I was fairly happy with my current shared-hosting plan ( though reading Aral’s problems started to make we think twice ), but i have increasingly wanted more out of an online server that my current host just couldn’t provide. So i purchased a virtual private server from Westhost. So far, i have had no complaints, they are attentive to any pointless questions i may have, and the forums are an endless supply of knowledge. I have yet to move all my content from my current host over, so that’s a task i don’t look forward to…

Now i’m getting comfortable with linux commands and installing crap here and there, and starting up this and that, and having a ball, and drinking way too much fountain soda – but big ups to Ash for holding back the temptation to smack me due to my incessant questions.

I have to say, the main ingredient that caused this push to a vps is Red5 ( if you are unfamiliar with red5, there are more links at the bottom of this post ). I have been checking-out the source and not touching Red5 since release 0.4, so i was in good shape to know nothing about it when rc0.6 came out… enter Chris Allen into our Boston office and he gives a great presentation onRed5, sparking my interest to really buckle down and play with it. If you or your company are at all interested in what Red5 can provide for your business, i wouldn’t hesitate to get in touch with Chris.

Things were touch and go a little with running Red5 on my new server ( again big-ups to Ash ), but i eventually abandoned running apps on a built Red5 server and switched to deploying it under Tomcat. Oh boy! No problems yet and i am like a kid in a candy store. And with the current development on closing ghost connections, i’m ecstatic. Their API is rock solid, can only get better, and i am finally thinking in Java on my own after reading numerous books and doing countless tutorials.

I’ve been playing with AS3, Java and Red5 lately and have something up and running, but i’m re-working the code and rebuffing the appearance… hope to have it up soon. I may throw up some directions and trials and tribulations of setting up the server, if anyone is interested. Until then –

[Red5 links]
Red5 project
Joachim Bauch and Red5 Tutorials
Dominick Accattato
Chris Allen’s blog
John Grden’s blog
FlashExtension

- I’d also like to point out a blog to watch. Josh Noble is an expert in .Net and Flex/Flash technologies, a recent employee ( as am i ) to Schematic’s Boston office… and will be bombarded with questions from me.