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  1. #1

    Post File hosting server

    Hi

    I've posted before about this project and received some good help with it.

    I notice that a lot of folks on here are from hosting companies so I thought I would post and see what kind of service you can offer.

    We are looking to set up a file hosting website (like rapidshare), so this needs to be available within your companys policy.

    We are going to start with one dedicated server, and add others as needed. Something good and fast, with a fast connection so the users uploads and downloads aren't crawling.

    The OS should be Linux, apache with MySQL etc. CPanel would be useful.

    I've seen some services offering unlimited bandwidth, for a site of this nature that would be good.

    There is a question of storage, I've also seen some companies that offer extended storage on top of what is on the server itself. This could be useful, though not sure how this works.

    We are looking for a managed solution with a good uptime.

    I am not a server specialist, so there is the question of support. We have the choice of hiring a specilist or company on top of a management fee - which could be costly. The other choice is "I don't know", however I am hoping that perhaps someone out there offers a management service that can take care of the servers for us. Once the servers are set up - patched, updates etc - we just need them to run and stay alive, and ideally I'd rather not have to hire somebody just to achieve that. So if you can help with that your feedback would be appreciated.

    A few helpful guys mentioned a software called NGINX. Re the above paragraph, someone familiar with that and who can support that as part of the server support package would be good.

    Finally, a horror story - once I had 32 client websites on a server at a hosting company. One day the guy just disappeared, all the sites went down and I had 32 angry customers on the phone, with 32 lots of lost data. Given that I would prefer to deal with established companies with some kind of track record and SLA, rather than folks operating out of their shed like this guy obviously was.

    Well anyway, that's kind of what we need. Budget is pretty much whatever is best for our needs taking into account the service we are looking for. I've been quoted so far varying from $300 to $1200. So if you can assist us with this offering please let me know.

    Thanks for reading,

    Ted.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by BigTed View Post
    I've seen some services offering unlimited bandwidth, for a site of this nature that would be good.
    there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth

  3. #3
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    Start with a single server, replace it or scale out as you go. No need for a $1200 server for a startup.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by gordonrp View Post
    Start with a single server, replace it or scale out as you go. No need for a $1200 server for a startup.
    Yes that's what I thought Gordon. This was a quote from a guy that was selling so hard it seemed his life depended on it. He also tried to sell me 2 of them at 1200 each

    But, a cursory look at google suggests even if "unlimited bandwidth" must abide by a reasonable use policy, it does indeed exist.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by BigTed View Post
    Yes that's what I thought Gordon. This was a quote from a guy that was selling so hard it seemed his life depended on it. He also tried to sell me 2 of them at 1200 each

    But, a cursory look at google suggests even if "unlimited bandwidth" must abide by a reasonable use policy, it does indeed exist.
    There is no such thing, while you might not be limited by the company providing it you are definitely limited by the speed of the link itself. If you buy a dedicated 1Mbps link directly from a carrier it is "unlimited" in the sense that they will not monitor your usage (assuming they have a hard limit set and no burstable speed). You are really limited to transfer of 1Mbps * 60seconds in a day * 60minutes in an hour * 24 hours in a day * 30 days in a month (roughly 2.5GB).

  6. #6
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    I suggest not only going after the lowest price. Make sure you check out some reviews about companies you receive quotes from.
    About your nginx issue, if you are using cpanel there's a nice plugin available for nginx on cpanel servers called cpnginx.com. It's like 5 USD per month, but very nice to manage it from Cpanel

    Best of luck on choosing a good company.
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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by ServerBoost View Post
    I suggest not only going after the lowest price. Make sure you check out some reviews about companies you receive quotes from.
    About your nginx issue, if you are using cpanel there's a nice plugin available for nginx on cpanel servers called cpnginx.com. It's like 5 USD per month, but very nice to manage it from Cpanel

    Best of luck on choosing a good company.
    Hi ServerBoost

    thanks for that tip that is very useful to know

    Ok so presumably what I am after is reasonably priced bandwidth.

