Hi all, I'm wondering if any owners have had any major issues with running a web hosting business? The biggest thing i'm concerned about is accounts and websites being hacked..which if happened, the clients would go directly to the support/owner to blame or even possibly sue. What is your take on this business from a security standpoint? Thanks
Well, many people like you start a reseller hosting service - i.e. they buy hosting space from a bigger company and then sell that space on to clients. Some companies offer you the ability to largely hide the fact you are not your own operator. Some companies even do your technical support for you. There are many to choose from. Doing is this way will mean you dont have to take care of your server security - that's the job of the bigger company. If you look at all inexperienced or unprofessional, you will become a magnet for script kiddies and spammers and soon you will lose all genuine clients since your server is overrun by malware and criminals.
Yes sites can get hacked, if you are not able to securly manage a server by yourself the best way to stop this is to buy a server from a well known company that can manage it for you, or get a server and then get another third party to manage it for you at a cost. It does make it more expensive than doing it yourself but its just not worth the risk of been hacked and lossing all of your customers. One of the main problems I had with my hosting company, is people making accounts and then running scripts for things like torrents that kill the bandwidth and processing power, this is a bit harder to stop and just requres alot of time checking the users. When I started out i thought it would be a good idea to get a cheap reseller account, DO NOT do this !!! I can't say that enough, so I will say it again DON'T!!! The service is rubish and the securty will also be rubish, your clients will get anoyed and simply go to another company. Start with something stable, put decent prices and the people will come and everything should be ok. Good Luck
Thanks for the responses, Do you guys have any recommendations for well known places for support or even the server and support? I have network experience and I have the connection taken care of and the data center. I'm not the greatest in security as of yet so I believe it would be better to pay someone a small amount to take care of the server and support..it will save me a lot of time as well. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.
Account hacking is far to be widespread in the hosting industry. Just make sure to have some basic security procedures in place and you should be fine.
Web hosting is a tough market. There is a lot to think about, certainly more than sites being hacked. That is one aspect of it. Make sure you keep daily and weekly back ups, offsite as well.
I can set you up with a server or as a reseller, and can provide support for your clients. contact me on IM
Many resellers already offer this on a much larger scale. Tickets, emails and phone with multiple staff regardless of the time or day.