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  1. #1

    1000 GB or 20Mb unmetered package for image gallery?

    I want to start an image gallery site with 'textures'. These are photos of materials like wood, metal, stone, and many others that can be used for creating 3D graphics. I have around 10GB of files, each averaging 1 MB in size. I think I'll use more than 1000GB of bandwidth in the long run.

    The site can be compared to websites like mayang.com/textures or imageafter.com
    (The stats from mayang.com can be viewed here: mayang.com/stats/ Since it is my first post I can't post URLs yet, so you have to add a www in front)

    I hope somebody can be so kind to answer these questions:

    Would an 20Mb unmetered connection be fast enough for decent download rates? Do hosts allow an image gallery on such a connection anyway?

    I assume I can go for a cheap Celeron-kind CPU since the system is is only sending large chunks of data anyway?

    Another question is if such a website could pay for itself? Lets say I would get a 100.000 hits a month, would this generate enough income through advertisting to cover those 100$ to 200$ of hosting costs? The audience will be a selective group, so the advertising can be very selective also.

    Is it wise to spend some extra dollars on a managed server, or is this talk about 'kernel hardening' just a sales trick? The data on the server will not be critital, a weekly backup would be enough to save the whole site in event of a crash. It's just that 'kernel hardening' sounds extremly cool, like the kernel is being beaten with a large stick, just to make it tougher

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,556
    I would suggest going with a provider that will allow you to go with a standard 1000 GB plan for now and upgrade to unmetered when it is actually needed... The speed is going to be there either way, (unless you are talking about a 10 Mb/s port vs a 20 Mb/s unmetered). The difference will be in how much you can transfer over said port. I would suggest saving the money on unmetered until you actually need it. More than likely you're not going to be using it right away..
    James Lumby

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    San Francisco/Hot Springs
    Posts
    991

    Re: 1000 GB or 20Mb unmetered package for image gallery?

    Originally posted by mvijfwinkel

    Would an 20Mb unmetered connection be fast enough for decent download rates? Do hosts allow an image gallery on such a connection anyway?

    I assume I can go for a cheap Celeron-kind CPU since the system is is only sending large chunks of data anyway?
    You'd probably be ok with a 10Mbps unmetered server with a Sempron and at least 512MB of Ram with a good web server. If you're gonna use Apache, make sure you do some tuning on it and/or look into mod_ioboost.


    Is it wise to spend some extra dollars on a managed server, or is this talk about 'kernel hardening' just a sales trick?
    It really depends on who's doing it, a lot of people are selling snake-oil when it comes to this. They apply a patch or two and then call it done. Some actually do tuning custom to your application, and those are the guys you want to find.
    If you're looking for some serious hardcore webserving, look into using FreeBSD and finding a place that specializes in it. There are a ton of things available for FreeBSD to make webserving insanely fast.
    AppliedOperations - Premium Service
    Bandwidth | Colocation | Hosting | Managed Services | Consulting
    www.appliedops.net

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    mvijfwinkel,

    I would recommend a managed if you think 'kernel hardening' is beating a kernel with a stick.. although the majority of us sit around the office and beat on the servers with sticks 24/7.

    That said - as a few others have said there is no need for too much bandwidth to start. Start small and I bet you'll cover the servers with ads without any problem whatsoever.

  5. #5
    Thanks for the response everybody,

    I actually didn't think of looking into possible future upgrades, that's very smart .

    I'm leaning towards the cheapest package at dedicatedplace right now, a 2600 Sempron with 512 MB. I will only run one site on the server, at first even without a Mysql database. Is it wise to get a control panel from day one, or can I easily do without?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    England
    Posts
    1,200
    I would reccomend using a control panel if you dont know much because it will make everything a lot easier.
    Custom Cloud Solutions - innoix.com

  7. #7
    Control panels are very nice to have...
    heres a free one:
    www.webmin.com

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