Hey. Alrighty, hypothetical situation: let's say that I've got the next MySpace ready to launch, but I don't trust putting it on a shared hosting account, being that the host has screwed around with me in the past. How would I go about owning and maintaining a dedicated server in my home or my office? And how much would this process cost? Any other useful information regarding the subject? Thanks.
You could try a VPS to start with or lease a dedicated box or colocate your own box at the DC. Hosting at home/office isn't a good idea at all.
It will cost you more to host your own server than renting one. You need back up power and back up internet lines in case one is broken. You also need to secure the server do all updates and perform upgrades. The cost to hire this out would be more than cost to lease one.
yep as both rcj and agniv said ..i agree. i think it costs around 400$ p/mo to colocate ure server at the DC..and i think maintenance and back ups are extra...usually u dont direftly become a hit site.. it needs time to develop..whence u can shift it from a VPS to dedicated..
First, I would recommend renting a server somewhere and letting somebody else manage it. If you do want to own your own server, then rent some space on a rack somewhere where you only have to worry about managing the server and not on managing the internet connections and power, etc etc.
Just avoid 1&1. I've ordered two dedicated servers from them and they screwed me both times. The first was a linux box that never worked properly and the second a Win2003 that they never delivered at all -- they took my money and then jerked me around for two weeks before admitting they were out of stock on the hardware. PLus they are so short on staff that it takes an hour to get thru on the phone. Lately I've been getting my dedicated boxes from GoDaddy and although the options available leave something to be desired, they deliver promply and cancelling a box is never a hassle.
If you really plan to start a new MySpace you need some good service and many servers... What I would suggest is rackspace dedicated servers... However they are pretty expensive
Never ever try to run PHP Related scripts on a shared hosting account when you are expecting more then 100 visitors daily... You'll break the TOS by using too much CPU Usage... And yes, i have experience...
The minimum requirement for hosting your own server is that you have a DSL or cable connection with a static IP address. It is possible to do this with ordinary cable or DSL, but you are operating in violation of your TOS agreement and could be shut down. In Canada, business DSL lines, which allow you to host servers and which offer two static IP addresses start at around $100 per month. The next level is around $200 per month. After that, the stars are the limit. Because, when you outgrow DSL or Cable, you need to look at leased lines. At that point, the cost quickly escalates. Once you need more than one server, heat becomes a major issue. Not only must you ensure that you have clean power going to your machines . . . you must ensure that they do not overheat. This may require installing a separate air conditioning system in the server room. As others have mentioned, colocation servers are a credible alternative. The burst bandwidth they offer is greater than that of cable or DSL. Most include a certain amount of monthly bandwidth with the server. Any credible merchant is going to also explicitly state how much it will cost when you exceed that amount. The cost starts at around USD$90 per month and can run to several hundred per month as you add RAM, hard drive space, and faster CPUs. You will notice that the cost can be about the same as a business cable or DSL connection. . . . except they manage the computer infrastructure. There is a real geek appeal to running your own server farm. But, managing the physical site takes time and it does cost extra money. In my experience, it is cheaper to lease colo machine(s) and/or multiple VPSes to handle various aspects of your growing business than to start building a server farm.
So not sure maybe with the super oversold hosts you've used but this is not entirely the case. If your site is well optimized you can get away with a lot more traffic than you think on a php site. I know we got customers running a lot more than that one our machines and I read of others on dreamhost, lunarpages, hostgator ect. doing the same. As for the question at hand I'd either co-lo in a datacenter (expensive) or rent a dedicated from somewhere. The reason being your house or office probably doesn't have multiple dedicated internet lines coming in or backup power that can last days or any of the other very expensive toys datacenters use. Also make sure you know how to run a server it's not just a plug it in and go. There are costs so if you're not familiar with running things you can get a management company for a semi affordable price.
A good dedicated server would cost you around $100-$125 without control panel. Also, if you're gonna get next myspace, you cannot handle it on just one server. You need load balancers and a lots of other dedicated servers. RAID 5 or 10 would be bext. 16-64 GB RAM etc etc Also, these are specs if you start your own Myspace site which gets 1/16 traffic of myspace.
And if you go dedicated, go for plesk control panel rather than cpanel if you are new to managing servers. It has a built-in firewall and, IMHO, a somewhat better organization. Though cpanel/whm provides nicer mini panels for the individual domains... but that's probably not a factor if you are launching the next my$pace.