25 Nov, 2009, Idealiad wrote in the 1st comment:
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This isn't really a server setup question, so I'm asking in General – is there some kind of common hosting arrangement that's not a full VPS but not a web host?

In other words I'd like some kind of /home account where I can install things and maybe run things like bots or a small server and so on, but I don't want to pay for a full VPS (just taking Linode as an example, their low rate is $20/month). The other host I'm considering is NFS, which is quite affordable but I think they're still basically a web host, though they do have shell access.
25 Nov, 2009, kiasyn wrote in the 2nd comment:
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Yeah, it's called a MUD host. Basically just shell access is what you're looking for.
25 Nov, 2009, Idealiad wrote in the 3rd comment:
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So a VPS basically gives you the ability to configure everything to your heart's content, but with a mud host you run with what the host already has? If I wanted to install Python, make a web page, run persistent processes on it and so on, a mud host would usually do that (if they included a website as part of the deal)?
25 Nov, 2009, kiasyn wrote in the 4th comment:
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you can install almost anything you want locally, as long as it abides by the rules of your host.
25 Nov, 2009, Caius wrote in the 5th comment:
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Idealiad said:
This isn't really a server setup question, so I'm asking in General – is there some kind of common hosting arrangement that's not a full VPS but not a web host?

In other words I'd like some kind of /home account where I can install things and maybe run things like bots or a small server and so on, but I don't want to pay for a full VPS (just taking Linode as an example, their low rate is $20/month). The other host I'm considering is NFS, which is quite affordable but I think they're still basically a web host, though they do have shell access.

You can find cheaper solutions than $20. However, I learned the hard way that you generally get what you pay for. I've been through a few cheap VPS providers, and every time I've moved on because of unannounced (sometimes extended) down times, hardware failures, ignorant staff, and much else. Finally I tried Linode and haven't looked back. They say customer service is excellent, but I haven't had any reason to contact them ;)

A shared mud host is perfectly fine as long as you can operate within the limitations of cpu, ram, disk and number of ports limitations. Then again, there are things you can't really do, like using a different SQL server than the one available. From what I've seen, though, to get a decent mud account anywhere, you need to pay almost as much as a VPS anyway.
25 Nov, 2009, Kline wrote in the 6th comment:
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Dreamhost Private Server is primarily for high-end web hosting, but doubles as a pseudo VPS. They only recently have enabled root access via sudo, but it's very much managed and locked down unless you tune it otherwise. Mine costs about $5/mo on top of my annual hosting plan that holds all the domains I run. It's not bad if you already plan to host a website or two but also want to tinker on the side, or provide a public demo of your current code (what I use mine for; and as a different flavor *nix machine to test again). You can reboot and "reload" the state of the machine back to default easily via the web panel. Any admin work past that, though, you'll be doing via shell using sudo.

Oh, one more minor plug. In the 4 or 5 years I've been signed up @ Dreamhost I think I've experienced 1 outage for about 2 hours on my regular hosted sites. I have yet to have one on my private server (though I've only had it a year or so, since whenever they added it). YMMV.

Full disclosure: If you sign up with my link I do get referral kickbacks :)
25 Nov, 2009, Brinson wrote in the 7th comment:
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Yeah, you have Shared webhosts with Jailed SSH. There are a good number of these available, and they'll often let you run a mud, or, rather, they won't notice if you run a mud because it consumes very low ram/cpu.

Dreamhost, Bluehost, Westhost, lots others, too.
25 Nov, 2009, Kline wrote in the 8th comment:
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Well Dreamhost explicitly forbids persistent processes unless you are on a private server. They have cron jobs or something that run and automatically kill anything that survives past things executed when you were logged into the shell.
26 Nov, 2009, Idealiad wrote in the 9th comment:
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I found a host from a different thread, eapps.com, whose basic plan is $11/mo. (or 9.90 prepaid), which gives you about 2.75 GB disk, 50 GB traffic, 160 MB RAM, though it seems like you're somewhat limited on what web frameworks you can run on it.

Maybe the thing to do would be to share a Linode host with someone, though sharing a VPS seems like it defeats the purpose somehow. Maybe there's someone out there looking for something similar as me?
26 Nov, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 10th comment:
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Idealiad said:
Maybe the thing to do would be to share a Linode host with someone, though sharing a VPS seems like it defeats the purpose somehow.

Why? If you're both willing to live with having both people as sysadmins, or if one is willing to live with the other being the sysadmin, then it seems like a great idea actually. You'd just have to not step on each other's toes too much when it comes to things like resource consumption, but that's not hard to live with.
26 Nov, 2009, Fizban wrote in the 11th comment:
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Caius said:
From what I've seen, though, to get a decent mud account anywhere, you need to pay almost as much as a VPS anyway.


Very much agreed, linode's pricing is not so bad at all compared to most mud hosts. Specifically since some of them have absurd caps. Mudmagic's base package for instance won't even run stock tbaMUD unless you remove stock zones due to memory limitations yet it costs half the price roughly of a small linode.

Also, I don't believe linode restricts reselling. ie. I believe that it is legal to pay for a linode, and then resell portions of your account for others to host their MUDs on.
28 Nov, 2009, Brinson wrote in the 12th comment:
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I'd like to note people on linode can run more than one vps. You could split it and run two VPSs on one linode, splitting resources down the middle.
28 Nov, 2009, Idealiad wrote in the 13th comment:
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Brinson, I've been reading the Linode site to read about this idea, but haven't found much information – is this the same thing as cloning a distro or copying a disk image? What would this setup be called normally?
28 Nov, 2009, kiasyn wrote in the 14th comment:
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You get allocated resources (rather than allocated a VPS), and can do whatever you like with them.
28 Nov, 2009, Idealiad wrote in the 15th comment:
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Sorry but I'm still a little confused – it says on the Linode site that you can boot only one distro per Linode. Can you somehow split the resources of the distro so two users would have their own /root? Or is one person /root and gives a different user a certain amount of resources? That doesn't seem to make sense.
28 Nov, 2009, Brinson wrote in the 16th comment:
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Linode has its own very neat control panel. You can create VPSs right at the panel, and then install a distro on them in one click.

At least, they did a year ago, back when I could afford a linode.

Edit: To answer your question, you can set up multiple "linodes".
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