JayC - 6:34 am on Dec 16, 2002 (gmt 0)

spagmoid:

I don't use resellers, so I thought all these people must have SOME intelligence to set up a server.

Maybe not. A lot of "hosting companies" now are one person who is leasing a server in a datacenter someplace, and that server came with the user-end control panel that you use as a customer (example: CPanel) and similar software for the host's end (example: Web Host Manager).

So a lot of the people at those operations have no idea how to set up a server beyond running the point-and-click interface they bought already set up. The know little about the OS, little about Apache, little about DNS and Bind... certainly there are people using these kinds of setup who are competant, and even those who are experts, but my point is that your conclusion that they must know what they are doing because they've set up a server isn't supported by reality today.

In fact, in some cases a reseller might be better. In many businesses, the term is "value-added reseller," and the same could be true of some hosts -- if they're reselling for a solid, stable company backed by expert techs and good support, your reseller could be providing the kind of customer-driven individual attention that you can't get at a big company (where you don't get past that first-line support person).

So... first point: running a server doesn't necessarily mean "good." Second point: "reseller" doesn't necesarily mean "bad."

Not that that simplifies anything. :)