Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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I'm sick of buying rubbish normal hosting plans for web projects, generally they're slow, and crap.
The one I'm currently using lets you see the other SQL databases that are on the same server as your site and there are thousands! No wonder I get shit speeds, 1 server, running thousands of site and databases... you imagine the load of all the queries going on 
Basically next year, I'm planning on launching a bit of an offensive on the internet My attempt at potentially trying a few web ideas I have had, with the potential to actually turn any good ones into a internet start up (looking for investment in the next funding round for summer). I don't mind working as a software developer full time, but i can't see myself doing it for the rest of my life / I'd like to do something I really am passionate about - like my own idea!
Now my sites will probably all be asp.net based running SQL Server Databases for the back end data storage. Some may use features of .net 3.5, most will probably just be .net 2.0.
My plan is, to host the 10 sites or so, from the 1 host, potentially sub domaining them or just having a folder structure, where I link any domains to folders on the dedicated IP.
So... What do people suggest for 'Good hosting' - fast speed, good data storage / bandwidth, fast processing etc?
I was originally thinking since I have a 20mb connection and live literally 5 meters from the exchange, I could run a shitty box here, convert it to run a server platform and host from that, but it'll not be quick or reliable.
Then I started thinking about a dedicated server somewhere, but it's a lot of money you're shelling out for something you don't actually own. What sort of price can I get this for? as I only see them being offered for £80-£100 + a month.
So then I started thinking about colocation at a data centre. Buying a 2nd hand server, then putting it in a datacentre and using that. However, even before the cost of buying a server, I'm looking at around £550-£600 a year for the co location costs. Where is the best place to buy 2nd hand rack servers from?
The final idea I had was using Windows Azure, a cloud based service. At the moment the trial is free, but it will go live at some point! The costs seem a bit confusing at the moment as its mainly done on usage, but in a really confusing way, so you pay per request to data, per hour of CPU time etc. Potentially Azure allows you really cheap bandwidth (like for streaming media) but for a normal style site, i think the cost will be fairly high.
Any other ideas people? What is my best / cheapest on the above?
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Reedy
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Registered: 11th Apr 04
Location: Hammersmith
User status: Offline
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http://www.uk-cheapest.co.uk/
I've got my hosting with them and theyre pretty cheap and good. 
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Set up a box in your house to get everything up and running and tested.
Have a switchover plan in place that can be implemented quickly if it starts take off and by then you'll be willing to spend big on dedicated stuff?
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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John where's the best place to buy servers? Ideally a rack style unit that was a older model, but still good enough?
obv if i go to dell or something i just get their latest stuff.
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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quote:
Originally posted by Reedy
http://www.uk-cheapest.co.uk/
I've got my hosting with them and theyre pretty cheap and good.
no .net support, no sql server databases ... i bet in reality they're sharing space on a server with thousands and thousands of other sites / db's... if you ran a substaintial site on them and had a fair amount of traffic i would imagine it'd grind to a halt.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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I'd probably look on ebay for older stuff. There will undoubtedly be places local that do it but not sure how you would find them.
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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I've been quite impressed with QIQ.
Who are you with at the moment.
I know someone using 1and1 for thier online shop and although its shared with others have had no performance issues with the datbases/site etc
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Doug
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Registered: 8th Oct 03
User status: Offline
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bigwetfish
?
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danward
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Registered: 14th Nov 06
Location: Northants Drives: C Exclusiv
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I use pickaweb its pretty good 
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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Im with ixhosting at the moment, and basically it's poor.
I think it doesn't help that it's a asp.net style site, not static pages.
So the page is calling to the database for information before starting to display on screen... I think it's these delays due to overcrowded server that can give a slow impression.
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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although I've hosted files on my hosting and downloaded them in the past and got like 30-40k/s max.
I'm on 20mb... I expect to be getting 2000k/s
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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You don't have a 20mb upload.
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by John
You don't have a 20mb upload.
I said when downloading from my host john.
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jamied
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Registered: 27th Oct 03
Location: Marbella,Spain Drives: C63
User status: Offline
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i use 1and1 i find them good, but then again I dont use SQL etc only a basic site
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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Host it yourself Paul. That way you will have FULL control. Unless your customers are streaming video you shouldn't have an issue using a bit of load balancing with a decent firewall in place.
Some cheap older servers on eBay and as you are most likely to be using a Linus OS, you won't need anything beefy.
