Probably a but late chiming in now the decision is made but if you have a broadband connection and iPad/iPhone you could consider self hosting. I recently put in a Synology NAS at home and it is just awesome. So much so I Registered a domain and subscribed to a dynamic DNA service. Mine is the DS1511+ which has 5 drive bays, custom apps for iOS, and android. Kinda nice to be able to map a network drive at work to the home network! And it has even taught my iPad to print! It also has apache, Php and MySQL so it is all set to go.
Rod,
Hi. At one time several years ago, I considered self-hosting for a website. I'm happy that you found the option that fits you and I agree with you that there are some distinct benefits to self-hosting. For me however, there downsides outweighed the upsides...
First, my home server, and all my workstations and laptops use are Windows 7/64. Second, while I have some experience using Linux on a web host system and have some experience managing a Windows-based, production server, it would be a steep learning curve for me to get competent enough to manage a non-Windows server. Third, and the HUGE reason, is that the cost of the MDDHosting service was so low that there's no way the cost/benefit balance works for me. At $171
total for three years at MDDHosting, it's an incredible deal. They deal with all of the administrivia to keep the system running and provide me with the tools to achieve my goals.
A fourth and more subtle reason is that I'm fundamentally and professionally a software developer. In truth, I don't particularly like hardware and networks. I understand the critical necessity of having good ones and I get some satisfaction of building my own workstations. But overall, I'm happy to have someone else deal with the infrastructure issues and let me build software.
Have fun with your new hardware!
Best regards,
Dan.
p.s. I'm still trying to get my iPad to print. My wife and I combined have two iPhone 4's and two iPads (1 and 2). I think they are great, but in some ways (like printing), they are still stone age. I have three printers - a Brother fax/copy/print and two Epsons. Can't print to any of them. Apple supports only a limited number of HP printers for their "i" hardware while virtually every low end, cheesy PC on the planet can print to almost every printer on the planet. Grrr.
Oh well, I'm trying out some new iPad software today. We'll see how it goes.