From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 25 04:07:14 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E51B316A4CE for ; Mon, 25 Apr 2005 04:07:14 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5314243D4C for ; Mon, 25 Apr 2005 04:07:14 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from tedwin2k (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) j3P47Tb09133; Sun, 24 Apr 2005 21:07:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: "ChrisC" , Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 21:07:05 -0700 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.0.20050424095347.019ab7b0@pop.east.cox.net> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1478 Importance: Normal Subject: RE: Where to find good/cheap tech support X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 04:07:15 -0000 owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org wrote: > Where would you all recommend that one can go to find good FreeBSD > tech support that does not cost $150+ an hour? > Why are you so hung up on the billing rate? Problems with Windows take much longer to fix than problems with FreeBSD, so your going to end up paying the same total amount. And if you rate your technical help solely by the amount of money they charge you are destined to get cheap but poor help that will cost more in the long run. And that is true whether your talking about fixing a computer or fixing a car. > > I am having a SCSI controller boot problem that no one seems to be > able to help on It is economically foolish to pay for 3 hours at $20 for a SCSI controller that costs $60. If your having a booting problem then buy replacement hardware. > but I am also thinking of the future if there is an > emergency and I can't afford to have a server down for days at a time. > If your business is that critical you should have a fully configured and ready to go duplicate of your server, switched off and sitting next to the production one. This is true no matter what the operating system in use. And I've seen plenty of Windows server that took "days of time" to fix. There is a saying "champagne taste on beer budget" perhaps you haven't heard of it? Ted