We want to host a server at our business. It will provide homes for anywhere between 20-50 small to medium size sites. We have the server just need the connection. What type of connection do we need? Who should we go through someone like bellsouth or a local provider.

You would be much better off paying for co-location.

In order to host a server in your home you need a. A server. b. A really fast connection, preferably nothing slower than a T1 line. These can be rather expensive, and it may be more cost effective to just pay a co-location facility.

We have a server and we are not running it out of a house. We will be running it at our office, expensiive or not could you give me some idea on what it would cost to get a t1 line and maybe some advice on a good provider?

A good Provider - UUNet

Price - $1000 + /month

(that's just a rough guess) :)

So would I need something like a Burstable T1 or something faster? I saw Bellsouth has a NxT1, would that do the trick or am I heading in the wrong direction?

-Thanks

Why would you consider paying $12,000+/yr. for something you could get for $1,200+/yr. ? To me, you're heading in the wrong direction.

I think you're heading in the wrong direction. The reason you outsource this to a business that specializes in it is for reliability.

If you don't care about reliability, then don't waste your money on a T1. Just get a single business 1.5Mb DSL, or cable modem.

IMHO.

If you're going to get your own lines...then focus on selling connectivity to other businesses (co-location, dedicated servers). If you want to provide shared hosting accounts - then you should co-locate or get a dedicated server.

To run your own lines, just to do virtual hosting, is overkill and not cost-effective.

--Tina

It would be much better to do a co-lo or get a dedicated server. You will never have your server up as much or as fast as a good web hosting company can - sorry.