Sorry, i am a bit ignorant when it comes to all the work associated with running a hosting business.

But what could possibly make you work for 18hours per day?
what do you guys do?
What are all the things you do, that take up your time?

Thanks

I would imagine tech support.

Just imagine having just 1000 domains hosted and then the router to your NOC goes down. If only 500 email you, that is getting the info about the router failure from your NOC or upstream provider and then passing it back to every customer that emailed you, plus posting a notice to the 500 that didn't email you.

Now imagine 10 or 20 thousand domains where only a quarter email you right away, with another half emailing you throughout the next three or four hours. Sure there are probably newsletter mailing lists that handle the notification, but not everyone reads those (because they subscribe with a domain that is hosted by you) and you still have to weed through the emails.


This is, of course, on top of regular daily tech support calls like "How do I use FTP?" etc.

You also have to be on the lookout for newer software, as well as avoid new software that is buggy. Transverse the message boards, look for new marketing ops, deal with billing, taxes (err.. there are some that don't do the tax part), accounts payable...


The list goes on.

Support... Support... Support... on top of 24/7 monitoring of lots of servers :)

-Brendan
HostRocket.Com

But what could possibly make you work for 18hours per day?
Yeah, what they said.
Plus...
...server problems
...software installs/upgrades
...paying bills
...occasional difficult customers
...dealing with resellers

Well support is key, but also innovation new plans, or ideas, research.

I personally am a human electronics person with cell phones and pagers and watches its nuts

Yes,, all of that, plus what about time to get away...

Hosts are humans too.. least we used to be. I bought a laptop, a cell phone, and now they will connect so I can go to remote places again like fishing...

All the while, I can check for important emails, and keep customers first. Still the techs are on duty, but people still email the owner hours before going to the support area.
Also, you have to figgure, with 8 million little hosting companies trying to all get sales, promotion is always a key factor that needs addressed every day.

Tim L :cool:

So your laptop connects to your cell phone, and it can do stuff like checking email? What else can it do? Browse?

i do that when i go away for weekends, im from the UK and have a laptop and a nokia 7110, i use the infa red and the built in 9.6kb sec modem on the phone to recive emails and also browse this board :) i dont normally post but i read moreless every post, normally in the envings on my laptop.

I have a special deal with my phone from btgenie, where i get 50 mins of local calls a day so i just have a local call price freeserve dialer and limit to reciving emails every 30 mins, takes about 1 min each time so i can do it 50 times a day although i nomrlaly would check every hour.

Im sure you can do the same where ever you are located.

Hiya,

I've got the same setup here for when Im away for the weekend (can never quite get away from the office in case of an emergancy). Although Im on orange, so I get 28.8kb/s, which is pretty cool.

(Just finished a smaller than usual 12 hour shift at work, 14th day at work in a row *grin*)

Regards,

Tony Lucas

I would be happy to stop at 18 :) My days on the average run around 20.

20? what are ya some sort of slacker? :P

Steve

Exactly, especially when i'm online jbiz doesn't get a chance to relax :)

Originally posted by JBIZ718
Well support is key, but also innovation new plans, or ideas, research.

I personally am a human electronics person with cell phones and pagers and watches its nuts

Hello
Its a combination of customers in all these time zones that cause the long days.

Generally I do 7am to 10am followed by 2pm to 10pm on direct customer sales/support with the time from 10am to 2pm spent on developing new products and marketing activities.
It used to be a lot worse (before I had others working for me)
I remember getting in one night and working right through to Breakfast the next morning.

I have the sampe mobile phone system as Tony with the 28k line which is useful if I need to go out and want to keep in touch.
I also have a Nokia Communicator but its restricted to 9k.

Gordon