Spurred on by the good reports here, I thought I'd at least give WSS a 14 day trial. However it appears there is no remote access to the SQL server via SQL Server Management Studio or ODBC. To be honest this is a bit of a blow, since I am regularly checking userids against an offline membership database, and tweaking data when I need to do upgrades or something.

Anyone got an ideas of ways round this. Are there other 'cheap' plans that would give me remote access. I'm currently with WH4L, and performance is so variable. But I'm running a single hobby site for a scuba diving club, and cost is important in this, so I can't go for a dedicated server.

Cheers
Roger

Roger,

Just send off a service ticket and tell them that you signed up with the understanding that you would have SQL Management Studio access.  I'll bet they give it to you.  I also noticed when I sign up a new clients that I now have to ask for access to the dns records as well as Mgmt Studio access, where they used to give it by default.

Also, take a look at this post by Mitch Sellers.  I am really thinking of moving in this direction. WSS seems to be getting much slower over time so I am trying to plan for future sites.

http://www.mitchelsellers.com/blogs/articletype/articleview/articleid/259/dotnetnuke-and-mosso-cloud-computing.aspx

Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks. I ended up with PowerDNN. They were very helpful, and are responsive to any help requests. I get pretty much everything I need, though I did in the end move my email to gmail, because there spam protection was appalling. Seems to work mostly OK.

I'll have a look through the Mosso stuff, interesting...

Roger

Roger,  Sticker shock, huh?

I am a consultant and I obtain and configure sites for my clients.  I usually go to WSS and walk the client through purchasing and arranging for payments to WSS and then I take over and set everything up and develop and maintain the websites for them.

I probably have a dozen or so on WSS now and it seems to get slower all the time.  I did look at PowerDNN and it looks promising.

With Mosso, I obtain the site and I can put as many of my clients on there as I like (within reason).  I set them up, and maintain them all though a control panel and we are basically in our own server (Not actually, but it is supposed to feel like  you are.)  I pay the monthly fee and then I can charge my clients  a reasonable fee and after I have enough on the server, I can actually make a little money.  My main reason though would be the control over the environment and the added performance.  If I don't want to, they will even collect the money from my clients for like a $2 a month service fee and put the proceeeds in my account.

It is a lot to think about, but I may just start switching people to PowerDNN as they come due.  I'm just afraid that a year from now, they are going to be putting hundreds on the same severs like WSS and WebHost4Life before them and I'll be back in the same boat with slow sites.  Also, PowerDNN seems to have a little more control over the sites than I would like.

Bill