As many of you guys/girls here, I would like to start a webhosting company on top of my Webdesign. I have spoke to the sales department at Peer1.net, and they have offered me some really great collocation deals. Starting from 499 CDN (Canadian dollars) a month for rackspace(tower), I would be paying about 1-2 dollars per gig. Peer1 is a huge company, and I'm basically guaranteed to be up at all times, unless my "server" goes down.

Anyhow, my question to you people is quite big, and I would seriously love for some of you to help me answer it.

Ok here it goes. In order for me to collocate, I will need a server of my own. But what's a good server I can buy ? and how much stuff would I need to get for it.(programs) Im super new to this, and I'm not even sure what types of programs I'm going to be having to run. I would really love some suggestions for the type of billing software, where to host my billing, how to track what account are USING what. But most of all, just overall handling accounts.

Please if you can answer those questions, or give me some really good links on where I can read on this, id be most thankful.

:)

Just thought i'd say this... appropriate or not.. $499 (canadian) is NOT a good price for 1 tower of colocation space, ESPECIALLY if it's not all inclusive, if you're gonna shell out $500/mo (even if it is our crazy canadian money, oh woe on our dollar), then you should at least be getting a whack of ip's, bandwidth, software, and a server to boot.

I suggest you do a lot more learning before you jump into the game.

Unless he wants to fill peer1's coffers, nothing wrong with wanting to help the financials of a carrier :D

Definitely not worth the price.. You could try kualo (kualo.com) or rackfast (rackfast.com).

Anyhow good luck with your new venture.

I have just spoke to peer1.net tech support. And over the phone they told me that they only provide space and bandwidth, as well as the basic help / tech support.

Other than that, it is up to me where to buy the server, what software to run for everything, the billing, ALL that stuff is up to me.

I am planning to learn much more, I'm not jumping in right away, but as far as purchasing a server goes I really need help in knowing what would be the best one to get.

Anyhow I plan to stay here for a while, I'm not just a one question and run type of person. Im dedicated to my company, and I plan on hitting this off. But please HELP ME! hehe :stickout

Originally posted by sanjiv
Definitely not worth the price.. You could try kualo (kualo.com) or rackfast (rackfast.com).

Anyhow good luck with your new venture.


Sanjif: I know what you mean about the rackspace, only problem is, I live in Vancouver, and I NEED for the collocation company to be near my house. So that I can drive down and fix whatever is needed.

If there are any problem, and I'm stuck calling people in other countries, then I cant really do anything, and the feeling of helplessness is a real stress producer.


By the way, the tech support verified that a single tower case starts at 199 cdn and not 499. They were speaking about a different rack, that can fit 3 tower cases. (Sorry about the confusion there)

Matt-ew,

Find a reputable colocation/dedicated server provider, and go from there. Most providers *WILL* repair any problems you have, sure, its not free, but it'll be a lot easier on the wallet in the long run (gas isn't free, nor is your time lets remember), typically a trained tech will diagnose and rip through a problem in 1/2 the time of an average webhost, and most will have some stock of parts on hand, etc.

Even at $199 for the space, you can do better, believe me, $199 cdn will get you a server and rackspace, and bandwidth at some places (Granted not where you shold be going), needless to say, peer1 is not gonna end up giving you a great deal, they tend to deal in larger accounts, so the little guys dont mean much to them typically.

This isn't meant to be an insult or anything, but don't you think it would be better to have a colocation tech fix your problems than you yourself (who obviously doesn't know the first thing to do to fix a server problem). Unless you plan to quickly become an advanced system administrator, it would probably be more important to find a colocation provider that has a knowledgeable staff rather than choosing a colocation provider that is very close to you.

jw: I see where you're going with this, and no I wont take this as an insult because I guess I haven't really told you why I would like to be located near the building.

First of all, I just feel much better about the service being of driving distance from me, so that I can run in there in person and start raising hell if they don't take my problem seriously.

Second of all, I don't feel like paying 20 bucks per machine restart.

Third and last reason, I hate to be shipping stuff off, when I know I can drive down there and simply give them more servers / hardware. Works much faster then relying on the mail service.

I guess you're right, I'm not going to be an Advanced Server Tech anytime soon, but hey I'm young :)

Well then maybe you guys can give me some more input into what could make a good Collocation company ?

Maybe one that can help me get started with a server and all the software/hardware....

Didn't he mean $499CDN for a *rack* (42U)? That's not bad, IMHO.

Why do you want a tower? Would it not be more logical to just purchase a nice 1U rackmount machine and pay the $75/month for colo + some for bandwidth?

Originally posted by cbtrussell
Didn't he mean $499CDN for a *rack* (42U)? That's not bad, IMHO.


Yeah right :D, he said for 3 towers :)

Originally posted by porcupine
Unless he wants to fill peer1's coffers, nothing wrong with wanting to help the financials of a carrier :D
Just another form of charity. :D:agree: