Starting My Own Hosting Company.

[cookies911]

Well i was thinking of starting my own hosting company, I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions or um tips?
And should i just rent boxes for like softlayer.com or Colocate, And i was wondering how much bandwith would i use for all source games? including Tf2, please give me a average of slots and bandwith per month.
Thanks.
I used to have my box and it was hella fun hosting, and now im thinking of starting my own company, any helpers?
Or ideas?

[dualcore1289]

Its expensive and takes alot of time, and effort to starting a company. . .

[Mooga]

It's very expensive and it's hard for it to pay off.
You have to buy and colocate server which is VERY expensive. Plus you need to buy software and have customer support.

[Derek]

Mooga Wrote:It's very expensive and it's hard for it to pay off.
You have to buy and colocate server which is VERY expensive. Plus you need to buy software and have customer support.

Agreed

[dualcore1289]

However, if you're still interested, personally i would go in the business with someone you can trust. . . and you dont neccessarily need to colocate, you can rent, but its cheaper in the longrun to colo. . .

[cookies911]

dualcore1289 Wrote:However, if you're still interested, personally i would go in the business with someone you can trust. . . and you dont neccessarily need to colocate, you can rent, but its cheaper in the longrun to colo. . .

Well basically thats what i was going to do, for now i'm just gna work on my website first, Then start renting servers from some places (http://www.softlayer.com)
So if anyone of you has some suggestions?
Ps: i'm only doing this for like my hobby and having fun and making small amounts of money.

[dualcore1289]

Some suggestions would be, when determining your prices, you want to be competitive, but yet alteast break even also. Provide great service, and support. Have a nice, clean website, thats not too crowded. . . Provide package deals, ex. private server, pub, vent all in one package, etc. Thats the best advice i can give you. And i to do it as a hobby, and i find it fun, and entertaining lol.

PS. Softlayer is great!

[cookies911]

Thanks For your info.
have anymore suggestions?
Oh yea Dualcore How to you make a profit of those Prices.

[dualcore1289]

we are. . . lol. also without overloading our servers as well. . . our big sales are the 1000fps servers.

[cookies911]

So yea dude how do you make a profit.
How much you paying for the servers, Colocating or renting.
Specs, and the os, And how do you calculate the prices.

[dualcore1289]

we own our hardware, our boxes consist of quad-core cpu's and 4gb of ram, and up. I use windows server 2003, and 2008 x64. and i pay about 300-400 for colocation, and i did my hw when making my prices, i checked other gsp's, and what they offered with their game servers, and i thought it was a little ridiculous and figured i can beat these prices, and still make a profit. so i did.

[cookies911]

Wow 1000fps prices are ridiculously Expensive.
I'm selling 1000fps 11 slots for like 45$ for the first few weeks.
Well i don't know where i should deciede for my servers.

[dualcore1289]

Thats a good price. . . And just look around at various gsp's and get some ideas. . .

[cookies911]

Hmm if only i could get this thread popular.

[cookies911]

Oh yea i know this isnt in the thread but does anyone know where to install clientexec billing software, Do i install on a server box or webhosting, does it run on windows or linux.