What the *** is your problem??

Junior WebHelper Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 34

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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 9:23 pm (19 years, 12 months ago)

Firstly, I think you need to calm down a bit. We've tried to give you helpful advice, and you've seemed to get hostile for no reason. I for one would discourage you from trying to run a hosting business with the equipment you have (it's simply not practical to run a server on a low-bandwidth line) - you have to realise that this is just friendly advice, I'm not trying to be negative.

We're not trying to be rude, but you should realise that running a business (especially in hosting, where there are already so many businesses, most of which are failing) is spectacularly hard, even more so when you have other full time commitments (day job, school, etc.). I'm sure you're very capable of managing a server, but having a successful hosting business takes more than just technical ability - specifically, you need time and you need money.

You say you have to start somewhere, and I agree. But, that somewhere is almost certainly not your own home. I would advise you to get a dedicated server, as datacentres have around the clock staff who can keep the network online and deal with anything that you can't do yourself. If you can't afford a dedicated server, get yourself a job to pay for one - or perhaps get a few of your friends together and share a server.

Trust me, trying to run this thing from your home with a low-speed cable connection and a PC sitting in the corner of a room somewhere is a bad idea - it's more trouble than it's worth. You'll just end up spending hours trying to keep everything from dieing, and won't make enough money to make it worth it (if you make any money at all, when you consider the costs of running it).

Junior WebHelper Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 34

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Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:15 pm (19 years, 12 months ago)

Infernus wrote:

And please, no stupid answers, such as "Because i dont like you"

You won't get anything like that here Smile

I would say £7.99 a month is a tad expensive. Excuse my obvious bias here, but take a look at the prices of the company I work for - I think prices more along those lines would be appropriate.

My only other suggestion would be that you consider redesigning your web site. Browsing it, it just doesn't feel like a web site that sells hosting - the design reminds me more of a news web site.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Either:
- the website is not very important to him and he's willing to have it hosted on a 512k line, in which case I would say £7.99 is too expensive
OR
- the website is more important to him than that, and he is willing to pay £7.99, in which case what you're providing isn't really worth that amount of money

By the way, things can get quite nasty (harrassment) once you get real clients and things go wrong. (I'm talking from past experience with bad hosting companies)

Junior WebHelper Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 34

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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:40 am (19 years, 12 months ago)

If you're going to keep that design, I would suggest that you try to simplify the home page - potential customers will be interested in two things: what you offer and how much it'll cost. So try to limit it to that, and maybe throw in a cople of testimonials if you have any.

Three columns full of information is too much to take in all at once, and in this case that could lose you customers.

Junior WebHelper Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 34

What do you mean by testimonials?

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

A testimonial is a short paragraph written about the service you provide, by a customer (if they're on your website they're usually positive too Very Happy

).

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 3:56 pm (19 years, 12 months ago)

Infernus wrote:

Why are you so negative about my attempt???
OK, Its hosted on a 512k line, but you have to start somewhere ok???!!!

True, but a 512K line just isn't the best place to start. I have a 1Mbit connection (well, 1Mbit down and 256K up), and have my own freebsd server/internet gateway. However, I wouldn't even think of hosting anyone's site. Certainly not for money, and certainly not a business site, as I just don't have the time to ensure that everything is running fine. And I personally don't believe that a 1Mbit line is anywhere near enough to host websites.

Infernus wrote:

Now i am going to put to you this scenario:
You have a friend. This friend runs a music shop. This music shop has nothing to do with the internet what so ever. This friend wants a website for his music shop, with a PHP forum (hard to come across free, without advertisements that is.)
He isnt expecting more than 40 hits or so a day, so he doesnt want to pay great pruce for this. Would you reccomend this friend to Aquinox?
If not why not? If so why so?
I am offering everything he needs, at £7.99 a month (which is in my opinion, elusively cheap.)

Again, I am slightly biased as I work for another hosting company, however, it appears as if your site is down. Not a terribly good advertisement for your own hosting company, if you can't keep your own site live.

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 5:05 pm (19 years, 12 months ago)

more on the issue of bandwidth, today I did something which demonstrates quite well the kinds of connection speeds the average server has. I decided to mirror some files for a web site, and to do so I SSHed to my site and transfered the files directly to it from the other site. The transfer rate varied between 1-3 megabytes per second.

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 10:56 pm (19 years, 12 months ago)

When you say 512k do you mean 512k downstream, in most cases your upstream speed is actually half this.

Anyway, if you really do want to learn, download a copy of some flavour of linux, install it, play with it, break it, reinstall it, break it and so on. Also buy some decent linux books and learn how to use the beast. Running a server is nothing like running a windows home pc.

By the very nature that you have had to ask what pop3 is & virtualhosts are shows that you really should not be attempting to run a host.

If you really want to do hosting, learn about the basics and get yourself a reseller acount where you don't have to worry about maintaing the server.

I have a 512k connection, well 256k upstream which is what actually matters and I wouldn't consider hosting anything off it, well not something that meant anything to me.

7.99 (you don't say what currency but I'll assume USD) is frankly extortionate for what you could offer.

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:11 pm (19 years, 12 months ago)

Ben wrote:

7.99 (you don't say what currency but I'll assume USD) is frankly extortionate for what you could offer.

He said GBP - your browser mustn't be set to the right characterset to view the symbol

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 10:45 am (19 years, 12 months ago)

Ben wrote:

When you say 512k do you mean 512k downstream, in most cases your upstream speed is actually half this.

and

Ben wrote:

I have a 512k connection, well 256k upstream which is what actually matters and I wouldn't consider hosting anything off it, well not something that meant anything to me.

I was only thinking about that yesterday myself. I think he says he has a DSL connection, which I assume to be a ADSL, which would only have 256K up for a 512K download Smile

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 11:56 am (19 years, 12 months ago)

adam wrote:

Ben wrote:

7.99 (you don't say what currency but I'll assume USD) is frankly extortionate for what you could offer.

He said GBP - your browser mustn't be set to the right characterset to view the symbol

So he did, I skipped over it very fast.