I've been looking through web hosting experimentally as something of a job for plenty of months. The main thing that's on my mind is the bill from your ISP... It HAS to be the absolute most expensive bill of the month, but I never see any info regarding it.

Additionally, there aren't many good plans where I live. The best I would be able to find is say 2mbps up. This isn't anywhere near enough to host say 100-200 customers (assuming I would ever actually be able to reach such extraordinarily high numbers), right?

Do you have to use a T1/T3 or similar network? Probably not is my guess.

And again, like I said before, this is still very experimental of an idea for me. I've picked out very perfect hardware that would suit my so-called business if I were to ever make it. But where would I run it? That's right, in my house... I've got a room that's very open and well ventilated, but first of all, 1. This seems stupid, 2. This especially seems stupid to any customers I would ever have, and 3. This leads to the question of availability. Would business-class internet (with static IPs and all HTTP ports open) generally be available to residential neighborhoods?

Thanks to everyone that answers these questions. :)

A t1 is only 1.544mbps so when you say the best you can find is 2mbps that is more then a T1. Why dont you just go into a colocation facility where you can host servers and purchase cheap bandwidth as well.

It would be cheaper to do colocation than pay for a t1 or t3 connection for your home

Renting a dedicated server would be cheaper, faster, and more reliable. After you have multiple servers, then you might look at colocation.

Generally people don't host clients out of their houses, and it is usually against your ISP's TOS to do so. Datacenters are built for this kind of thing. They have multiple bandwidth providors in case one has downtime, they have multiple power supplys in case of an outage, and they have staff available 24/7 in case of issues (at least the good ones).

My advice, don't do it from home.

Alright, colocation / data centers sound interesting, except I'm not so up for the job of managing a whole new web hosting company. Making servers for rent or working for another web hosting company in strong health sound better for me. It's mainly the resources available at the beginning which I will not have because too many potential customers nowadays are looking for say 200gb for say $5 a month. And there's also the need for having enough bandwidth and up speed for everyone to share, and finding a place (that I would also need to rent) to set everything up in.

I'm gonna keep looking around. I'm very experienced with making pretty nice SEO-optimized layouts in valid XHTML 1.1, and I'm learning quite a bit with Fedora and compiling all LAMP components and the Linux kernel and everything else I'd need from source. And I also found a great open source web hosting control panel, Domain Technologie Control, that has an interface I could change very easily to match my site and provide the user-friendly layout exactly like I'm looking for. And with that list of hardware I said would be perfect, I've gone through every aspect of it, choosing as low-wattage reliable hardware as possible and making sure that the entire system runs cool and energy efficient and stable.

So the point is, I'm not just looking at this web hosting idea like it's an easy way to make money. Like I said above, after the "fun" part of setting it up (besides the hefty beginning price tag and assuming I actually did get to set it up without breaking my ISP's TOS in the first place), there's going to be plenty of miserable months of little customers because many of them will turn around after seeing my site because of other sites like 1&1 being more reliable and well-known or sites like HostGator or WebHostingPad offering more features for the price—not to mention the entire thing sounds very risky. So what do you think would be a good idea for me? (that I will review very thoroughly, of course)

check out a VPS. Hosting from your home is not a good idea, unless it's for just personal stuff.

I would honestly start out with a VPS, or if that's too much, check out a reseller account and play with that first.

I would not drop a couple thousand into a little venture like this unless you have the time/dedicated to it....there is a lot to do yourself, trust me ;)

Well I already have another spare computer I've been working with, so I don't see the point in testing with a VPS. Unless you mean starting my business with a VPS? Again, the whole idea sounds risky.

Well I already have another spare computer I've been working with, so I don't see the point in testing with a VPS. Unless you mean starting my business with a VPS? Again, the whole idea sounds risky.

of course it's risky...but the rewards are very enjoyable for me, personally. I like the idea of the internet/web hosting. I like how it works, I love learning new things, and how to tackle new issues.

If it's too risky, and you do not have the time/money to do it, do not do it!

But if you want to do it for a few friends, then MAYBE it would be OK at home, but you may be violating some ToS.

