ASP.NET hosting with Mono

I would like to be able to host a couple of web applications with ASP.NET. Dreamhost seems to have the best prices around for web hosting but only runs linux servers. Windows hosting options tend to be very expensive. As such, I have a few questions.

1. Would I be able to install mono myself and host ASP.NET applications?

2. Has anyone at dreamhost had any experience with mono? (unfortunately I do not have a linux machine available to me to test out mono)

3. If the answer to (1) is 'No', then does anyone know of any other hosters with comparable features (disk space, transfer limits and IMAP support for mail)?

Thanks.
Ryan.

no, unfortunatly you can't run mono on the serves here. It's a consistant process, and therefor is against the rules.

You could go for a dedicated serer.. Even tough that's probably unrealistic.



-Matttail

In order to reply I needed to sign up for an account. The anonymous poster was me.

When you say 'It's a consistant (sic) process' did you mean that it is against the rules to install any application/framework by oneself, or that it is specifically against the rules to install mono?

I know that others have installed application's such as subversion so I am assuming that this is a policy specifically regarding mono.

I had forgortten that I had an IM archive with a friend that has a dreamhost account. I've looked through that archive and found a tech support reference that he has regarding mono on dreamhost servers. In his email to tech support he asked:

"Hello, A friend of mine is looking for a host that supports ASP.NET. I was wondering if there is any way to use ASP.NET (via mono) with your hosting package? If you do not officially support it is there a way for a user to install it on his/her account?"

The response was:

"Sorry, we don't support ASP.NET as we run Linux servers. If you've found a way to run ASP.NET on unix you're free to attempt to get it running on your account, but we won't be able to offer any support. Thanks! James"

Both your statement and this one cannot coexist as they seem to completely contradict each other. Are there any other pieces of information missing that might provide the glue to make both of these responses accurate?

If it turns out that it is against the rules to install mono, why is it specifically against the rules to install mono and not other applications such as subversion?

I am just looking for more information about various hosting services so that I can make an educated decision before deciding on my hosting provider. Dreamhost is currently in the lead but a working mono solution almost solidify my decision in favor of Dreamhost.

Thank you for the quick response. I waited over a week for 1and1 to answer my questions.

he means running it is a constant drain on the cpu, which is agaisnt the rules to run such a program. so you could install it and run it, but if you use over your 60cpu minutes or cause other domain to suffer they'll disable your acct

>he means running it is a constant drain on the cpu, which is agaisnt the rules to run such a program. so you could install it and run it, but if you use over your 60cpu minutes or cause other domain to suffer they'll disable your acct

Not quite. Unfortunatly, your contact with dreamhost support was misinformed. Mono is a consistant process, meaning that it continues running and working, regardless of visitors on your site or not. This kind of application is against DH policy.

Mono can be used in conjunction with XSP a server that would repalce Apache, or as a module to apache - Mod-mono. XSP is obviously a consistant process, and you can't add modules to apache becuase that would effect everyone on your server. If you want to get really techincal, you can install mono it self on your own, but it won't do anything with out it's friends.

Unfortunatly there's no way you can use mono on a shared server with Dreamhost. I even contacted support about this my self to double check, and they confirmed. Sorry, there's just no asp solution right now.



-Matttail

Okay, that makes sense. It's unfortunate that they will not install mono on their servers with mod_mono since it appears to be a supported framework (at least on certain distros of linux such as Suse and Redhat). It would be one more tool in the programmers arsenal.

Anyway. Thanks for the help. Response time has been second to none.

One more tool, but one more thing to debug. As it is, I would rather have less features and more stability.

FWIW, part of the consideration in developing with ASP.NET should be that the hosting will cost more. I would _never_ setup a site with ASP.NET if it was a shared server. I only pick ASP.NET if there's a strong need, and I have yet to see that need in a situation where it was cost prohibitive.