I'm looking into getting a server for about 1k and planning to host my own websites. It's going to have Windows XP as the OS, Apache, and it'll probably run via Verizon Business DSL where they allow open ports. As you can see I'm very limited in my expertise when it comes to servers and the works, however I like being in control over all aspects of my websites and I'm thinking that it may be cheaper to host the sites myself [if I have alot] rather than using a subscribed server. This way there's one less thing that I have to worry about when it comes to publishing a new website. I'm relatively familiar with Apache but not as much as I'd like to be, I know the basics and believe I'm a quick learner if the material is mediocre in difficulty. With all that said, I'd like some creative input on how I should go about in dealing with this matter. Are these foolish ideas? Am I going to be in over my head? Am I mistaken in some of my beliefs and understandings? Please help if you can.
For many reasons that a search of this site will provide, this is a bad idea. reseller or even a VPS is a much better idea.
There are so many restrictions when it comes to using another person's server, you have bandwith limits, domain limits, email limits, etc. It's not worth the cost and effort?
I'm okay with servers (have managed them pleny of times, etc). My business partner used to own a hosting company and so knows servers inside and out. In the beginning we fought about whether to host on our own hardware or to just get dedicated servers. We went with dedicated servers from (mostly) mid-tier providers. This was absolutely the correct decision for us! Even my partner agrees at this point. You want to be in the business of creating websites and not managing your servers. Most people also aren't in the position where they can have redundant internet connections (not redundant servers or power - that's easy) and so once you have real money flowing in you don't want it coming to a standstill because your inet goes out. The only situation I can think of where you want to manage your own servers is if you already have to do it for other servers. Once you have the overhead/infrastructure of managing a server, adding another is easy.
Hi, I don't think the costs are that much if you work out how much the server costs, then the internet connection and backups.... I have a webhosting business and we offer unlimited everything apart from disk space & bandwidth. I do not want to be seen as advertising but for like $25 a month you can get 30gb diskspace and 450gb bandwidth. And I have seen another provider offering Unlimited diskspace and bandwidth for $40 a month... So if you take into account all your costs be sure to way them up against those sorts.. Drew.
What kind of solution would you guys recommend if you have or planning to have multiple sites and you need hosting for multiple domains? Then $25 a month for each domain can really add up, is there an alternative to that? and what are 'dedicated servers'? and what's the price range on those?
if the sites are not huge sites that have lots of visitors and use lots of resources then just opt for a reseller account, which is basically a nomal hosting account which you can chop up into smaller hosting accounts each with their own domain. I have my own servers but for years have used reseller accounts for clients, always been very happy with www.dathorn.com . If your sites are high usage then a dedicated server is the best option as you have full control over it, vps is not much better than shared, because it is still a shared server. Look at fully managed servers as i imagine you don't have much server maintenance knowledge, i would recommend http://www.servstra.com/ they resell layeredtech servers which are in the Savvis DC, and again have first hand experience with them For hosting sites you can go two ways really, start of with a reseller account and only host low volume sites, once you have the income move to a dedicated server as soon as possible and then you can acomodate more and bigger sites. Or you can start off with a dedicated server straight away, this is the ideal option BUT you may get into the game and find you don't have much success, the cost of a dedicated server may compound this. Look at dedicated servers starting at around $110 a month including cpanel and a processor that can handle a decent workload, i wouldn't go below a p4 or amd barton. Good luck, and stay away from hosting out of your house!
Sorry should have explained it better, that $25 a month can be set up as a Reseller Hosting Account in which you set each domain as you wish with its own allocation of disk space & bandwidth. Or just setup as a normal hosting account and then you select addon domains and have them load their own "sub-domain" of sorts. Drew.
Thank You very much guys, you've really cleared up alot of my misconception. I think I will be going with the reseller option, besides the ones that were given by aqi32, what are some other options that I have for reseller hosting? I'm on a very low budget right now, I need a package that's not going to lock me in for a whole year and one that has easy growth potential. Please advice.
Hi, If you like I can get you setup with the reseller hosting I mentioned. It is $25 per month and no contracts meaning you can cancel at anytime if you wish. If that plan is too expensive or has too much diskspace & bandwidth we have normal hosting plans too in which I am sure I can organise to have your standard account upgraded to a reseller account but with less disk space and bandwidth being the only difference. PM me if you would like to hear about the other plans. I would post my website address but the hosting site is only new and still being designed so the temp page is pretty ugly, don't want to scare anyone away with it Even though my hosting is only new the servers we use have been around for years and have approx 99.8% uptime. So far no downtime in the past two months, usually only occurs if server admins have to restart server. Drew.
http://serverpronto.com $30 a month dedicated server. If helpful, please positive reputation..on negative now.. And if you go with a reseller account, make sure you choose a reputable one that has been in operation for a few years.