So my web business has grown very large over the past 4 years in business. I'm at the point where I'm using a dedicated server.

I was just wondering, maybe I can set up a server in my basement... and kind of sell of the extra space on my server to clients. This could be a secondary business that can help pay for its upkeep.

So I looked around for a broadband provider that would provide me with a dedicated IP. Sure, there's the regular cable companies that can offer me a "business package" ... but then speeds are limited... definitely not enough to support a few servers.

So i went up a notch.. Level3..etc.. but they only offer these T1 lines in certain business districts.

Is there such thing as getting a T1 to someone's basement? If so, where, how and will it cost an arm and a leg? Or just a leg?

I think the next step up is either:

A - Rent a Dedicated Server

Doing this will give you full use of the processor and memory of your choice, and good bandwidth rates. You would also be covered if something failed on the server. The bad things are that you have to pay extra for features like RAID 1, and other things that make a webhoster, a quality webhost.

B - Colocate a Server

If you can find a datacenter that will host your box you can save tons of money. The main expense is building your own box or buying a box to place there. You pay pretty much just for space / used bandwidth. The bad thing about this is, that if you don't build on quality parts and something goes bad some places charge a lot per hour to do remote hands work.

C - Line to House

I don't really know many areas where running a T-1 to your house would be cost effective. When you do the math a T-1 is only about 500GB of bandwidth at most a month, and that is if it is used 24/7. It would be rough if you had a lot of popular sites that got many hits during peak hours, esepcially if they are hosting downloads. I've seen someone near me try it, and it didn't work out very well. I think the minimum you would want is a DS3 and activate it as you need more bandwidth, although this can be very expensive.


That's my 2 cents

Ah yes. Thanks for the information.

A DS3 would be around $2,500+, and that's to a commercial building.. not someone's basement, which means installation would be out of the world. Not to mention the $2,500 would basically wipe out my a substantial part of my revenue.

I just heard about a "bonded T-1"... any thoughts on that?

I wouldn't really recommend running a server out of your basement because of the implications of natural disaster, power outages, etc. Unless you have platform floors, and a huge generator, I wouldn't recommend it.

T1s usually are a waste of money if you get it at home. There are plenty of providers that offer business class DSL, which usually give you a few more IPs and the *ability* to run a server. However, if you care about your clients, you won't host their mission-critical websites on your home server. Stick with dedicated!

One T1 line MIGHT comfortably host a very lightly loaded server. Unless you're planning on charging a huge amount for your hosting packages, it isn't even worth it. Even then, you'd be hard pressed to justify premium hosting pricing to your clients...hosted on a T1. :P

--Tina

a T1 is only 1.544mbps (450GB max transfer), so that wouldn't give you much...plus it would be rediculous for the route fee to a residential address for the amount of bandwidth you'd be getting. Your better off just colocating a server in a data center near you because the costs would be amazingly lower.

a T1 is only 1.544mbps (450GB max transfer), so that wouldn't give you much...plus it would be rediculous for the route fee to a residential address for the amount of bandwidth you'd be getting. Your better off just colocating a server in a data center near you because the costs would be amazingly lower.
Agreed! Co-location is an excellent option! Especially if you live in a city with a datacenter nearby!

Now this sounds familiar.

Don't do eet man! Colo it!

Oh and a heads up. If you're going to Colocate make sure you keep your servers smaller. When you colocate you generally pay for space, meaning a Tower PC Can cost up to $100 more than a 1U Rackmount Server. The $100 is really the max, but any datacenter I've been with usually charges $50/m+ for the size difference.

Greetings:

You can typically get a T1 to most locations from around $500 on up.

The problem with moving in this direction gets into redudancy and environment.

Most home / home offices / offices do not have the equivalent (or even close) environment of a world class data center -- electrical capacity, backup generators, temperature controls, et al.

Most world class data centers have multiple connections so best routes are taken, along with the ability to burst.

We have some managed dedicated server clients who will have a server or several servers burst up to 100 MB per second for a short duration. On a T1, your burst would be capped at 1.54 MB per second (at best).

Therefore, I recommend you consider renting dedicated server(s) or co-locating one or more servers.

Thank you.

Colo or managed dedicated is the way to go - don't risk it with a basement solution.

Jerry

Thanks for all the info!

After much thought, i think i'm going to go colo-. Dedicated is just too much money in the long run. It will be cheaper with colo-. Now, I just need to find a place that can manage my server at a colo- service provider. I have no idea how it works- hopefully, all i need to do is purchase the server / blade, send it to the colo- company, and have them plug it in and install all the software for me (manage it).

Then again, I guess it might be cheaper then if I have a managed dedicated server if I need my colo- server to be managed...

ahh! decisions, decisions....

and have them plug it in and install all the software for me (manage it).
Nope, doesn't work like that. Generally yes, you can send them the server and yes they can rack it for you, but it's unlikely that they will do anything software related.

There's no way you're going to be happy on a T1. Think about it. it's bandwidth is substantially less than a home user DSL or Cable account.

If you had only ONE person downloading a large file it would virtually bring the rest of the sites to a crawl, and it would still be relatively slow for the downloader since he's got 3 or more megabit downloads.

T1 use to be a great idea back when ISDN was around, but with a measley 1.44 megabit limit you wouldn't even be happy using it for your internet service.

Just my thoughts.

Co-locate!! that's your best chance

@ layer0

are you from LT?

What's LT ??

All right!! heh.. i get the point!

So for now, it will be dedicated, until I learn to manage my own server... THEN, I will graduate onto a colo- server.

Any books / manuals that you recommend? Like...

"How to use a server" for Dummies?

Or Linux 101...?