Ionrock Dot Org

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Penn State has some really junky servers. I don't know what the problem or methodology they use when configuring these ultra expensive machines but I truly believe there is a flaw. I am not proposing that I know a good solution. I can set up a server pretty quick but we are talking of a basic debian gnu/linux webserver with a database and not much else. I don't have to handle 50,000 kids logging in and saving thier work on a distributed file system so I will give them a little slack. My issue is that I am making an Ebay type system for a database class. It has gone very well as far as planning the database and making sure we implemented a quality design. What has been a nightmare has been actually trying to use this database. Now running queries and making things happen has been very simple and easier than expected, but that is when we can actually log into the server and the database is up and running. We are using php and that is definitly a good thing. I feel comfortable with everything and I don't mind a little reading to learn the intracacies of db2. Of course when you have no idea if something works or doesn't work because you can't upload files or even ssh to the server that things become extremely frustrating. I will be immensly frustrated with this project if my grade suffers because there were some decisions made to use the PSU servers instead of just putting a box together that lived in the professors office. Thirty users, one webserver with LAMP and a heck of lot more stability and simplicity would be a refreshing change. Maybe I can convince my teacher to let me move it all to another server... I doubt it :(