# web hosting



## chris83gr (Oct 8, 2006)

Hello!I have some questions on web hosting.Could you please tell me,what i need to create my own company?I don't want to pay to anyone for any service that he will provide me.Just tell me what hardware and software i need to start my own company.It could be very nice if you can tell me how much it will cost?thank you.


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## DJ-Zep (Mar 11, 2006)

There are several things you need for a website.

*Domain Name + Hosting*
For your company, you will need a domain name. A domain name is like giving your website an easy-to-remember name. There are hundreds of extensions to choose from, but most websites use either .com or .net. I recommend GoDaddy Domain Services for domain names. They are about $14/yr. You will want to register a domain name using private registration. Private registration keeps your billing information private for only a few dollars extra per year.

Along with a domain name, you will need some webspace or some webhosting. I recommend BlueHost Hosting Services for hosting. Blue host includes a domain name with their webhosting.

*A Website*
So you get webspace and a domain name, now you need to get a website up. Websites are mainly created using a web language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language). You may recognize thta acronym from specific urls such as http://www.google.com/index.*html*. There are thousands of free websites to choose from at Open Source Web Design[/COLOR]. They require almost no web language knowledge at all.

Good luck!


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## Skie (Mar 15, 2003)

If you're going to do this for yourself or for a few friends, then doing this at home on a Cable/DSL connection is ok. Not good/great, just ok. Don't expect perfect performance. You'll probably need a spare computer that's on 24/7. You'll then have to pick the OS and software that you plan on using. If you don't know anything about Linux, stick with Windows. You'll need software to handle HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, possibly IMAP if you wish, DNS, database and anything else you may need/wish to use.

Once everything is installed, it need to be configured properly. This can take some time if you're not familiar with the process. Once it's installed and you've set up your domain name, you should be set to go. Keep in mind that most Cable/DSL companies don't allow people to host their own servers at home. If you have a business connection, then you should be fine. 

If you're going to be hosting paying customers (whether or not they're friends/family), then do not host from home. Let me repeat that... DO NOT HOST FROM HOME. The moment your Cable/DSL goes out, your customers will be calling/emailing you demanding to know why their site is not working or why they can't get their email. If the power goes out, the same thing will happen. If a tornado/hurricane comes through your house, same thing. You may run into a lot of legal trouble because of these types of problems.

Even though you'll be doing this yourself, doesn't mean it won't cost you anything. To do this properly, you need to either rent a server from a data center or you need to buy a server and then have it colocated at a data center. Both of these paths will cost you on a monthly basis. Renting a Celeron starts around $100/month (give or take depending on where you go). I've seen some go for as low as $50 or so, but this is bare bones, low RAM, small hard drive, low bandwidth allowance per month, etc. Colocating is a bit cheaper per month, but requires a large up front purchase (the server itself). The base costs are around $30 - $60/month and then you have to pay for the bandwidth usage each month on top of the base cost. How much you pay each month will vary from data center to data center as well as how much bandwidth you used for any given month. 

Please keep in mind that starting a hosting company with the intention of selling services to the public is not a quick and easy thing. This takes months of planning and research. If you don't know how to do sales/marketing, you won't find enough customers to make it worth it. If you can't properly manage the server from an administrative side, you'll lose your customers faster then you gain them. 

Starting a hosting company is easy. Starting a hosting company properly is not. This includes having a business plan, having the money to get started, having knowledgeable people to help you, knowing where and how to sell your services for the best return on investment, finding the right niche market to go after, etc. There are a lot of variables to think about. If you're in school, then don't even think about it. Your customers don't want to wait until you get out of class for you to answer their questions. Each year in Sept/Oct, I see dozens of hosting companies for sale. It's a sudden rush of For Sale ads because these high school and college kids suddenly realize that they can't go to school and run a business at the same time. 

If you still want to go through with this, you'll at least need the following:

Server: Renting: $60 or more per month. Purcahse: several hundered to several thousand depending on configuration, then $60 - $100 per month for colo.
OS: Windows: 2003 SBS is around $300 - $500 (I'm going by memory, I don't remember exactly). Linux: Free
Control Panel: Most cost several hundred dollars for a yearly license (you pay again next year)
Billing software: Anywhere from under $100 to several hundred depending on who you buy from and what features you need.
Help desk software: Anywhere from under $100 to several hundred depending on who you buy from and what features you need.
Domain name: $9 - $30 (depending on which domain registrar you use)
Sales and/or support staff: Depends on who you hire and how much they're willing to work for.

If after reading all of this and you're still interested. Think of this last thing I have to say. If after giving thought to all of this, if you spend only a week or so doing research, planning, etc and you feel you're ready to start. Don't. As I said earlier, it'll take months to properly plan and research. If you don't, you'll fail. In today's HIGHLY competive hosting market, it's very difficult to distinguise yourself from other hosting companies. Most of which have extremely cheap packages. If you follow their example, it's difficult to make money unless you place too many customers onto the server. At this point, the server becomes slow and/or unstable which causes customer to complain and possibly leave. 

After 4 years doing web hosting, I've seen a lot of hosting companies come and go. I've seen many that had great reputations suddenly become the most hated. I've even seen some laughably low prices hosts and I don't know how they expected to make money (one in particular charged $5 per year. Think about this for a second... how many customer do you need to find per month to cover the average of $100/month for server costs? After a few months, you're going to lose customers and earn a very bad reputation).


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