Hi,

We are currently hoping to rollout Windows 2000 Hosting very soon, and the licensing aspet has been hell.

So far I have the following:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server - 2000
SQL Server 2000 (Processor Edition) - 3000

That means 5000 just to start out offering this service. I was wondering if anybody has better ways. Otherwise it would explain why the Windows Hosting market is not as saturated as the Unix Hosting market.

Thanks in advance.

4 Possible solutions I can think of.

1) Just eat the cost, and hope you make it back.

2) Go to a dedicated provider where the cost of the liscence is built into the monthly price.

3) There's questions as to how legal it is, but you can try buying your software from ebay.

4) And finally (and not legal), I know a company that started off with software that wasn't really theirs, but when they started making enough money, they went and bought all the software they were using.

Just some ideas..

Your going to have to come up with the cash unless you can find someone that supplies licenses and lets you pay monthly. Thats why Win hosting is more expensive than *nix. On top of what you have mentioned your going to need more cash for a control panel and asp, email, ftp components.

Its not cheap.

This was awhile ago and I don't know if they still do it, but Microsoft used to give you a free copy of Windows 2000 Advanced Server if you could provide proof you hosted 25 sites and put the fact that you provided Windows hosting on your front page.

It was part of thier WebHoster's Program. You might want to check out thier site.

Aaron

Your price for Win2K server is tad expensive (unless it's Advanced Server). It can be purchased in the UK for £478+TAX from some suppliers if you also purchase some harware at the same time.

You probably want at least a dual processor for MS SQL Server but you'll need to purchase 2 processor licences for it. It would also benefit from being run it on it's own box (another Windows Server Licence is needed for that)

Don't forget to have some sort of backup solution in place which might cost you another licence and Windows doesn't come with a POP server, so at the very least you'll need one of them if you want to run a mailserver of it as well.

Also, Windows needs decent hardware to get the best from it. You won't get away with an 800MHz Celeron and 128Mb of RAM.

The WebHosters program is stopped now so that won't help you.

Upnix's advice might be the best place to start. Get a dedicated server from another provider with a Windows Licence and Control Panel installed, and who has a shared SQL Server DB server. Once you've started to make money from Windows hosting then you might want to spring for your own licences.

It's the unfortunate thing about hosting with Windows - the cost for licences is a killer.

You might also want to wait until .Net server is released. There is going to be a specific .Net web server licence released which might make windows hosting a more economically viable option for anyone wanting to start out.

Originally posted by wlandman
Hi,

We are currently hoping to rollout Windows 2000 Hosting very soon, and the licensing aspet has been hell.

So far I have the following:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server - 2000
SQL Server 2000 (Processor Edition) - 3000

That means 5000 just to start out offering this service. I was wondering if anybody has better ways. Otherwise it would explain why the Windows Hosting market is not as saturated as the Unix Hosting market.

Thanks in advance.


People don't like windows because it is unstable. The only people windows applies to are businesses who haven't even heard about unix or linux.

We have been colocating a Windows 2000 Box for a while now and have not had any issues at all with it.

People don't like windows because it is unstable. The only people windows applies to are businesses who haven't even heard about unix or linux.Now that is comedy, LOL. Windows is not unstable and most large business use Windows instead of Linux.

I'm truly confused.. I'm doing homework right now and it included a 19 page excert from Bill Gate's book A Revolution Begins and he talks about wanting to make personal computers cheap.. or free.. and thats why he and paul started Microsoft...

Then, once it got going, he kept thinking, what if one day computing was free?

So tell my WHY ON EARTH Win2k server costs two thousand, and SQL costs three thousand...

I'm really confused..

Also... have your lawyer read the MS SQL license before you start using it for hosting. Particularly the part that says "This license is not to be used for commercial hosting" ;)

Lots of hosting companies disregard that. The only way around it that I have found is through the MCP program. In order to be a Microsoft Certified Partner, you need to pay something like $1500/year and also have two Microsoft Certified Professionals on staff.

Anyway, you might want to think about that before you go spending $3,000 on an sql processor license...