  8. #8
    Also I don't know if you know this, but hosting companies cannot give you offers directly in this thread. All users including hosts can only recommend and give tips but not direct offers (in reference to the way you phrased some parts of your post). There is another section that allows hosting offer requests though.

  9. #9
    Ah seems I am barking up the wrong tree then

    There's been a couple helpful folks in here I will contact them anyway.

    I guess I should repost this over in the other forum then.

    Thanks for letting me know.

  10. #10
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    Hi Ted, many providers offer you a growth path, for example start with a server that can be expanded with more disks, memory if needed. A HP DL180 is great for this.
    i3D.net (www.i3d.net) - Contact our sales team at: sales@i3d.net
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  11. #11
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    As for traffic, I also suggest starting low, not with unmetered.
    Why pay the full price if you don't even need it in the beginning?

    Work out a plan with f.e a 1 Gbit uplink and 10 TB traffic (or less / more) and build up from there.
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  12. #12
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    One of my current jobs is managing a filehosting site (although you can call it a filelocker; sharing is not necessary) for a client that uses a different approach. The site has one master server and several slave servers. Each slave has its own database and it queries the master database only twice for each download. This has been very helpful as it scales very efficiently and a new server can be added when needed (setup within hours). Most work is done by the slave servers and because downloads are spread out between servers I can even throttle bandwidth dynamically in a PHP script without affecting the overall site performance. Overall, 10 servers with 4 TB diskspace are better than one server with a 40 TB disk array in my experience.

    Also remember the leeching-upload ratio favors the leechers, which means every GB of data will usually generate around 5-100 gb of data transer. Unlimited bandwidth does not exist, but some servers offer 50-100TB bandwidth or throttle back your connection speed after several TB. This is very useful for keeping costs manageable. Finally, don't forget to give righstholders an abuse form and comply with takedown notices, because most hosting providers don't like (repeating) infringement notices and may block your server eventually.
    file1.info :: 50GB secure cloudstorage with filemanager

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigTed View Post
    Hi ServerBoost

    thanks for that tip that is very useful to know

    Ok so presumably what I am after is reasonably priced bandwidth.
    Since this is a new site, traffic probably won't explode for some time.
    I strongly suggest you work something out with your host (monitoring + early warning of meeting bandwidth limits), such as the ability to upgrade your bandwidth caps in the middle of the month.

    Instead of getting sales quotes, scout for pricing in the dedicated hosting offers forum. Get a nice idea of what the pricing will generally be like, before making any sales chats and potentially getting something oversold.

    Finally, somethings I hope you should know but if you don't:
    - HDD is important. Not only the size, but the speed, esp. for a file sharing site.
    - How important are your files? Are you offering for-pay services? Consider placing important files on RAID and charging a premium for it.
    - Don't just look at the short term pricing. For a file host, growth can be very sudden. Ensure upgrades are reasonably priced for expansion.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigTed View Post
    Yes that's what I thought Gordon. This was a quote from a guy that was selling so hard it seemed his life depended on it. He also tried to sell me 2 of them at 1200 each

    But, a cursory look at google suggests even if "unlimited bandwidth" must abide by a reasonable use policy, it does indeed exist.
    "Unlimited" is a touchy word around here on these forums. Just make sure you know what you're getting. 100mbit "unmetered" can mean a lot of different things, for example:
    • 100mbit of bandwidth dedicated to you that you are guaranteed full use of (keyword here is "dedicated")
    • 100mbit connection speed, which is shared by X number of other people. It's "unmetered" but you'll be lucky to be able to use 20mbit during peak times (keyword here is "shared")

    If it looks too good to be true, it is. Look for "dedicated unmetered" or go with a provider that gives you a gigabit port and a high amount of transfer, e.g. 50TB or whatever you need. As mentioned by others, keep an eye on your throughput for "TB" based bandwidth servers, overage fees can rack up into the thousands quickly!

    Good luck.
    Last edited by gordonrp; 04-21-2011 at 12:12 PM.

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