Well of course it would be violating a residential ISP plan. Just about all of them block Port 80 and specifically say that running a web server violates their ToS.

Maybe if I ever make a site popular enough... that makes enough revenue..... Whenever that'll happen :(

X-FI6:

I am sure you are familiar with the phrase it takes money to make money. Well, to exercise any meaningful level of control you have to have enough money to stay alive long enough to ramp up enough business to make your initial gamble pay off. This is to say nothing of the other things you will need like experience and a good business plan which should serve as your roadmap to how you intend to accomplish your goals.

With that being said, depending on your approach, this is probably the most difficult stage for a startup and it is the primary reason many of them go bust after a big bang.

Please allow me to offer the following constructive advice.

1. Every so often people appear on this site and ask question that while are important are so rudimentary in nature that the mere asking of such questions shows to any careful observer that the person presenting the question doesn't have a clue about what they are getting into. Therefore, rather than rambling off random suggestions it might be more affective for you in this case to think through what your goals are and if this is the most effective way to reach them.

2. To address the specific points of your posts and give you some insight into some of the problems you will have:

(a) You state that you been toying with the idea of hosting as something of a job. I don't know how much money you plan to make in hosting vs the traditional means of employment and what kinds of time horizons you hope to make that said dollar amount in but, I can tell you that most businesses start out at negative zero this means with a debt load and no to very little money coming in. This can last from 12-24+ months. Therefore, depending on how much upfront risk you are willing to take, your debt load could kill your business before you've had a chance to make a dime. Which makes doing this as a full time job a non-starter for someone in your position.

(b) Judging by the tone of your post it appears that you are seeking validation for your ideas. And judging the way you have phrased your questions / comments you kind of know why they might seem silly but you are looking for some concrete reasons why you can't run a hosting service out of this spare room in your house.

First the good news: You can do what ever you want as long as you have the money and the expertise to do it correctly. However, if you met these two requirements you wouldn't be asking these questions of anyone on a public forum. Because you would know the answers to the questions.

Let me go through them:

1. 2Mbps is not enough to host 100-300 clients (it depend on the what clients are running but before you can get to this point you will have other problems.)

2. Do you have to use a T1 or T3? (Yes, If you want synchronous communications which means that up and down speeds are the same. Which by the way is not available in any Consumer grade Cable or DSL product even the business Class services are a joke in this regards.)

I am going to throw some numbers at you and show you some real technical and logistical problems you will have (I think you will begin to understand my whole lecture about money)

1. You need to own the property (if you are living in a MTU the associations/management will not give you permission to building any major telecom infrastructure inside the dwelling.) If your name is not on the mortgage which means that you are living in your parents house you will have similar challenges.


2. The cheapest T1 (1.544Mbps) you'll get is about $250-500 you will have to pass a credit check and probably sign a 24-36 month agreement to get the lower pricing. Unlike canceling your cable service, if you cancel these contract after the initial window for doing so, you will be on the hook for the balance of your contract which could be between $6,000-$12,000+ (I haven't listed setup and equipment costs)

3. T3 prices (45Mbps) + loops range anywhere from $7,000~$16,000/month The setup fees are $2,000 and then there are build out costs. Just like the T1's you have go through a credit check, sign 36-60 month agreement to get the lowest price which would put you on the line for: $252,000 ~ $576,000 These are conservative estimates. Those would be your fixed communications costs. We haven't talked about anything else. (including how much you would have to charge your clients to recoup your investment, cover your costs and make a profit.) I hope that at this point it wouldn't be necessary.

Are there cheaper alternatives yes but they are not as sexy. Become a reseller, become a value added service provider, co-locate, rent your servers from a dedicated server host.


Hope this helps.

Thanks. Now obviously you can't just install a T1/T3 line into your home (and I knew that right from the start). I can't get my mind to like reseller accounts but now I have very solid answers to prove it is way out of my price range and convenience to start such a business maintained solely by myself. At least in the position that I live in. :/

my country's ISP offer unlimited access, just paid a monthly bill,

so far not much effect to me, but the speed over here is damm slow (384kbps only)