Forum Moderators: phranque
T1 - Better choice. I might consider paying for hosting at a site connected by a single T1, since they are typically treated as more important connections and therefore better maintained by the service provider. Setup of leased lines is always a bear, but you shouldn't have to do it often.
IPs - you rent them from your internet service provider. If your ISP will give them to you. Presumably anyone selling a T1 will have some method to buy additional IPs in place, though I would be utterly unsuprised if you had to pay for netblocks in power-of-two increments rather than one at a time. (Ie, you have 8, to get one more you must buy 16, to get 17 you have to buy the whole 32, etc. It has to do with the way IP routing works.) DSL providers seem more likely to either rent them one-by-one or have some fixed-size net block and no willingness to sell a larger one.
I think I'd be more confortable with the idea of selling hosting on a dedicated server at a large multi-homed data center than I would on my own connection. It's gonna be a long time before my business grows large enough to justify the expense of a multi-homed data center.
A production server needs to be up 24/7/365. If updates are to be made, you'd better have another box with an up-to-date copy of the original ready to go on-line if something hiccups. And believe me, it will.
Not to mention the cost of a UPS. A server grade UPS can cost a few thousand dollars and a backup generator a few grand more.
And then dealing with security issues. Not just the hackers but some of the special packages they leave behind. Little ops that lie quietly, feeding all of your passwords to their creator and are sneaky enough to mask themselves as legit programs and even use the original files datetime stamp and checksum count.
Forgive me if you already know all this but on the off-chance that you don't - stick with the design work and you'll be able to sleep better at night.
If you decide to move ahead with it, spend the 6 months in advance getting policies written up for every conceivable situation. Sure enough, you'll be in one sooner or later - unless you have enough cash reserves to buy redundant everything. ;)
Gregg
You will need better than ADSL connection, but a reasonable colocation package should be enough.
There are some advantages to hosting, especially if you have some quirks to the sites you host. e.g specialist in Cold Fusion and COM .
Yes there are issues with hacking and trojans but these are not that great, if you are prepared to spend the time to learn the basics of server maintenance.
Not for non-techies and don't go for low end hosting (you want clients who want specialist services and are willing to pay). The client want to speak to someone who knows about the program they are using not some geek kid who knows how to reset a password and not much else.
My view is if you can offer a specilist area then you are okay, otherwise forget it.
And I'd go FreeBSD or Linux, but that's my own bias :)
I'm looking into Business class DSL or a T1 line. Has anyone done this recently? Is it worth the setup costs and monthly fees for the connection?
One concern I'd have is that if you were offering that level of service -- DSL or a single T1 -- you'd only be able to successfully market to the lowest end of the hosting market, otherwise you'd be trying to compete with companies that are offering much more in terms of connectivity. And that market means very low prices, and typically the least technically astute clients... that is, a high demand for support.
If you're set on putting the server in place anyway, maybe you could offset some of the costs by hosting some clients, but you should do some real research and put a lot of thought into the demands on your time that supporting those clients would bring, and whether any income you might get from them would be worth that aspect of your new business.
If you seriously want to get into the hosting business, though, I'd agree with what others have said: either go with colocation or lease a dedicated server somewhere. You can still do whatever you want for your own business on that server, and you'll be able to offer a lot more for clients. And you might be surprised at how cheaply you can take those routes.
Yes there are issues with hacking and trojans but these are not that great...
IanTurner, I must respectfully disagree with you. There isn't a server on the planet that isn't scanned nearly everyday for a weakness. If it's plugged in it's getting at least a once over on a routine basis. And unless you know your operating system and can lock it down, you're server is ripe for the picking.
Re: trojans, I was referring to trojans that steal services or worse - setup and lie in wait to launch a distributed DOS attack at their master's beckoning. I've seen it happen to folks who swore their servers were locked down tight.
All I'm saying is that anyone who thinks setting up and running a web server is a piece o' cake is in denial. It takes a heck of a lot more knowledge and perseverence than most folks give the network engineers credit for. It can be done, but don't walk into it believing it's as simple as installing some software and a firewall. It ain't - not by a long shot.
You do need a good understanding of how to lock down a server and the services/applications that are running on the server.
But that if you do it properly from the start - the amount of time you will spend on dealing with hack attacks and trojans will be fairly small.
anyone who thinks setting up and running a web server is a piece o' cake is in denial.
Sure it is - if you don't mind being vulnerable to the hundreds of attacks you get a day.
Just as a note from personal experience, a couple years ago I let my guard down for litterally about half a second. "That's odd. I'll have to ask Ned about that." I should have dropped my connection and contacted him by phone, but that seemed to paranoid a reaction. Ten seconds later, I could not log in to my own machine. No access whatsoever, much less control. The only thing I could do was call someone who was in the same town with the server room and ask him to flip the power switch on the machine. Wipe and re-install.
With a decent router you don't get hundreds of attacks.
About webhosting for profit - there are literally thousands upon thousands of web hosting companies out there. Most of them do it so inexpensively and so well. It's like trying to compete with WalMart.
Don't count on a significant portion of your income coming from webhosting.
