Hello everyone I am new here.

I currently run a home based business (not hosting related). We have recently been shifting our focus and as a result I have some unused servers and bandwidth. They are not super fast - dual Xeon's with 2GB to 4GB RAM each, running Windows Server 2008. I also have Verizon Fios with about 20 MBps upload speed.

I would like to put them to work but I don't have a lot of time to manage them. Can anyone suggest ways to monetize them?

I am only looking for a passive income. Are there any companies out there that I can "rent" my servers to? I just don't want them to sit and collect dust.

Thanks in advance!

Colo them to a datacenter, and rent them out. Your home based connection will probably cause major problems for anyone deciding to "rent" them.

Thanks for the advice! If I colo them who would I advertise them to? Individuals, hosting companies? Would a forum be a place to advertise?

Sorry for my newbish-ness.

Thanks again!

Just brainstorming: Could I convert them to game servers, proxy servers, something else? Trying to think outside the box!

Just brainstorming: Could I convert them to game servers, proxy servers, something else? Trying to think outside the box!

I would run maybe a few static sites from home but probably not a gameserver or proxy. Popular proxys will use just about your whole connection upload and download. Also if anyone does anything illegal on it and its reported you may get a rather bad warning from your ISP.

I suppose if you made multiple and I mean MULTIPLE backups on different servers you could make a backup service for single sites under 100mb.

like techjr mentioned, proxy sites WILL kill your bandwidth. i tried to setup a proxy site from my house and turned it off about a month ago and my internet is STILL having issues! i'm not sure if my ISP decided to throttle my bandwidth because of all the upload/download traffic or what... I've got a few spare servers that i'm trying to do the same thing with. Depending on your location, it may be cheaper to get a T1 installed in your garage than it would be to colo a few 1U or 2U servers. I personally have a 6U HP blade enclosure and a 2U power supply and people want $800+ to colo it! I could get a T1 or a T3 for $200-300/mo!

Colo them to a datacenter, and rent them out. Your home based connection will probably cause major problems for anyone deciding to "rent" them.

Agreed, definitely the best way to make some money off of them

Myself, I would learn to build a private WoW gameserver. Such gameservers can earn as much 600 usd per day. That's the amount coming in daily on the gameserver I was GM on before.

Myself, I would learn to build a private WoW gameserver. Such gameservers can earn as much 600 usd per day. That's the amount coming in daily on the gameserver I was GM on before.

You know what... my sons play on those private WoW servers. I never thought of that. I'll look into it.

As far as the first suggestion, putting them in a colo, would I rent them out for web hosting? Or something else?

Myself, I would learn to build a private WoW gameserver. Such gameservers can earn as much 600 usd per day. That's the amount coming in daily on the gameserver I was GM on before.

What happens when Blizzard does a take down complaint and your money flow then stops. Or you make a mistake with the way your donation system is setup and your in court etc.
Stick to things more on the legal side. Private servers have an invisible boundary between legal and illegal and eventually it catches up to a lot of the more popular private servers.


To the op: I would colocate the servers and just sell them as unmanaged dedicated servers. Assuming you can get a decent colo pricing you would be making a nice profit. You would have to obtain backup ram, hard drives and power supplies etc to be safe though.

Have you considered just selling the servers outright?

Have you considered just selling the servers outright?

Yes but I wouldn't get much for them. I was hoping to find a way to generate some side income and maybe learn something new in the process. That may be wishful thinking! :)

[QUOTE=Dan R;7086473]Colo them to a datacenter, and rent them out./QUOTE]

The colo idea sounds good. The servers are running Windows server OS's. Would I grant access to people using remote desktop?

I've been looking at the "colo offers" threads I see a lot of talk about cPanel, Plesk, etc. I've used cPanel on Hostgator before, but how does that work on a Windows server?

Again, thanks everyone! I'm trying to learn.

Yes but I wouldn't get much for them. I was hoping to find a way to generate some side income and maybe learn something new in the process. That may be wishful thinking! :)

Since you have indicated a desire to learn something new, I heartily recommend building a private WoW game server. I am sure your sons will give you a lot of enthusiastic assistance. fyi I am 57 yo but I am always 13 yo in WoW. It's a lot of fun. Making money should be fun.

Would it be profitable to set them up as VPN servers?

ThisOldMan - I am setting up a machine now for a WoW server just to play in-house. I'll let you know if we open it up to the internet!

Would it be profitable to set them up as VPN servers?

ThisOldMan - I am setting up a machine now for a WoW server just to play in-house. I'll let you know if we open it up to the internet!

Right on , man, that's the way to go. Are you using Trinitycore? Look in the ac-web.org forums for help. Look out for flamers and spammers there.

OK I found a colo facility I want to work with. Can someone explain how to calculate my power requirements? They have plans with 1U/1Amp, 2U/2Amp etc.

I tried searching but I couldn't find a clear explanation.

Thanks

You can buy a power bar with a readout that will answer your question. Plug the server in and boot it up. Generally the servers uses peak power as its first turned on, similar to a very heavy load.

Thanks for the suggestion!

You can buy a power bar with a readout that will answer your question. Plug the server in and boot it up. Generally the servers uses peak power as its first turned on, similar to a very heavy load.

I don't think that's always true. It probably depends on the hardware, but the server that I just built peaked at 1.7A during startup, used just under 1A when idle, and peaked at 3A under a full load. It's probably best to use benchmarks to put a full load before measuring the power used.