Originally posted by PJamie
Your price for Win2K server is tad expensive (unless it's Advanced Server). It can be purchased in the UK for £478+TAX from some suppliers if you also purchase some harware at the same time.

You probably want at least a dual processor for MS SQL Server but you'll need to purchase 2 processor licences for it. It would also benefit from being run it on it's own box (another Windows Server Licence is needed for that)



Sounds as if you are pricing out Advanced Server. You don't need Advanced Server, the standard server will work fine. The only advantage to AS is the ability to cluster servers together. Retail on Standard Server is ~$750.

As for SQL, I would not start with dual processors, do a fast single processor with at least 512K cache and lots of RAM. We have found with our SQL servers, in many cases it is better to have more servers than one with dual processors. You don't get double the performance by adding a second processor. The 2CPU license is expensive. Start with 1 and once you have enough revenue, you can then justify more servers or a second processor if you want to go that way.

Yes, W2k server is the way to go unless you need clustering and high availability. It runs about $750 a license.

For SQL Server it can be obtained legally for around $2500 last I checked.

Like said above, you will then need a POP software as well as Web Analytics software, insurance on your servers, as well as a decent backup solution I'm assuming.

One option is to lease the software and or hardware through a third party leasing company. Many companies have a minimum of something like $5000, but then over the term of the lease you wind up paying more like $7000 for all that stuff. But its a good alternative if you want to run your own servers nor do you want to put all that cash up front.

Some leasing companies are shown at http://www.qsol.com/faqs.asp

http://www.viosoftware.com
w2k server (OEM) = $648 US - free shipping
I have bought many there and delivery is always 3-4 days.
OEM version is fine and legal :D

People don't like windows because it is unstable

I have found our windows dedicated server to be incredibly stable - but thats just my experience.

We bought SQL server for $2500 - i think list was like $4500

Originally posted by Lirath
I'm truly confused.. I'm doing homework right now and it included a 19 page excert from Bill Gate's book A Revolution Begins and he talks about wanting to make personal computers cheap.. or free.. and thats why he and paul started Microsoft...

Then, once it got going, he kept thinking, what if one day computing was free?

So tell my WHY ON EARTH Win2k server costs two thousand, and SQL costs three thousand...

I'm really confused..


He probably met up with an accountant! :D

OEM version is fine and legal

Nikko, you may want to review that statement as well as Vio's claim that their NIC component makes the Win2K Server OEM they sell legal. Maybe if you're using it internally, but if you're going to use OEM for hosting or make it commercially available, I believe Microsoft will disagree.

Win2k's Hosting license is the same as its "internal use license", OEM version or not. The real question Vio is trying to dodge is what is OEM bundling? 5 CAL's are used however I want to. All my hosting customers authenticate via my own login and never use a server CAL. My weak link now is an FTP login burns a CAL, but since they are concurrent, 5 customers can FTP at a time. I can regulate the number of connections via the FTP MMC snap-in. The IWAM and IUSR accounts are exempt from CAL usage.

I think there are several old very lenghty threads discussing Win2k and IIS Licensing here at WHT, and I don't want to start another one.

My dedicated servers are a different story altogether. My dedicated customers are responsible for any CAL's over 5.

The legality on VIO's part is their burden, but I do understand their burden of OEM licensing.

The legality on VIO's part is their burden

until you get a call from Microsoft legal wanting a copy of the server software you're using because they think you obtained it illegally or it's pirated.

I'm all for getting software, especially Windows software, as cheaply as possible. It's no secret that Windows-based hosting is not cheap. My only point was "be careful".

Sure, you can spend $5K and get a ton of OEMs, but if it turns out the company that sold the OEMs to you did so in a way that was, shall we say, less than prudent, you're out the software, any return fees from the vendor and possibly a lot of time. Then you have to go out and re-purchase the software. What's that old saying..."an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". In other words: CYA!

Yes, but the servers it's installed are beige boxes, so I think the burden of proof is back on MS to prove my box DIDN't come with OEM W2k.

Of course I know the hassle this would put me in, but as long as it's not pirate software and MS was paid their licensing fees, we're just outside the gray area.