My friend wants to start a free web host but he doesnt know what to install to stop people from using rapidleech and such and abusing the server. What are the recommended settings for him to use & is there any programs to install?

the free host control panel you are using should have an illegal file scanner. you will be able to weed out who is installing what.

It's not worth it, trust me. I've run free hosting for so long, even to the point having more than a million visitors a DAY, it only makes you a few bucks.

It's not worth it =)

He needs to install firewalls and block IP's.

It's not worth it, trust me. I've run free hosting for so long, even to the point having more than a million visitors a DAY, it only makes you a few bucks.

It's not worth it =)

what about advertising your own services ?

It does not work, simply because you have yourself a bunch of free riders. These people were never interested in paid services and will never ever use paid services. Well, maybe a fraction of it.

From my experience, out of some 300,000 free members I had before, when I opened up a paid service, only some 50-70 people ended up signing up with a paid service over a period of several months.

Also, what happened to GeoCities? They've got tens of millions of visitors a day, if it's such a good business, why do Yahoo closed it down just this year. It's not the way to go.

It does not work, simply because you have yourself a bunch of free riders. These people were never interested in paid services and will never ever use paid services. Well, maybe a fraction of it.

From my experience, out of some 300,000 free members I had before, when I opened up a paid service, only some 50-70 people ended up signing up with a paid service over a period of several months.

no, i mean advertising your services through the banners on their sites. in the end, they end up being publishers showing your banners ?


Also, what happened to GeoCities? They've got tens of millions of visitors a day, if it's such a good business, why do Yahoo closed it down just this year. It's not the way to go.

ad revenue was probably close to nil for them as opposed to their expense.

yahoo is a big company. they cant rely on their paid hosting or any other small paid service they have and show ads for those services on geocities and end up alright.

but, im guessing that it could be possible for a small web host to do that ?

It does not work, simply because you have yourself a bunch of free riders. These people were never interested in paid services and will never ever use paid services. Well, maybe a fraction of it.

From my experience, out of some 300,000 free members I had before, when I opened up a paid service, only some 50-70 people ended up signing up with a paid service over a period of several months.

Also, what happened to GeoCities? They've got tens of millions of visitors a day, if it's such a good business, why do Yahoo closed it down just this year. It's not the way to go.

i agree with u, and i those 300,00 free members, usually 80% are those russian porn sites.....
i am damn pissed off with them...

Don't bother. It's too much hassle.

May as well just run a budget (paid) hosting company. It would probably give you more income and would filter out the rifraf!

what to install to stop people from using rapidleech and such and abusing the server.

You need to have some process control system to protect it. Using mod_security, a number of hosting sites usage can be stopped with rapidleech, but server to server transfer can't be stopped. There are some pci compliance firewall, which has powerful process control system can certainly help you on this.