Why pay hosting company when you can host it yourself?

Greg K's picture

He has: 2,145 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

I've heard this question from people before... So here is a breakdown summary for you, I'll update it as time goes on.

Right from the front, in case people are looking for a quick answer, I will be the first to say that if it was just the issue of "cost", I would stick with paying for hosting. This is going to be (and I knew it from the start) a pricey hobby of mine. Note, cost of actual domain names not factored in, as I'd need those either way.

What I was paying (well still paying till I'm satisfied with my configuration) though www.pair.com:

For about $20 a month, this is the services I got a very reliable service, who I would trust any site on their networks. I have been with them since 1997.

- 80GB/month transfer
- 1500MB disk space
- 10 MySQL databases
- 800 mailboxes
- 10 additional FTP logins
- Access by SSH and FTP
- 24/7 Telephone Support

So from $20 a month, I have now jumped to:

$108/month for internet (with taxes/fees/ext from Time Warner Business Class's Small Home Business Package), max 15meg down, 2meg up. Actual speeds have been anywhere fro 6-12 down (usually around 9), and a pretty consistent 1.7 - 1.9 upspeed (for newbies, this is the key speed for hosting!)

I ended up paying for a domain name to be controlled through DynDNS and paid them 27.50 a year This is just the CustomDNS service, which allows mapping the domain name to my current dynamic IP address. (yeah found out later i could have done it for free. Oh well).

I'll also need to purchase Mail Relay service for my server to use, as places like yahoo reject mail coming from my IP address. So far, looking at $15 a year which will allow up to 150/e=mails sent per month though DynDNS as well. I may find other solutions.

Why do I need this? Well without having a static IP address to have reverse mapping, many mail servers that check will reject any mail from my server based on the class of the IP address.

Now these last two could be avoided by getting a static IP address, but guess what, that costs an additional $40 a month... I'm crazy with my hobby so far, but not that crazy yet.

Now for the things people don't really think of, and these I don't have prices yet:

Electric bill... Well yeah running one additional computer may not seem like much, but in my case, I have a windows server, the linux server, and I have not even yet actually set up and started running my "real server" which has redundant everything from power supplies to fans (8 total i think), 4 drives, 4 CPU's, and old enough to be before people started caring about energy efficiency. To be honest, I most likely won't even run that one.

So then on top of the electric bill for the servers, there is also the higher electric bill for AC. Ok, you may not get affected by this as much if you normally run central air... But I'm in an older duplex, required window AC, and for some reason, this place is dusty as all get out! So I also run a good air filter. This has the benefit that it sits on the floor sucking up the cooler air, and blowing it straight up, into the front of both servers.

So....

So look at all this I will be paying, compared to just $20/month for a server that is great, always up, server class connections, and no worries on my part about equipment failure or backups (well, as with any hosting, I still back up from here, but if the physical server at pair died, they would have a backup to get it running. Me at home, all up to me!.

So yes, this is my first venture into doing this from home, everyone has to start somewhere...

Like I said I will post more about my experiences on this. Maybe this would make good blog material... Maybe I'll set up a blog on the server... Who knows.

-Greg

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

Why don't you build the server, and ship it out to a datacenter? Depending on the DC, you could get 4U of space, an uplink, a few IPs, a couple amps, and "world class" support for $100-$200.

which has redundant everything from power supplies to fans (8 total i think), 4 drives, 4 CPU's

Wouldn't you consider that pretty much all overkill? Your single point of failure is going to be your ISP, and your power company.

I hosted a company website on their business class internet connection and power, and it was the stupidest thing I could have done. Unannounced power outages at night, and crappy internet connections through out the day was the norm. (In all fairness, a Wal-mart was being constructed a block away, but still).

I host a test server at my house, but no way would I do that for a company's website.

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

It is something I would like to do, but similar to what Matt said, ISP's are often a large let down under normal circumstances.

Good luck though, if nothing else it will be interesting to do and manage.
Continue with the updates!

Greg K's picture

He has: 2,145 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

Like i said at the beginning, if it was about cost, it would definitely be with a hosting company. What I am doing is my own hobby Wink cost of shared hosting is WAY lower, and co-location of my server would be free at work in our data center.

I would never host a business site from here. I distrust Time Warner Cable that much, and even their business side has had issues with their crap in month I have been with them. Plus just about anything business wise, I would put at pair networks, as they are rock solid.

Yes the server I have available is overkill, like I said, I most likely will not place it online. Right now it is on a decent P4 system with 1.5 gigs of ram. Plenty decent for my hobby.

Again, the main point of this thread is to bring to light issues of hosting your own compared to paying for it somewhere. In the past few months I have had 3 people ask me about how to set up their own for their business because they didn't like the idea of paying a hosting company.

-Greg

They have: 14 posts

Joined: Mar 2009

Hosting from home is great for learning the ropes or just doing it as a hobby. But like you've said don't think of that for any of your business sites.
If you want a cost-effective and reliable solution, colocating your server may be an option, when for $65.00/mo + bandwidth costs you'll be able to get steady network.

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