassles involved with maintaining my own server( i have better things to do). I currently have about 5 websites, all with their own email address's (about 20 total email accounts). We only use webmail (HORDE) to access our email as the kids like to corrupt their windows installs often and this assures that we always have our email, no matter what happens to our pc's or where we are traveling. However with old age, hurricanes, power outtages and the like i need something else to relieve me of some stress.

That is why we are here. We also run CentOs so the environment will be familiar to you

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

OK thats my situation now for a few questions regarding your service?

We are currently looking at the Budget 5 star plan to fit our need.

1. Our mail server uses imap mail folders so everything is currently stored in /var/spool/imap/d/user/dale instead of the old way with users folders and mail in their home directories. will it be possible to upload those to my account so we can still use our existing mail?

We support IMAP, but the path is going to be different. We also use maildir format, so if you use mbox there will probably be compatibility issues unless you convert them to maildir. The path to upload the mails to would be in the user's homedir since the emails need to be owned by the user for proper quota tracking, among other things. I recommend a Professional hosting plan if performance and reliability are your concern. However if these are coming from a home based server, Budget might suit your needs perfectly.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

2. Webmail only. We do not want to use any other mail program other then a webmail based approach. We are familiar with SquirrelMail and Horde, however we have been looking at RoundCube as of late for a change. will this be ok aswell?

Roundcube is still flaky at times, and not yet fully supported and should be considered beta. Horde and squirrel are stable but may not be as robust as you are used to since it is a shared environment. Maybe a VPS would better suit your needs if you need management plus a little extra flexibility.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

3. Backups are crucial as all our mail would be stored on the server at any given time, if something were to happen would our mail be safe? The websites i am not so much afraid of losing as i would have them stored locally on our file server.

We have backups for every type of hosting, but if your data is important to you, you should keep local backups since backups do corrupt and hardware does fail. We have not had many problems with backups failing, but I know that it does happen.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

4. Can the backups be downloaded by me for safe keeping here in my house just incase i need to access them for some reason or another?

Yes, you can download backups via cPanel or some other 3rd party app since these files are stored in your home directory.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

5. If additional disk space or bandwidth were needed could additional be purchased as needed to prevent going over?

Sure, you can upgrade whenever you want. It is not a problem.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

ok thats all i can think of for now, i may have more questions for ya...

Ratt

Let us know, we are ready for them.

[rsriverrat]

thanks for the info.... while i was waiting i noticed that the budget plans say unlimited pop email while the professional plan says email...

does this mean that for the budget plans i can only use pop email clients and not webmail clients? if so i dont believe the highest priced pro plan will have enough storage space, i really need the 10 gigs just incase(we are bad about hording email) lol

Ratt

[Matt]

Those figures are the number of email accounts that you can have in a hosting plan. The accounts can be accessed via POP, IMAP, or webmail. How you want to access the account is entirely up to you.

[rsriverrat]

Matt,

Thank you for your time and patience, i have just a few more questions?

if the the budget 5 star indeed has unlimited email address's aswell as webmail access, then that will be the plan i will get. i checked on my imap server and it does infact use maildir instead of mbox, so that should be ok aswell...

now. what i would like to do is signup for a month using the coupon for the 2 free months, and if i am satisfied at the end of that time, i will pay for a yr in advance.

i noticed that the budget plans are currently doubled for drive space and bandwidth, if that changes during those 3 months will i still beable to renew for a year and keep those current setting or will i need to go to the advanced plan to get those sizes?

thanks again

Ratt

[Matt]

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

Matt,

Thank you for your time and patience, i have just a few more questions?

Fire away.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

if the the budget 5 star indeed has unlimited email address's aswell as webmail access, then that will be the plan i will get. i checked on my imap server and it does infact use maildir instead of mbox, so that should be ok aswell...

Yes, it comes with unlimited email addresses.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

now. what i would like to do is signup for a month using the coupon for the 2 free months, and if i am satisfied at the end of that time, i will pay for a yr in advance.

That coupon will not work if you order one month of hosting, you could order 3 months though and get better pricing, then it will subtract the 2 months so basically you are paying for one month at a discount of the regular monthly price, and getting 2 free months.

If you are still with us after 3 months just open a ticket with the billing department and they will adjust your plan to 1 year on your request.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

i noticed that the budget plans are currently doubled for drive space and bandwidth, if that changes during those 3 months will i still beable to renew for a year and keep those current setting or will i need to go to the advanced plan to get those sizes?

I do not see any plans to make things smaller. If anything the plans will get larger, and those upgrades can be applied to your account if they are not automatically.

Originally Posted by rsriverrat

thanks again

Ratt

Glad to help. Have a nice day (or evening) or whatever it is where you are

[rsriverrat]

thank you for your help order has been placed... recieved payment email, awaiting other emails...

p.s.

i am in florida also, some say we are actually in alabama, not florida... lol

Ratt

[Matt]

Must be up there in the Panhandle then

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