I know, I know, this sounds crazy, no?

Well, it's not for me. A friend of mine is in a band and they want to host 3gig+ of mp3 files of performances from the last 5 or 6 years.

They have a domain name and had been running off of a dsl connection, so they had "unlimited" drive space and transfer, but obviously the whole deal was SLLOOOOWWWWWWW

My suggestion to them would be to rotate the files and/or host them on various other free sites for downloads and just link to the files. But in any case, I told them that I'd look around to see if anybody would host such a thing and how much it would cost.

I know that there is a forum here called Web Hosting Requests but it doesn't look like anybody gets any answers over there. There are days and days of posts with no replies, so I figured I'd try here.

Other than that a cursory check of a number of hosts has turned up very little for me. Not too many hosts of the hosts I looked at even advertise 4 or 5 gigs of space, and high transfer is also rare. Although I did find one site that listed 15gig transfer but only like 500 meg of space for ~$25/month

I also looked briefly at dedicated solutions, but the couple I looked at had ~5gig transfer.

Any thoughts? (besides "give it up" :) )

HD space should not be too much problem, but the question now is: how much are you willing to pay for quality bandwith (I mean, bandwith that is burstable to 2000KB/s, example ... particularly important if you want to offer download). If you think 30-60KBps download (200-500kbps) is good enough for you ... then I think rackshack (rackshack.net) would be your best bet ... $99/mo and you can get the whole server and 300GB of bandwith/mo ....

the reason you don't get any answer in the request forum is because the mod has disabled them ... Hosts must contact the people directly ....

BTW, please enable your pm/email or post your email here so that hosts can email you directly, to avoid any breaking of forum rules (right Chicken? :D )

cheers,
:beer:

Your friend will most definetly need a dedicated server, especially if he plans on his band becoming very popular.

I see people somehow miss the first thread in the forum. :confused:

In case others somehow missed it, quick recap:

Originally posted by FrankieG
I know that there is a forum here called Web Hosting Requests but it doesn't look like anybody gets any answers over there. There are days and days of posts with no replies, so I figured I'd try here.

Originally posted by dektong
the reason you don't get any answer in the request forum is because the mod has disabled them ... Hosts must contact the people directly ....

BTW, please enable your pm/email or post your email here so that hosts can email you directly, to avoid any breaking of forum rules (right Chicken? :D )

Ohhh and righto! :D If you want hosts to answer you directly, enable these in your profile. Email is really just a form (press my email button to see - *gently* I can't stand it when people press my email button forcefully* :eek: ).

Hey Frankie,

It seems like your option that your doing now...the dsl connection...means that you have your own server with the files already on it.

What I suggest is sending that computer to a colocation facility and purchasing a block of bandwidth. You can get like a 128k bandwidth block or 1MBPS which would equal your current bandwidth, but alot more speedy.

Check around here, in the forums, and see about colocation. Also, I suggest visiting hostsearch.com and checking out the colo and virutal hosting.

One last note: DO NOT GO FOR A WEB HOST THAT OFFERS UNLIMITED SPACE OR TRANSFER!!! NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE DEAL SOUNDS!!!!!!!!

that about it!

Jim

Originally posted by jimb
It seems like your option that your doing now...the dsl connection...means that you have your own server with the files already on it.

It could just be his desktop pc. I agree with the rackshack suggestion.

I agree with rackshack too, but Im just throwing out a few options for the guy to consider.

Jim

Be an artist on mp3.com. That may solve the problem.

Originally posted by Neko =^.^=
Be an artist on mp3.com. That may solve the problem.

Yeah but for 3GB of files? I don't think so. MP3.com only gives you limited amount of space I think.

Well,

The only other way is to go out to like RackSpace.com and purchase a server....then purchase some Live Audio Streams for $10.00/month and allow users to listen live to your mp3 section.

I dont think streaming media is illegal to have, but it will require alot of bandwidth, and special software. Also, you will need to purchase a piece of software off of Real.com that will allow you to creat RM and RAM files.

This may be more than your willing to do, but it would give you a personal server and 20+ gigs of storage.

Jim

Originally posted by jimb
The only other way is to go out to like RackSpace.com and purchase a server.... I dont think streaming media is illegal to haveThe mp3s aren't illegal either. He said he was enquiring on behalf of a band, who want to put their mp3s online.

RackSpace.com is quite expensive. Their cheapest Linux server is $207 monthly, and you only get 10 GB bandwidth with that. The Rackshack.net option seems best.

If you can't afford that, then getting a custom plan with Worldzonepro.com is your next best option. The closest cheaper plan they have to compare to Rackshack's offer is their Titanium Plan, which is 1.9 GB space and 64 GB bandwidth for $64 monthly. You can build on that and add the extra GB space or reduce your bandwidth as well if you don't need that much. Currently custom plans aren't being offered until next week, due to a change in control panel software they're doing.

Thanks for all the replies, including how to get responses in the "Web Hosting Requests" forum. I never posted there BTW, I just popped in and noticed that 90% of the posts didn't get any replies.

My friend is looking at a rotating schedule for the mp3s. A dedicated server at $99+ per month was definitely more than he wanted to spend. I think his previous dsl setup was effectively free (it wasn't even on his DSL line or computer) so I'm not even sure he wants to spend $30/month. But I gave him some lower cost suggestions anyway.

Thanks again.

Originally posted by Chicken
I see people somehow miss the first thread in the forum. :confused:
Sorry Chicken I didn't read the "Important:>>> Please read before posting in this forum" post because I didn't post in there.

I just popped in, saw a whole bunch of posts with no replies. But the fact that some posts did have replies didn't lead me to believe that replies weren't allowed; it led me to believe that only a few of the posts were getting replies.

Thanks again

Just out of curiosity what is the name of the band and the links to their current website on the dsl line.

thanks :)

This might help you:
http://rackshack.net
Good Luck,
Paul