[ASK] VPS Business from HOME?

[sOntVPS]

Hey guys!

Let's start at the beginning. I am an 23 years old System Administrator entrant, I am done with my schools recently.

So I want to start my online business by selling VPS but I have so many questions about it.

I have a few unused computers and I am wondering if I can make some bucks with them.

The main stats are:

2 core, 2 gb ram, 200 gb hdd

8 core, 4 gb ram, 1000 gb hdd

link: 150/15 mbps

Is there a way to make the servers fully automated with free solutions? I dont have hundreds of dollars for licenses.

I've been googling around and found that it is WHMCS that I need but could not find a minimalist and free wordpress(or not wordpress) template for my site.

I am also intrested Linux and Windows solutions.

I know there isn't a tutorial like "how to be a vps provider" but I hope you guys can give me some advice.

Thanks

Regards, Zsolt!

 

[drmike]

Nice beach frontage.  Is your name Crystal?

Licenses are low cost.  Monthly usually.  $20-30

As far as doing this from residential line, no.  If you have commercial bandwidth, maybe for limited niche.  Depends.

People will frown heavily about this.  It's a good education / way to get started though.

There is no howto ... But I encourage someone to write one.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Howdy.

So... don't be offended when I say you're probably gonna be chewed out pretty quickly here by some of the more veteran/experienced people here.

I will offer some pointers though.

1. Probably not a good idea for you to host it at home. I know it's the cheapest alternative but you'll regret it. People also won't really feel secure using your service because it literally is sitting in your bedroom (or whatever room) that's not secured. Many datacenter facilities have biometric scanners, guards, fail-over power, proper HVAC systems, etc. Whereas your home has none of this.

2. I'm going to assume you're talking about consumer grade hardware. The reason we have server-grade hardware is because they're designed to be on 24/7 and to be pretty reliable. Most consumer grade hardware are not designed to run 24/7. In addition, we'd can get into the difference between ECC vs Non-ECC, and other specifics that consumer-grade hardware usually does not have.

3. You need funds to start a business. That's what it is. You invest capital and time into it in order to get a return on it later. If you're trying to run this with free solutions, you're not going to make it far. Even worse you'll probably end up being a seasonalhost, and no-one likes those people.

I'm not going to say you shouldn't do it, but I strongly suggest you reconsider. Maybe just get a Reseller account and start there if you're seriously strapped for cash.

Oh and by the way, licensing costs is a pretty small fee in the grand scheme of things.

 

[KuJoe]

Your ISP probably has something in their TOS about selling your bandwidth so if somebody wants to shut you down it's easier than a DDOS attack (which for a 15Mbps link is extremely easy).


Also how many IPs will your ISP sell you and for how much? You can do NAT'ed VPSes like some providers but one DOS (not even DDOS) from a residential broadband connection can take your whole company offline and your home internet (hope you don't use VoIP).

 

[sOntVPS]

Thank you for your replies!

Actually I dont want to be (yet) one of the biggest companies, I just wanna make a few bucks and I would like to gain some skills.

My ISP only sells 1 fix ip / account so I have to use NAT.

I dont afraid about getting DDOS or DOS'ed, I think I dont hurt anyone and my services would not be famous until a while I think.

So I am mostly intrested about the software solutions.

 

[drmike]

Software = billing and container controls.

There are paid standards and there are free ones.   All of them get lots of scrutiny and are generally meh.

NAT-only meh, that's extremely limiting.

Does you ISP offer IPv6?

 

[sOntVPS]

No, only IPv4

 

[telephone]

Well let's run through a few of the negatives first:

• Majority of ISP's have strict clauses that prevent running a business via residential plans
• Most residential lines have traffic shaping or peak periods where latency and speed deteriorate
• Nat IPv4, and no IPv6... NO
  
• If abuse reports are delivered you'll have a harder time saying "but a client in China ran illegal CP torrents, not me"
• I don't want my line shared with whomever is in your house... Their Netflix or torrents will negatively affect my latency and speed
• No redundancy... If your ISP hiccups, are you going to use your cellphone's 3G/4G as backup?

Honestly your best bet is to offer some friends an RDP for $x a month. That way you get your experience, you make a little money on the side, and you know them personally.

 

[northhosts]

As others have said, its a really bad idea. I would use the machines as a test bed only and not for putting the general public on.

 

[MartinD]

I dont afraid about getting DDOS or DOS'ed, I think I dont hurt anyone and my services would not be famous until a while I think.

Many people here will tell you that being a well known provider has no bearing on when/if you get attacked. If you're online... well, you're a target. You or your customers don't have to do anything to instigate it - it'll just happen because some kid somewhere decided 'lulz'.

Running this kind of thing from home is a bad idea. 10-15 years ago it wasn't so bad and people started off that way (me included) but with the current intarweb climate it wont get you anywhere fast. As others have said, maybe sell of remote desktop accounts for X per month as a basis to learn from but after that you'll need to go more 'pro' to gain real world experience and that, I'm afraid, costs money.

 

[sOntVPS]

I understood you guys.

How about reselling? How does this excatly work? Where to start? What companies are provides the best offers for a guy like me who is just trying to start his business?

 

[drmike]

Reselling is mighty popular....  You buy an account and run around selling pretty much.

Most resellers have no value add, just selling pieces of someone else's pizza.

Check the offers section for reseller offers.  You have a bunch of learning and trying time though.  Be prepared.   Finding the right company to resell is a custom thing best fit for your needs, wants and tolerances.

 

[Profuse-Jim]

You can resell other providers services for a bit while you hone your skills then move up to a dedicated + SolusVM depending on things work out.

 

[zomgmike]

I dont have hundreds of dollars for licenses.

I would like to gain some skills.

If you're short on cash, I recommend learning on the machines you have at your home, but not as a business.  Set up a lab and really learn what you're doing.  Doing it that way is pretty close to free.  Spin up some VMs. Try to break your own configuration. Fix it. Do it all again.  Then, when the time comes to start the business and spend money, you'll get more out of it.

it was just recently posted and would be a good read before starting.

 

[Supicioso]

You don't really start a business to learn. Although you can, to each his own (it's how I learned). There's no better teacher then real experience. Generally you'll want to learn before jumping into it. Otherwise you'll find yourself investing a lot of time for little to no profit and more times to not a negative profit. If you're set on starting up a business with minimal to no costs. Then it's possible, just find a reseller and don't plan to make a lot, if any profit at all. If you're code savvy, then you could (probably) use the API from OVH's new subsidiary RunAbove to dynamically create containers.

If it's just experience you're looking for, then you simply need to find a job in the industry somewhere. If you're lucky you might find an entry level sys admin position. Though those require years of school since you wouldn't have the experience. Start small ( like tech support ), and move yourself upwards. After about 1-2 years you can start trying to jump into administration.

 

[Munzy]

just please no.

 

[zionvps]

Maybe sell them as a beta or for educational purposes but it would be great if you state outright where it is hosted and about the bandwidth and all.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Like what @drmike said, reselling is basically taking someone else's piece of the pie and selling it as your own.

For providers who offer reselling, you'll usually get access to a control panel with the ability to create VMs on their servers. It's pretty straight forward since one of the bigger hurdles, the technical side of everything, is now taken care of by your provider. Only thing you have to deal with is marketing and support.

 

[drmike]

Only thing you have to deal with is marketing and support.

Yeah, and usually resellers don't even get that right.

Raise your hand if some wannabe millionaire reseller contacted you asking to borrow your content for their website?  Or just straight up stole it, threw their logo and name in it?

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Some good providers actually started out reselling.

Query Foundry was originally a reseller, then started actually buying and selling servers.