[Need Feedback] Would you buy proxy hosting from me?

Hi all,

I may start offering php proxy hosting soon and looking for feedback on the plan and possible demand.
I find many people use HagioHost for $20 a month or so...

I'm proposing :

Let me know if you're interested and I'd seriously think about it.
Should I cap the bandwidth to some GB (say 300GB or let it go 10Mbps unmetered) ?
I could easily get 6-7 Mbps from the server during rush hours.
Plan to limit users on the box so that none go too slow.
Please suggest the acceptable pricing per month.

Thanks

 

Hey,

I just tagged onto a proxy hosting service yesterday, and so far it's good. I might change over

Anyway, some feedback:

[1] Unmetered bandwidth is a big no-no. It will kill your server, and you will have a lot of fees to pay. Capping it off at 300GB per person is a bit extreme, but there are end-users that will pay for that much. I suggest different plans for different people

[2] Addon domains good - I suggest an extra $2 for another one

[3] MSN support?

[4] No one needs MySQL for proxies, so yeah, don't need 'em

[5] I've got a hotlinking script on my proxy a thte moment, your hotlinking idea sounds really neat.

[6] Most importantly, you should keep a limit of say 10 proxies on the server or something, to not overrun it and cause a loss in your business.

Good luck with it!

*I'm currently paying $5 for 100GB bandwidth.

 

Great...thanks for your feedback...rep added.

1. Actually, I'm getting a 10Mbps connection to the box, so no extra overage and losses to me. BTW, is 100GB enough (~3.3 GB a day only) for most?

2. VHCS supports domain aliases (can be used as pointer or addons). Will check the details regarding this later. Or I can use the CubePanel free edition too.

3. Yes, but I hope theres little support needed for proxies Hosts don't support 3rd party scripts...isn't it?

4. Yes, that's why I made it null.

5. Right, latest phproxy has built in hotlinking protection.

6. Rightly so...I'll fix a hard limit.

Any more ideas on the pricing?

 

[1] 100GB is enough for a small proxy, I did have a network running using 30GB a day You can do the maths.

[3] MSN I think is very important, or some form of live chat. I always requested extra BW from my previous host, and he was able to add it within minutes

You can attract sellers by having a really cheap plan, then for extra gb of BW, or extra addon, or extra scripts etc. for extra $$$

 

Thanks again...awaiting more feedback and views

 

This is not a bump...but really weird to see only one person replying!

 

For the right price and if your server has decent power to support running several proxies... I would definitely think about it.

I currently have 2 proxy sites that were just starting to do something when I got the email from my datacenter. I had to pull the phpproxy scripts from them and currently run them now with a proxy form from another popular proxy instead.

Something like this would be good for the interim until I could build them up to the point I could afford another server that allows proxies.

 

Cool...what kind of packages/pricing are you looking for?
It should gimme a rough idea...as I'm seriously thinking of purchasing dedicated boxes and selling proxy hosting.

 

Proxy hosting can give easy money, but besides, it lags the server. If your server starts crashing one time, it'll stop only after a reinstall of OS.

Server Management wont be able to help in this case as well as apache optimization etc. gives no help. It just eats up all resources giving the server no output.

This plan can be offered for about $20-$25 probably...not sure though.

 

I also defintley think that providing unmetered bandwidth is a huge no no, it would kill the server in no time. As to how many proxy sites you want on one server is down to you i guess.

I would also suggest php or zelune proxies only, there are still a lot of people that have cgi proxies, and although they are good but very resource intensive. I tried oneout before with a shared host and i got my site suspended 4 times within the space of 12-13 hours

Prices would depend on the plan, i think 500MB is more than good enough, like you said most proxies shouldnt even take a 1MB, but i find most people use the extra space of misc storage. At the moment i am paying $7.95 for 500MB space and 50GB of bandwidth a month, problem is i chew pretty much all of that in the first 5-10 days and then i would to add a forwarder to stop going over my bandwidth limits, unfortunatley i am not making much from my proxies anymore

 

You definitely need some sort of load balancing if you're going to host several proxies on the same server.

 

- Never use a server for proxy and other sites

- 10mbps will appear slow, here is why:
(a) you have 10mbps dedicated BW (only you sing it)
+ Assume you have 10 concurrent users pulling a site, each gets 1mbps under ideal conditions. That is 1/3 of DSL speed.
+ Then the server needs to do processing (cut speed in half), may have control panel overhead etc.
+ Hope that your network is not oversold...
=> you get about 1/10 of DSL speed. Who is happy with that speed? China, Iran...but not Western Europe or US/Canada surfers. Customers will leave after a month.

(b) you have 10mbps shared unmetered
+ 5-10 servers share the 10mbps, the factors above apply
=> you are at dialup speed or slower

- How do you track BW use? cpanel, DA... are grossly inaccurate in their BW measurements, they are off by up to 100% or more. You can use it, but should assume that each proxy uses at least twice what is shown. (I believe this is the main reason most proxy hosts disappear very fast)

- How to make money: The limiting factor is usually the CPU and RAM, so you need to get a server that can handle load. Don't expect a Sempron or Pentium to do the job. 2GB RAM minimum. Then sell hosting, but higher end servers servers require higher end prices...

- You'll be successful if the average proxy account brings in $30-40 or more.

 

Wow...great feedbacks and insights... reps added
Now I'm determined to start with a decent box...I'm doing research routinely.

As for the last bandwidth equation shown by clixer, probably he's confusing with mbps and Mbps (or both the same?)

Yes, I'd be using CubePanel and I know incoming b/w used up for proxified pages won't be counted.
So, I think 125GB (actually 250GB+) is viable for $14.99

 

Both are the same.

10mbps (Megabits per second) will give you 1.25MB/s (Megabytes per second) under ideal conditions

Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbps

 

Hosts that have 'unmetered' bandwidth are the hosts i never go with (But now i have my own server, so i dont go with any hosts anymore). So dont have unmetered.

 

Heh, I was out of my mind

 

The way you have calculated the use of bandwidth is not the actual case. If it is 10 Mbps connection each people will get 10 Mbps. Because each time you click the explorer, it use the total bandwidth for couple of second and then it bacome idle so virtually everybody get 10 Mbps even if it is 100 users. But you need good harware to load the total processing power need. There is lot of good company in EU offer 10 Mbps dedicated port with very cheap price.

How you know china have slower connection? The last time i've visited china I saw everywhere the internet speed is faster than USA/EU. They are using internet for high quality streaming movies. Most of them have 10 Mbps connection in the city area.

 

Hmm...I love tech talk and thanks for keeping this thread live

 

OK, so I'm thinking of these 2 packages : (Only phproxy, zelune or surrogafier proxies allowed. No CGIproxy)

ProxBasic $13.33

ProxAdvanced $19.99
Same as above except :

Please comment on the plans.

 

I'd like to ask a question


10 mbps gives you 3300 GB in + 3300 GB out or 3300 GB total?