Starting a web hosting company

I have been thinking of ways to make more money & one of those ways was...

[robotsdobetter]

I have been thinking about how to make more money off my sites and one of those ways was to host all my own sites. It makes sense for me because I have over 80 sites and each site's web hosting cost at least 7.99 per month and that adds up over a year. I would like to have more control over them and have each site with it's own ip number. I would also have many client move to our web hosting, My clients have asked me before if I could host there site.

So this leads me to ask a few questions...

1) Is it better to have your servers connect with dial up or high speed?

2) Have you done this and did it work for you?

3) Do you think it's worth it all?

4) What type of problems should I expect to have being my own web host?

I have thought of becoming a reseller for other web host and offering it to my clients, but I have decided not to because I would like to have full control over it (uptime, offer php, CGI, etc.) and if I do become a web host why should I help them make money off me. Also as we would grow (I hope) I would like to offer more support than just email like live online chat and 1800 phone support to our customers. Has anyone become a reseller and have it work out for them?

[Dudermont]

Did you ask if it is better to have your servers (that would be hosting the sites) connected with dial up or high speed? If that was the question then you definitely have to use high speed at least.

My personal oppinion is that without spending a LOT of money you cannot start a decent hosting service at a new location. I know a place that did, they have battery backup that can last a couple hours, and also have 2 diesel generators for longer outages. Then you have to remember that even if you have that, do all the routers/switchs that are closest to you also have backup? I was just talking to a friend of mine and he knows a smaller company that started hosting, had backup but found out that the router that connected him to the rest of the internet didn't so in a power outage he might keep power but noone could get to there websites still.

I would recomend what another person I know does and that is, rents dedicated servers at a data ceneter in Dalas? somewhere in the US anyways, and then he sells accounts on that.

He has full controll over the servers without the expense and hassle of having to worry about all the other stuff.

[netguy]

robotsdobetter, I completely agree with Dudermont.

If you are wanting to make the switch to your own dedicated server(s), then I would HIGHLY recommend that you go with a co-location or dedicated firm where you control your own server and they provide you with a superfast Internet backbone connection.

Servers are not something you can connect to a dial-up, and if you are referring to high speed meaning Cox or Comcast, that won't work either, since they do not provide enough upload capacity (and all I have seen are against their terms of service).

You would probably require a T1 connection at a minimum, and depending on where you work, it may be difficult to have installed. One of my clients went with a T1 and had to pay more than $10,000 just to bury cable to his office, and he still pays about $800/mo for the connection alone.

From the questions you are asking, you are probably better off with a managed hosting solution with a dedicated server tied off to a nice fat OC48 pipe. Such firms can insure the best uptime, keep the various software patched, and you can focus on your websites rather than the hackers.

Depending on your bandwidth requirement, you can probably spend a few hundred dollars a month for the server and connection, then sell off several dozen virtual host accounts to clients - but not for $7.99 a month. ;)

Steve

[robotsdobetter]

I wish it would be 7.99. :)

I have the money to do it both hiring people and having it setup, my company needs to expand into something else thats webmaster related, that's why I looked into this.

Thanks for the help guys!