i was wondering on average how many websites can you host on a full T3 line??? bacouse im thinking of starting up a webhosting company and just want to start out with 1 T3 line untill i need to get more T3 lines or faster lines for new clients...

From 1 to 10s of thousands. It depends on the sites and how much traffic they use. You're probably better off colocating some machines as T3 Loops will most likely kill your profit margin.

I'd agree with crnc. I'd be willing to bet that you can get 10Mbps of quality bandwidth for what you'd spend on that T3.

Is there a reason you wanted to have this T3 brought to you?

Also consider does your location have:

... Proper Cooling
... Redundant Power
... Proper Security

Just a few thoughts, please tell us more about what you are thinking and we can make more suggestions :)

why not colocate?

T3's, will likely run you around $3,000/month average. That's around how much they are where I work (XO Communications), so yeah... it will kill your profits.

colocate or rent a dedicated server.
You'll save money and be able to offer a nice facility to your clients.

A T3/DS3 (45Mbps) will cost a lot more than $3000 when its looped to your location. $3000 is incredibly cheap for a T3, so my guess is that there is a lot of competition and available bandwidth in the area.

$3000 was the price I was quoted for 3 Bonded T1's (~3Mbps) in my area here when I was playing with the idea of starting a WISP.

So what would you all recommend to use as a connection? (Something that won't kill profit margins)

see becouse i want to open my own facility that i own i wouldent really want to co locate. im thinking of getting 5 IBM "eServer 325" and 2 other eServer 325 with dual prosseseors coming to around $28,000 for all 7 servers. i want a T3 to just start out small and see how it works about if we need a bigger line we'll bring more in to the facility. though thats what im thinking of doing though im open to opinions. however now that you guys bring up colocating my servers whats i good colocation company(i'v been looking at ThePlanet,com what do you guys think?) i might want to weigh my options expence wise with colo and owning my own facility.

Whoa! Lets run some figures here...


$28,000 for 7 servers - Just the servers alone you will need at least 1000 accounts at ~$10-15/mo to get a decent ROI on the cost of your servers alone. That doesnt even include bandwidth, or other business expenses.

Good luck getting that many customers within the first year, let alone 2-3 years.

Not to be too nit picky or pry to personally but how old are you? Do you have a business plan? Have you done through enough market research to determine whether or not you will be able to survive your first year based on startup costs?

The market is so saturated right now that it is difficult for small hosts like myself to grow, and we have very little overhead costs compared to what you are talking about. How do you expect to survive when you start tossing around that kind of cash?

im 22 studying network administrator and soon studing for network engineer about the servers the server cost will come from me upfront so i dont worry about the server cost having to come out of the hosting revenue. and i just need atleast half of the T3 cost to come out of the hosting revenue. though i was just wondering, if i should get into the web/game hosting bussines :)

Originally posted by enix
i was wondering on average how many websites can you host on a full T3 line??? bacouse im thinking of starting up a webhosting company and just want to start out with 1 T3 line untill i need to get more T3 lines or faster lines for new clients...

The total number of web sites varies a great deal depending on who you are targetting. If you target towards teh cheaper market, where many people will probably just be creating a web site for the first time, and likely to not have much traffic, then you wil have lots of web sites. If you plan on providing a premium service, with lots of bandwidth for bigger customers, then you'll see them eat up your bandwidth a lot faster.

I'm amazed at the amount of capital you're ready to sink into this venture, and I hope you'll keep us updated with yoru decisions. But please god, plan, plan, plan, and research, research, research before you starting dropping thousands down!

Hello enix,

You have enough customers now to fill 7 servers?

Why not start small? You have business skills/experience?

Where are you going to put your $30K worth of equipment? In your garage? Have you factored in other costs? In particular the recuring monthly costs?