Hello,

I'm considering creating a file upload service like rapidshare.de or uploadhut.com.

I don't intend on making masses of money, but just enough to cover the hosting costs and some pocket money.

Do you think I would be wasting my time, or do you think services like these are just going to get more popular?

Opinions appreciated.

Thanks.

I personally have thought of doing such a servicebut then how is it that it is able to get some advertising revenue?
Bandwidth consumation will be high but page views will be low....

After serious consideratin I have dropped the idea.

Too much work... too little returns.
And what if some one were to upload an infected file?

And what if some one were to upload an infected file?


Thank god for BSD

Well good thing about it is that you will have less competition.
Not everyone is "man" enough to run a file upload service.

Anyway it is not possible to run the files directly unless you asked a novice programmer to code it, so I wouldn't worry about infected files.
Oh yah, that is also assuming that you are not clueless enough to run a uploaded exe that looks suspicious (e.g. worm.exe , IamVirus.exe, runme.exe , BrItNey.exe).

Originally posted by galacnet
I personally have thought of doing such a servicebut then how is it that it is able to get some advertising revenue?
Bandwidth consumation will be high but page views will be low....

After serious consideratin I have dropped the idea.

Too much work... too little returns.
And what if some one were to upload an infected file?

Oh yah, that is also assuming that you are not clueless enough to run a uploaded exe that looks suspicious (e.g. worm.exe , IamVirus.exe, runme.exe , BrItNey.exe).


These wouldn't have any effect on a *NIX based system. Of course you may still setup some virus scanners to do the checking before it is finally approved on the server.

That goes without saying.
I am talking about clueless admins who download and run the exe on their Windows machine to check it out.