Starting my Hosting company

[Soulwatcher]

I was wondering if i could get a few opinions and or help. Back in 1999. I started Mach One Internet Services. I spent 3k on a webserver from my local coumputer store. There use to be a local internet service provider near my house and I was going to colocate. But one thing lead to another and the whole deal fell apart. So I sold the server and just rented the spaced I needed from another provider. I use to build and host and operate (god forbid I even say it) adult websites. The money was great but I just couldnt handle the fact it was dirty money so I closed up shop. (Not saying I am a holey roller or anything.)
In 2001 I designed my first ecommerece website for a fellow co worker. He colsed the website a few months after he opened it up. He had a fallout with his partner.
I was laid off in 2002 and spent several months reserching website hosting. Recently I bought a Dell Poweredge Webserver.
Its 1.8gig P4 with 256mb of ram and a 40gb hard drive. Its running Microsoft 2003 Enterprize Server Os. I have it running on a cable modem 3k down and 384k up for testing. Ensim or Hosting Controller will not working with the Os system. I have so far installed MySlQ, Perl, Php, and a mail server. Everything works great. And its fast as hell when I pull up the website.
But I am as smart as a box of rocks when it comes to web hosting. As far as building a pc I can do it blind folded and can repair them easy.
I was wondering what do you guys thing about running a webserver from your house? I am currently looking at a T1 line from covad with a adsl line to back it up. I want total control over my server and to be able to work on it when ever I want.
Also what Os do you recomend for a novice? The windows 2003 server seems really easy to use. But dosent work with any control panels. Also the only Os experience I have is Windows.
I am planning to upgrade the server to a 2.4gig processor 1gb of ram and two 200gig hard drived in addition to the 40 gig. Any thoguhts would help alot.
And anything else you think might help me please feel free to comment.

Thanx
Greg

[allan]

Greg,

It looks like you are making the same mistake many new hosting companies make: Following the build it and they will come philosophy. You have a server, connectivity, and a bunch of software, so you are ready to start hosting. Unfortunately, this fails more often than it succeeds.

A better approach would be to determine what you are trying to accomplish and who is your target customer. Are you trying to break into the Windows hosting market? If you are, do people who host on Windows servers care about MySQL and PHP, or are the more interested in MS SQL and ASP?

Are you trying to reach local or national customers? If you are shooting for national/international reach, what can you offer that will set your service apart? Whatever your target customer, how important is a control panel -- if it is important, then are you willing to spend the time to learn how to properly manage a new OS?

Finally, this has been talked to death, but it needs to be said again, don't run a hosting company out of your house. You don't have the proper levels of redundancy, the power backup, and the 24x7 support to properly host a server. You can get some great colocation deals for the cost of the line from Covad, take advantage of them.

Answer these questions first, then you can worry about hardware and software. Hardware and software should be the last things you worry about when putting together a hosting business plan.

[Soulwatcher]

Allen,
Thanx so much for the reply. I have a few local companies that are willing to host with me. Also I have some friends willing to move their websites.
So for starters I should have 10 people. But I would like to go national/international with it. I really like windows and want to use it for my os. 2003 Enterprise Server is a really nice os but there is not one control panel that works with it. That I know of. But I have no problem with using 2000 Advanced Server.
To me a control panel is very important I would like it to be very easy for the coustomer to manage their acount.
As far as what I have to offer is Honesty. I have been burned in the past by some bad hosting companies. I can name one company which burned me recently on hosting but I wont. It was so slow my website running off my cable modem webserver is 100 times faster. I will not over load or oversell or mislead my coustomers.
Also do you recomend any good colocation places. And in terms of bandwith it foriegn to me. Obviously 10 non adult websites will not burn up alot of bandwith. But I am thinking about future. How much bandwith should I look for?
As far my my webserver goes if I bumped it to 2.4gig Single P4 and 1gig of ram with two 200gb hard drives. A rough guess about how many coustomers do you think it could hold with out being overloaded or overselling.
Or do you think I am better off buying a dual Xeon server? I honesty dont know and I do believe I am shooting for the stars. But the last thing I want is a slow server.

Thank You So Much
Greg

[Chicken]

Greg, you asked, "Also do you recomend any good colocation places?" but also mentioned in your first post: "I want total control over my server and to be able to work on it when ever I want." which seems to indicate that you are looking for local colocation. Where abouts are you located (aside from Michigan, listed in your profile)?

[DarktidesNET]

I agree with allan, don't do it from your house. You could have an oc3 in your room but you don't have full redundancy.

T1 prices in my area are far more expensive than colocating...