I just went on a job shadow, and learned a lot from a webhosting company where I live. He showed me all their servers, etc. I think I want to take the leap and do it myself.

I am wondering if it is possible to run a webhosting server from my home. I have a connection slightly faster then T1. I would purchase backup power units, and where I live, power outages never happen anyway. Would T1 be sufficient for a hosting business? What all software would the servers need (linux, WHM, cpanel, fantastico, etc.)

I want to be a great host, offer a fast server, and affordable prices. I am hoping to launch the business by September 1st.

I don't recommend running servers from home, you may want to check the costs of location in a datacentre near you. This would be much cheaper than dragging a line, aircon and UPS to your house. Datacentres have economy of scales, should think they would be cheaper and more reliable.

I live in wyoming, so I dont think there are any data centers near here. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just host the server from home? I get free cable internet, and wyoming has few internet users, so congestion isn't an issue.

I am wondering how much this is going to cost a month? Does cpanel, whm, fantastico, etc. all require a seperate monthly fee? and what would the server need, like software, and monitoring stuff. So far here are the expenses I have down.

Battery Backup Power Supply - $59.99

Cable Internet - $0.00

Server - $1,199.77 -- http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=634105

250GB HD For Server - $179.53 -- http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=512386

These are the only prices I know of. I need help with the control panel costs, OS costs, etc. Please tell me what all else I will need!

Hey rudedogg1989, I don't recommend running a hosting comapany out of your house as it would cause more problems and a datacentre will be alot more reliable and you can get it monitored. You might want to rent a dedicated server as most servers come with plenty of bandwidth and PHP, MySQL, Apache etc pre-installed. That would be around $200-$300 USD monthly, then you would be looking at Billing/Support Systems and Cpanel/WHM licence costs and then any other costs eg, template, coding, support staff etc.

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I agree..you can find that system with 2x 160GB, 1gb memory from layeredtech.com @ $159 or something, then add cpanel at $25/mo.

And your set..

Your home connection proberly doesnt have multiple IPs, then the cost of external cpanel ($60+/mo) then you wont be covered for broken harddrives etc, so overall this is the best way to start..

I am looking at this plan.

Base System Configuration:

• Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz HTT
• 2 x 160GB IDE Hard Drive
• 1024MB DDR RAM
• Bandwidth: 1000GB
• IP Addresses: 8 (5 usable)
• Private VLAN
• Number Of Servers: 1
• Basic Resource Monitoring
• FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, Windows*
• 100% Self Managed and Dedicated

Monthly Fee Options:
• $159.00 (Plus One-time Setup Fee of $49.00)


I basically just want something that I can host up to 100 clients with. Will this do it?

Yupp it'll host way over 100..does that email work. I gave you a email.

But you'll need a lot of money to put into marketing for your new business...

You might actually want to start off with a reseller account. A dedicated server is nice and all, and will host over 100 clients. But what will you do until you have those clients to pay for the server?

How are you going to get your customers? The phrase "If you build it, they will come" sadly does not apply to the hosting industry. How are you going to market yourself to your customers, you need to think of that now, BEFORE you actually spend money building a system to host customers that you don't have.

Also, I'm guessing that you are fairly young as well, most likely still in school? How are you going to serve your customers while you are in school? Or go on a family vacation for a week?

Have you written up a business plan? If not, start putting one together now, and put all of this information into it. A good business plan will have all of your costs drawn out (server costs, etc) as well as your marketing plan (how to get customers), as well as contingencies for support, and other scenarios. You should have your business plan all figured out BEFORE you actually order a single server, or sign up your first customer. It's not required to have one, but it will help you in the long run, and if you put it together right, you will have a VERY good picture of what it takes to have a business, let alone whether or not you actually want to go through with it.


As for hosting it from your home, how do you get free cable internet? Or is it "free" because your parents pay for it? Also, a $40 battery backup only lasts 20mins during a power outage. I don't get power outages here at all, but last week, a semi-truck driver fell asleep at the wheel, and knocked down some power lines, we were without power at my house for 4hrs.

Also, your cable internet connection, does your ISP allow you to host servers on it? Probably not. If they are anything like charter (my cable ISP), they most likely also block port 25 (smtp) to fight viruses, and port 80 (http) to prevent users from running web servers.

Also, I doubt your cable connection has nearly enough upstream bandwidth to let you run a server. 30kb/s just is NOT enough.

The first rule in web hosting is to watch your servers 24/7/365. You can not do this yourself. To start, get a reseller account with a company that has phone support so when you have problems, you can call them and fix it immediately.

You don't have to invest hundreds of dollars in hardware to start your business, it would be foolish at this time for you. Use your hundreds of dollars for marketing and let your hosting company take care of your servers. You don't have to pay over $70/month to start with your server needs. The beauty of the Internet is that your customers do not have to know that you are "just a reseller."

When you grow, you can get a dedicated server from a company that will take the responsibility of maintaining your servers for about $300/month.

Grow more and get more servers from the same company if they do a good job.

I have been web hosting for over 10 years and I suggest this route because it is the fastest way to grow your company and have only a few headaches to deal with. Your original plan of hosting from home would only cause you great problems that you would not be equipped to handle.

Thanks for listening.

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Check out this thread for some info on this topic:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=381386

where I live, power outages never happen
Thats not the best attitude to have. You need to prepare yourself. As Amish_geek said, and I quote "I don't get power outages here at all, but last week, a semi-truck driver fell asleep at the wheel, and knocked down some power lines, we were without power at my house for 4hrs".

Like others have said, no need to run your own server at this point.

Get a resellers account and learn your way around first :)

Start with a reseller account, then go to a dedicated server as you grow. And then if you become very successful, you may want to eventually consider colocation. Whatever you do DON'T run it out of your home!!!

Most definatly do not host from home on a cable internet conection. Like the rest said start out with a reseller plan, onc eyou have the hang of things move to dedicated servers. I just went on a job shadow, and learned a lot from a webhosting company where I live. He showed me all their servers, etc. I think I want to take the leap and do it myself.
you could even talk to these people and rent some space at there facility.

You listed your expenses as being about $1500 initially. If you get a server for $150/mo, you can be in business for 10 months before you spend that much money. There's a big difference between spending $1500 in one shot vs spreading it out over nearly a year. And consider that by renting a dedicated server, you'll get better support...well it just makes sense.

You could get bored of this, you could get injured somewhere, you could realize it's just not for you. If that happens, you save a lot of money and hassle.

It's good that you want to do this, but I'd definitely suggest reading one of the other threads about this, and taking people's advice. A lot of these guys have been doing this for a long time.

I get free cable internet because my mom sells cable advertising, so the company gives us free digital cable, PPV, and internet. I heard they get pissed about having servers, and will make you upgrade to the business server package. No biggie though, but yes, I have decided to take everyones advice and rent a dedicated server.