Good luck with it all though mate, wish i had the balls to do something on my own
[Edited on 14-11-2009 by Andrew]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Hosting on his own isn't really a long term plan unless he's getting a big fat pipe to his house.
The upload of his cable line will be saturated a long, long, long time before he needs to load balance anything.
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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Andrew, I need a windows based machine due to Microsoft SQL server and Microsoft asp.net.
Although it is a potential start point... how much electricity would a server use if i left it on permantly? i.e. how much extra on electricity bill?
Potentially if I get a server and host it at home, through my internet connection (I think it's 1mb up roughly and 20mb down) then it may be a good start for getting things up and running, then potentially I can take that same server to a colocation to get the sites to a better infrastructure without having to rebuild a server.
Reality is, if I had my own server anyway, i'm only looking at £500 ish a year for colocation hosting. What I really need to do is rent a bit of space on it like to a few people I know wont use much processing or bandwidth.
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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just looked on ebay... doh don't know why I hadn't looked already!
Can get dell poweredge servers dirt cheap
This definately what I'll do... (p.s. even though it's a rack server, I can run it without a rack can't I??)...
I'll get a rack 1U server, set it up for my hosting needs, run it from my flat in my room and then if needed later on move it to colocation site.
So what is the general likely costs involved power consumption wise of having a server on 24/7 365.
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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U2U Paul W, I'm sure he hosts Corsa B on a blade server of some description from his house?
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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Web Fusion are very good. They aren't cheap though (in the context that I paid £30 odd for a years hosting from Streamline).
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
just looked on ebay... doh don't know why I hadn't looked already!
Can get dell poweredge servers dirt cheap
This definately what I'll do... (p.s. even though it's a rack server, I can run it without a rack can't I??)...
I'll get a rack 1U server, set it up for my hosting needs, run it from my flat in my room and then if needed later on move it to colocation site.
So what is the general likely costs involved power consumption wise of having a server on 24/7 365.
No you do not have to put a rack server into a rack for it to run. However, the rack servers are a little more noisey than towers. I currently have a PowerEdge 2950 under my bed 
Power usage i'm not too sure on.
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Reedy
Member
Registered: 11th Apr 04
Location: Hammersmith
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
just looked on ebay... doh don't know why I hadn't looked already!
Can get dell poweredge servers dirt cheap
This definately what I'll do... (p.s. even though it's a rack server, I can run it without a rack can't I??)...
I'll get a rack 1U server, set it up for my hosting needs, run it from my flat in my room and then if needed later on move it to colocation site.
So what is the general likely costs involved power consumption wise of having a server on 24/7 365.
The rack servers can run stand alone fine. They just look like a big flat computer
You might want to monitor temps and see how hot it gets though.
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Nismo
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Registered: 12th Sep 02
User status: Offline
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BP Web are very good and worth a look in!
http://www.bpweb.net
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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Get a reseller account or VDS hosting - tsohost, vooservers and register1 (obviosuly uk hosted) currently get some of the highest reviews. Can personally vouch for tsohost and vooservers, never had problems, emails get answered within an hour or so and maxes out upload/download on my 20mb line and my mates 50mb line.
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PaulW
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Registered: 26th Jan 03
Location: Atherton, Greater Manchester
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Sam
U2U Paul W, I'm sure he hosts Corsa B on a blade server of some description from his house?
That and about another dozen forums/sites... Aswell as Email, and a dedicated FSX server...
I have 5Mb upload capacity too, which is nice be* are trialing dual line setups so 2.5Mb up per line, plus 22Mb down per line makes for some interesting speeds
I bought a server from the bay about 3 years ago, an old Celestica A2110 which was old decommissioned stock when they went bust so the administrators were selling it all off... All I've had to replace in that time are 3 fans and 1 HDD, nothing really (shares its roots with some HP server of sorts, can't remember the exact one...)
I don't do windows hosting though, everything I have is running on Linux (tweaked gentoo setup) which does exactly what I want without any bloat.
But if you go down shared hosting, try to remember that you will be using a server shared with a good thousand or more users... I used to run Corsa-B on one of there shared hosting plans (the Pro package at like £12 a month or something), and the performance of the SQL servers, and web serving in general was abysmal! You'd be looking at a good 30+ seconds to serve each page due to how loaded there servers were... Many other shared hosting plans are the same...
Even the so called "Dedicated" servers you buy are most likely just a virtual server on a rack somewhere, either using xen or vmware... You only get real dedicated now if you own the actual hardware and get it colocated or host at your own place...
[Edited on 14-11-2009 by PaulW]
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