For a long time I have wanted to learn the ins and outs, so to speak, and try my hand at starting a small web hosting service. I realise starting such a site and offering such services will inevitably be a large task, so before I go any further I was wondering if members of these forums could describe the best way to go about it. By this I mean raising some of the most basic points that some might oversee and elements such as the legal side. Also if you could give a brief example of what software such as whmautopilot and other web hosting tools are I would appreciate it. I would ideally like to learn from some sort of class (if they exist) however after googling such topics I am unable to find what i'm looking for. Therefore your help would be greatly appreciated.

I understand a good knowledge is needed before attempting such a project so I would have thought this is by far the best place to ask my question. So therefore if a few of you would be kind enough to explain the best way to go about it would be greatly appreciated.

Basically where do you start off?

Thanks for your time,

-mscwd

Hey you might want to look at this thread:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207298

:D

Thanks...

I have read the thread you suggested and it was very useful. However it doesnt cover things like how to get order forms up etc. Basically is there a rough "step by step" guide to starting up a small web host which covers things like client/billing management and everything else a web host needs to run?

Thanks,

-mscwd

That sign up thing you are talking about could be the billing management or payment processor. I know ClientExec (billing management) has a signup form included.

A thing you need is a payment gateway to accept payments. I like http://www.2checkout.com .

That would probably be the closest thing to a guide that you will find since most hosts don't want others to start a host.

:beer:

lol I see what you mean. Although i have been pleasantly surprised. Thanks

Take a look at H-Sphere, (www.psoft.net) this control panel is an All in one utility that takes care of your signup, account management, helpdesk/trouble ticket system, and billing.

Depening on how deep you want to get in right away, you can start with a reseller account with a host that uses H-sphere. The reseller accounts have everything that a main reseller admin has (except actual server controls), but you still get the billing, trouble tickets, account management etc.

Or you can get a dedicated server and have H-sphere set up on it.

All in all, I give H-Sphere :agree: :agree: :D

There are many control panels out there
Cpanel, Ensim, Plesk, Direct Admin, H-Sphere. All of these are ones you need to pay for. There are a few free ones out there like webmin and webcp etc.

One thing you need to do is learn your control panel very well. By doing this you can give your cleints the best support possible

When I started off, I actually didn't use an order form. People just signed up via PayPal, and I just quickly emailed them and asked them for their domain info, and gave them hosting/nameserver info.

If you have any experience programming in Perl or PHP, you may want to program the form yourself. From my experience, it's VERY easy to automate account setups using CPanel/WHM and a payment processor with an API like PayPal or Verisign.

IMO, theres much more to running a web hosting service then setting up a web site and taking orders. I'm assuming that you are thinking of a linux or windows based server. You should be some what familiar with maintaining a linux/windows server. Most operations are handled by the hosting control panel but unless your going to pay a server admin I'd suggest you make yourself familiar with moving around the linux/windows filesystem, setting up a web and mail server, and other important aspects of the linux/windows system.

There are pleny of books that'll teach you how to do this. For a linux system I'd recommend:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764539388/qid=1073144512/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-8489763-8233557

My copy is worn out!

Wrox just came out with a very basic book which is quite good:

http://www.wrox.com/books/0764543784.shtml

I'm not trying to discourage you from pursuing your interest. I'm trying to lead you in the right direction.

Have fun!

I would suggest getting a reseller account and starting off from there. If you need help, I would be very happy to teach you some of the basics :)

Thanks everyone if I need your help (which I probably will) I'll post my questions here.

Try looking at this thread as well.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=222428