Hi
I want to start hosting peoples sites for free but if it is going to cost me A LOT of money then theres no point as i dont wana put ads on their site.
I have quite a good and new PC already which is very up-to-date.
If you can just give me an idea of the costs of starting up for all the hardware and what kind of connection i would need so people would have quick enough sites.
Remember im doing it as a free service so i dont want to pay for the top of the range stuff...but i do want quality.
Thanks

Question: Why are you doing this?

It seems if your not putting ads on this is only going to cost you money... why would you want to do that?

Unless.... this is a loss leader and there is something else behind it too.

I would say you can get a decent reseller account for around $30 a month, which isn't too much providing you make something to cover this every month some how.

Jo

Hi
Thanks for replying
I want to do it because i have used a load of free hosts are they always provide a bad service, be it ads of bad customer service.
I would just like to help people to get their site on the net.
I was thinking of designing sites free for people but then i thought about this.
But if it costs too much then i will just design sites for people but the problem with that is that i would have to advirtise it quite a lot just to get one person to notice the site.
Do you know any sites that give details on whats needed to start up?
thanks again

You wouldn't be able to offer this from your home computer -- you would need either a server located in a data center or a reseller package with an existing host.

Jo

Yes. The free services you've tried leave a lot to be desired. Therefore, you want to start hosting sites free. That's great if you are independently wealthy and are doing it for fun. But if you really like the work and need money to survive, then you'll want to charge for the service. If you do it for free, it will be impossible to spend too much time on it because your "real job" will be taking up most of your working day. Meanwhile, as a free hosting company, you'll be flooded with "orders," service will suffer, and support "after the sale" will be nonexistant. With increasing bandwidth demands, your bill will be driven northward and soon you'll have to invest in a dedicated server. Alas, your free business model will suffer.

As they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

May I also suggest that you use a dedicated server for this?

To me free hosting is an open invitation for spammers... and I don't think it is fair to other resellers if you shut down a server due to a spammer.

Just my .10 cents

Originally posted by mattcas
May I also suggest that you use a dedicated server for this?

To me free hosting is an open invitation for spammers... and I don't think it is fair to other resellers if you shut down a server due to a spammer.

Just my .10 cents
I agree.
My advice is if you want to start a free host at all then have a rigorous use policy in hand.
Do not allow anyone to creep in, besides you do not plan to get any income by taking in more & more like most others, which I feel good.
Require them to have a site for you to review before signing up, evaluate each one manually before allowing them in, do not make things automatic as far as possible. Build a personal awareness among each other e.g through community forum.

Just my opinion
thanks

Hi
Thanks for the advice, it is really good :)
Anyone have an idea of how much it would cost for the hardware and also how much for the connection?If you do please tell me each seperatly just so I can get a better idea of what kina money we are talking about here.
I know it will cost a lot and I think it is a great idea to review the sites so it has more of a comunity feel it to and i know whats going on, it will also help control the bandwidth each user has for their site.
Thanks again for the ideas, PLEASE keep them coming!

Well if you rent a rackshack server you're looking at like $100-$150 a month for hardware. You can get a nice free hosting script like HomeFree profesional for around 500 (check www.solutionscripts.com or www.cgi-resources.com for similar programs).

From there it's just a matter of making your layout, your TOS and getting the word out. You should realize that free hosting wont make you money unless you really know how to do it. It is however a good proxy service to get people in the door and (try) charge them for some other service/upgrades.

Good luck!

Don't waste your time...

I used to be like you. I was sick of all the free hosts out there, so I stated my own. I realized that it requires WAY to much work for such little pay. It's like throwing your money away. I seriously earned a few cents of the banner ads I had on my users sites.

What I suggest you do is first:

Do some reasearch on web hosting. (No offesnse but...) It's not too likley you'll be hosting your own servers from your basement with a T1 connection and your home pc. Its just not going to happen.

Once you learn a bit about hosting and you feel like getting started get a re-seller plan from a reputable host, (e.g MChost.com or SplashHost.com)

Soon You'll realize you're auctually earning money off selling hosting accounts. Then you could get a dedicated server. Then Co-Locate or vise versa.

Trust me free hosting is a waste of time, especially if you're still in high school, like I am.

So in conclusion I would like to say good luck in everything you do.
If you have any questions, (because you're a newbie to hosting, just like I was) I can help you. You can e-mail me or PM me by using those buttons below this post.

Later...:)

(btw, this is my longest post by far...)

Originally posted by wanabehost
I want to start hosting peoples sites for free ...

That seems like a very bad business practice to me.

Originally posted by Kiwi


That seems like a very bad business practice to me.

I agree. This will most likely lead to spammers signing up because you offer free hosting. If you signup for a reseller plan with a company like MCHost (maybe kiwi can confirm), SplashHost etc. I am sure they wont be happy at the idea of you handing out login info for their servers to just anyone. The other thing MCHost or SplashHost may not be able to do is if you offer free hosting under your own domain they most likely wont take the time to track the "individual" causing the problems but instead close the whole domain for spamming or something along those lines (again maybe kiwi could confirm :) )

Just my $0.02

I agree with most people that providing free hosting is generally not worth it.

However, if you do decide to do it, make sure you properly identify your target audience. Don't just open a site and let anyone sign up for it. Spammer will take advantage of you, and you will get no satisfaction from doing it(which I assume is the only reason why you want to do this).

