How many of you own or rent a server?

In the past I have owned 5 different servers, 2 true servers and 3 desktop part servers. All of them were colocated at a data center. (through the years, not all at once) I am looking into getting back into the website business hard core. And I have been itching for a server.

The other day I bought a Dell Inspiron 660 with a I5 3.0GHZ, 8GB of ram and 1TB hard drive. It has Windows 8 on it and its going to be here tomorrow. When I get it I am going to back up Windows 8 and then I am going to load Linux on it. And then I am going to secure it and harden it and take it to the data center. There is a data center about 1 hour from my house and they charge $50 a month for 2,000GB of bandwidth. (They said they have no problem taking desktops)

Once its up and running at the data center I am going to load my websites on it and go from there. I plan on forming a LLC this winter and I plan on building/buying websites this winter. I would like enough websites or a really active website to take up 4+ hours of the day.

Greg

P.S. I have used desktops in the past as servers and never had a single problem. Unless there is some sort of system failure I doubt that I am going to have any problems with the Dell. I would have bought a real server from Dell but I financed it and you can't buy servers on a personal account. I have 6 months same as cash and it should be no problem paying it off after my divorce.

 

I would have built my own server but I am going through a divorce right now and I need to hang onto my money. It was a no brainier to use the Dell financing because the payment is only going to be $20 a month. After my divorce I plan on paying it off.

I have built a few servers in the past. My favorite server that I built was a P4 3.0GHZ with hyper threading, 2GB of ram, hardware raid 1 2x250GB hard drives. The thing was beastly back in the day. I ran a VB Linux forum with it. I ended up selling the forum and selling the server on ebay.

Right now I am just treading the water in the webmaster world. So I don't want to dump a bunch of money in a nice server. How ever if I make it in the webmaster world I plan on building a nice dual processor server with at least 32GB of ram and raid 10. But for now the Dell computer/server is going to be over kill for my websites.

Greg

 

Well the server is finally up and running, so far so good. The website seems to load pretty fast even with out lightspeed.

Greg

P.S. you can test it here http://www.downrivertoday.com

 

Well I was going to take it to the data center because I wanted to get rich off websites. But then I decided to just do this a a hobby so its now a home webserver. I have Comcast Business internet I have the 16mbps down and 3mbps up but I get more speed then I pay for. Comcast Business does not have speed boost that's raw speed. Their next tier is 50mbps down and 10mbps up. But what I have now is more then fast enough for my server and my little website.

Greg

P.S. as a hobbyist there is nothing cooler then seeing your modem lights light up at night and knowing some one is on your server.

 

Now that's COOL! What are the odds of both of us being on Comcast? I live in a apartment so business class is all I can get. But business class goes all the way up to 100mbps down and 20mbps up. And I would hope to be making money hand over fist if I needed that kind of speed. Now I am really enticed, what are your server specs? They must be massive using that much speed.

Greg

P.S. I have a block of 5 IP's which is more then enough for me.