Hi all,

I'm starting up a hosting business. I have the hardware, knowledge and resources, however I am looking for people who are interested in being a part in it. I require some backup servers. Preferably in Australia.
If you have the facilities to do this, and are interested, please contact me.

What's in it for you? Well, that depends.
If you have the connection and would like to learn how to set up a server using Linux, Apache, MySQL and so on, I'd be more than happy to teach you how to.
Or maybe you tried setting up a hosting system but lacked the uptime to make it serious.

Either way, we'd have to work out something for you.

Cheers,
Liam

... around 2 years back I stood up with a free service. I made a free shell server with free hosting. A lots of people start abusing the FREE SERVICE. Most of the people just use it for SPAM or try to break it. Fortunately, I surviced each time, but the mails I get from organisations about SPAM and attempted exploits from my machine made me shut down the box. (I kept the service running for around 3 years) Offcource a 100 Mbit connection was costing me a lot at that time :)

However, I suggest that if you are trying to be a free host .. think and think many times before starting. If you need my help .. in any case, just let me know and I will be more than happy to work with you.

Goni

I'm looking at hosting Free for PHP Developers. I will be auditing things heavily, if things get too much I have people on standby.

For small business websites I'll be charging a small fee. The users on the Development servers will be locked down, but will still have enough maneuverability to develop. Donations from the Developers will give them more access to the systems.

There's a big difference between "Free" and "Extremely Cheap"
If someone can be bothered to pay $25 for something, they're not likely to abuse it (Unless they've got something against you)

People who can get something for free will usually take it for advantage. Which is a pity as I'd love to offer a free Shell service into some of my servers.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them :)

i'm an asp developer who's trying to learn php. i've gotten sick and tired of the free hosts because of their all-round flakiness. i've come to the conclusion that i need to pay for my hosting in order to use a server that isn't full of kiddy hackers bent on breaking said server. i think your idea of a $25 charge is a good one, it means very little commitment from the developer but scares away the troublemakers. all the best!

/rob

What about this...

Free signups include practically nothing except a couple of megs webspace, FTP access and a subdomain. No PHP or any scripting languages.
If they're happy with the speeds, the can purchase an upgrade that'll get them PHP, Python, PERL, MySQL, blah blah...


I wanna offer SOMETHING free!
But you're right, if I suddenly get 500 signups, I'm not going to be able to audit them all.

Any ideas?

sounds cool, i don't have backup servers to offer, but i'm a half decent coder with design skills (portfolio at: thijssen.co.uk/main.htm). maybe you could use some free help with the joining/login site. let me know.

/rob

AHahah backup server in OZ?

Um sorry buddy but it cost us around $130 per gig just for bandwidth for one of our servers based in Australia...

I dont like your chances of finding a free one... If you need to talk about it we can talk.

Kind regards

and GOOD LUCK

There have been lots of people like you, WevaWeb.

Service like your idea is soon to be abused in a way or another as long as it remains "free".

I know there've been several people who had similar idea as yours and I do know they've disappeared for their sake.

Well, I'd like to offer something free.
Anyone got any ideas as to what I could offer that's hard to abuse?

Backup servers in Aust, I know bandwidth is a bitch to get here. My primary servers are running on 5M:5M. They're online about 98% of the time. They go offline when my ISP does.
A backup on a small uncapped cable connection would be suffice.

www.vectorstar.net have been around for ages. They're free and they offer PHP, Perl, POP3 email and numerout other things.

Perhaps I should email Laird and ask him how he does it without being screwed...