Instead, get a reseller account, and lurk these forums a while. Often time people will come in and ask for free hosting, and you can respond to them. You can also post free hosting offer in the ad forum. But whatever you do, screen your applicants, because it just doesn't feel good to host parasites for free. You want people who are appreciative of what you are doing.

Also, if you could post your burget, some of us may be able to advise you further.

Peter

Things that will happen to you if you set up a free host:

- spammers will hit you over and over again and use your site as a doorway for complaints to be sent. that way you get in trouble and the real spammers get away with murder.
- leechers and warez folks will load your system up with download files disguised as html, jpg, gif, etc. just when you think you've found their secret they will adapt to get around you again.
- you will make $0 from advertising because member sites are considered "junk" to most ad companies. even if you do get in on a couple of cpa's such as cj.com, they will eventually find out and kick out you.
- expect your monthly bandwidth costs to skyrocket month after month, until you go broke.
- every joe, dick, and harry will be backing up their resumes and stuff on your server, even if you tell them that's not allowed.

I offer free hosting to a few select sites as a hobby. I got myself a dedicated server at fdcservers (formerly kingcomp) to this end, as I wanted a dedicated server anyway for my own little projects as I had gotten sick and tired of virtual hosts not delivering what they promised.

I'm not making any income on the server, and never planned to, as I can easily support it out of my own back pocket. All sites I host have been selected by me and I don't let just anybody in. I just host sites with content I find interesting and would like to promote myself (for instance, I have a few sites on my server dedicated to manga, which is another of my little intrests).

I'm not a fulltime hosting company, but because I only have a small handfull of sites on the server, the people hosted on it mostly get good service from me and I try to help them as much as I can.

To me the server is a hobby and a learning source. It's just amazing what you learn managing a server as something always goes wrong sooner or later.

I know if I'd go shouting 'free hosting for all' around so many people would respond, it would be a nightmare to manage and also the server, and thus everybody on it would suffer.

What I'm trying to say: know what you're getting into. Set goals and limits well in advance and stick to them or you'll just end up like most of those other wannabe free hosts that last about 5 minutes before they totally disappear into oblivion.

thx again
Tazzman can you tell me how much it costs?
I want to do something like you rather than giving it to everyone as I would just end up like the other free hosts.
thanks

Rackshack: $99 a month and $1 setup if you get a server out of their bargain basement.

Rackshack would include a control panel for that price, but isn't known for excellent tech support (and who can blame them at that price.)

NOCSTER: $100 a month and $300 setup. You can get CPanel for an extra $20 a month.

This service is as yet unproven and Burstnet is known for downtime, though this may improve as they are bringing in more connectivity. Let's hope it does improve. NOCSTER also charges a lot for hardware upgrades (one time fee +monthly fees, which I think is ridiculous).

The host I use: fdcservers.net: $89 or $99 a month, depending on which server you want, they guarantee a minimum of 2MBPS, translating to roughly 660 GIGS of transfer a month, though some have pushed twice that much without any problems. They do not set a transfer limit, so no charge for going over the limit. There is a $150 setup fee, which is waved if you prepay for 3 months. Prepaying for longer periods will also get you some nice hardware upgrades if you are ready and willing to negociate with Petr (a very nice guy). Support from fdcservers has been good.

I'm paying $79 a month (I signed up before they raised their prices) for an Athlon XP 1700+ server with 512 MB ram, so nothing wrong with that. Hardware upgrades with fdcservers are one time fees and are very reasonably prices. Drawback of fdcservers is that they don't have UPS backup and they only use Cogent for bandwidth (though uptime in the 4 months I've been with them has never been less than 99.6% in any given week).

I'm sure there are other cheap dedicated server offers out there, these are just the ones I could think of for now.

Control panel software:

I use Ensim, currently $99 for a 100 domain licence, $199 for unlimited domain licence. That would be the cheapest payed panel. There are free alternatives, but may not be suitable for your needs, you'll just have to look into that.

PM sent.

I am also doing what this individual is doing, although my free hosting will be for friends and well known internet contacts. I do not think there is anything wrong with offering free hosting with no ads. I would have to say though that getting a rackshack deal or anything that will cost near $1000 without making any kind of monitary support would be crazy. You can find a decent deal that wont break the bank.

Depends on what breakes the bank for you. For me $100 a month poses no problem and I'm happy where I am. I could get a cheaper deal if I wanted it, but I have some very good server hardware, plenty of bandwidth/transfer to devide and I know I can count on the company I'm with to handle support issues swiftly and profesionally (and I'm speaking from experience). Most of the 10 sites I currently host are running mySQL bulletin boards, so I need hardware that can handle it. I don't think a pentium 2 on a business DSL line would tempt me at all...

I wouldn't buy a server if you have no linux experience at all...

You're rushing yourself. As I said earlier read wht for a while, mess around with linux... Then waste your money. :D

Hi
LOL thanks for the advice again
What do you think would be a reasonable speed for each site?
If I knew what kind of speed a site would need then I can work out how many sites I could host on a resonable connection.
I don't want to start big at all i would like to start out very small then work up if I like what Im doing.
I think that getting a reseller account is my best option but Im still not sure, so now Im going to have a look around to find one that it suitable for me as I don't want many fatures on it as I will be hosting for free anyway...
Thanks again for all your help

I run a freehosting place that has about 11,000 members so far - and grows by about 100 to 200 per day members. My advice is - if you are looking to make money doing this look elsewhere. You may make some money on upgrades but you end up barely breaking even or possibly losing money on regular free accounts.

JDT

I am planning to offer said 5 MB or so to my community members to host their site.