Who Wants To Web Host With Me

[krakozia]

who would like to webhost with me im dieing to host people and im looking for a partner ive already got a customer as soon as we start

[DumberDrummer]

I have to close this, as its advertising, sorry dude.

Use the appropriate forum to find customers, or ask your friends.

[krakozia]

dumber do you think u could help me set up hosting on my server some how?

[DumberDrummer]

we've helped you numerous times in this very forum.

Please refer to those threads for all the info you need.

[krakozia]

those "other" threads have nothing to do with webhosting they only help set up a server i need help setting up a panel with webhosting and ftp and smtp and everything

[DumberDrummer]

That sort of thing can be pretty complicated... you will first need to setup a mail server for SMTP/POP3, and then an FTP server before you can even think about putting up frontends and stuff and start selling hosting.

Most mailservers aren't free, but you can get one that isn't very user friendly here: http://www.xmailserver.org/

FTP servers vary wildly, and to tell the truth, it doesn't really matter...

I like http://www.whitsoftdev.com/slimftpd/

You can check the sites for documentation et al, but I think you'll find that its more trouble than its worth for a small business, espescially with the mailserver.

Then you have to setup PHP and mysql if they aren't already to allow anything to be done at all.

Then after that, you just barely have an acceptable web host. You might need to setup perl, and cgi stuff, and finally, some sort of control panel, such as CPanel, to control it all for the user. Most stuff like that isn't free, unfortunately.

[Skie]

I STRONGLY recommend that you DO NOT do this on your own. Based on the questions you've been asking, you're not ready to do this. You lack the knowledge and experience to successfully run a web hosting company from a technical stand point. Your best option is to purchase a reseller account with an existing hosting company. They'll do the major work on the server for you. This leaves you to concentrate on finding customers and supporting them with their questions. Anything that deals with the server itself, you can ask your host.

There is a lot that needs to be done to ensure that a webhosting server remains functioning properly, remains secure, etc. It's also not cheap. If you're planning on hosting a few websites on a DSL/Cable connection, then you'll probably end up losing your customers due to the lack of upload speed and potential downtime when your connection goes down, you lose power, cat/dog/child unplugs the computer, or anything else that may happen. Running a hosting company from home is NOT a good idea unless your customers KNOW that you are doing this and they're willing to accept the risks. You'll only be able to host a few small websites. Businesses will not want to host with you and if you lie to them about where they're hosted, they'll probably sue you once they start losing money because of lost sales.

If you're going to do this, you need to develop a business plan. Figure out what to offer for your packages and how much to charge. Figure out what it's going to cost you to offer each package, this way you'll know what profit you make from each customer. Figure out how many customers you need to make break even as well as to make a profit. You need to know how many customers you can safely place on one server before you need a second server. If you think you can put 300 - 500 customers on a celeron server with 512MB RAM, then think again. You'll need a Dual Xeon with 2GB RAM to support that many customers PROVIDED that they have small sites. All it takes is one customer with a busy site to slow down the server for everyone else.

I started out as a reseller. Once I had a fair number of customers, I moved up to my own server. Several years (and several servers later) I'm still doing this because I spent several months planning how I was going to start and how i was going to continue in the future.

[gamerman0203]

you are going to need redundant connections. T1/E1 would be LOWEST you should go and that would only serve a small company. OC's are the connections that most hosting companies have and unless you are willing to dish out man thousands of dollars a month than it's not a good idea.