Why hosting?
- Thread starter MannDude
- Start date
Warning: very in depth wall of text that may or may not cause you to lose precious minutes. TLDR below.
Started off back then when I was a young kid who liked online/multiplayer games. I would join communities/forums, blogs, etc that were related to those games (like Runescape).
And then after some time, I was interested in making my own website/community that were related to those online games, so I taught myself on how to create websites.
And then I learned about Wordpress. At first, the free hosted Wordpress didn't really cater to what I wanted. I wanted a domain. I wanted more options to customize how my website looked like.
So I looked into running and hosting your own Wordpress installation. And then I've gotten to know of web hosting. At first, being the young kid I was, paid hosting wasn't an option. I had to look for free web hosting services.
So I tried out almost every single free web hosting service out there. Not because I wanted the best/fastest hosting I could get for my tiny little online game community/website, but because the concept of web hosting was very intriguing. It was fun. You were able to point just about any domain and sub-domain you have to that web hosting service and you could do all sorts of things from there on. When I didn't have the money to register my own TLD, I'd look for sites that offer free sub-domains. There were so many. I'd register a ton of those sub-domains and point them to whatever free web hosting service I'd have. I'd experiment with HTML, CSS, and PHP. There were an abundance of PHP scripts and content management systems that I was able to upload via FTP to my hosting service, and I'd do all sorts of stupid things with those content management systems. Creating silly websites, silly forums, and whatnot that I'd show to my friends. I was considered a "whizz kid". A computer geek. And boy, I did have a passion for web hosting back then.
But as the curious person I was, I wanted to learn more. I wanted to find out how people offered web hosting services. I had this thought of wanting to offer my own free web hosting services to friends. I was also still into multiplayer games, whether it be those Flash games that you could play online (virtual worlds and whatnot) or those that you'd have to download. I also wanted to create my own "private server" of those multiplayer games.
So I did my research on how I could host my own private server for whatever multiplayer game I was playing, and I also did my research on how I could run my own web hosting service.
And I've gotten the same results, on how I could do that; Virtual private server. It all seemed very, very foreign to me. There was no control panel! What? Linux? Ubuntu? Command line? SSH?
So I read, and I read. What are the chances I could score myself a FREE VPS? Nil. So I thought, nevermind. I dug and dug more about virtual servers and I saw articles and videos teaching you on how to setup a virtual server on your own computer. It involved Virtualbox/VMWare, something I was familiar of at that time, thanks to the curious kid I was, wanting to learn how to install a Hackintosh on a virtual machine, because I didn't have 2 computers. So I downloaded Ubuntu server, installed it on Virtualbox, learned how to use command line interface, install a web server, and from there on-wards I installed various hosting control panels, and from there I figured out on how web hosting services were offered. Or at least, how they work.
I think I am going way too in depth into this and am slowly starting to write out a very boring story about my geek self from many years ago. So I will simplify it. I slowly managed to get my own free VPS from Host1Free, which had allowed me to learn SO much more. I went quite some time before getting my hands on a dedicated server and learning on how virtual servers were created on Linux
This goes to show how much you can learn on the internet for free. All those skills I've acquired and learned all by myself with the help of the Internet and the abundance of information it contains has helped me earn my own pocket money, too, by providing my services to people I know in real life. I don't think people will find my story interesting, because I think I've written a lot of unnecessary things and elaborated on too many things (it is a habit of my own, I've realized), instead of just writing a simple paragraph with the main points on how I've gotten into the hosting industry. Safe to say I have a passion for the hosting industry, and I continue to be involved in it in the future, whether it be in terms of having a career related to it, or just a hobby.
TLDR; Wanted to know how to create my own website, learnt about web hosting, wanted to learn how web hosting works, found out about virtual private servers, wanted to learn how virtual private servers worked, found out about servers.
EDIT: Damnit. I just realized this thread was looking for more of a "how you started your company" type answer, instead of a "how you found out about VPSs" type answer. Don't mind getting this deleted or moved, because I remembered there was a more relevant thread for my answer.
Started off back then when I was a young kid who liked online/multiplayer games. I would join communities/forums, blogs, etc that were related to those games (like Runescape).
And then after some time, I was interested in making my own website/community that were related to those online games, so I taught myself on how to create websites.
And then I learned about Wordpress. At first, the free hosted Wordpress didn't really cater to what I wanted. I wanted a domain. I wanted more options to customize how my website looked like.
So I looked into running and hosting your own Wordpress installation. And then I've gotten to know of web hosting. At first, being the young kid I was, paid hosting wasn't an option. I had to look for free web hosting services.
So I tried out almost every single free web hosting service out there. Not because I wanted the best/fastest hosting I could get for my tiny little online game community/website, but because the concept of web hosting was very intriguing. It was fun. You were able to point just about any domain and sub-domain you have to that web hosting service and you could do all sorts of things from there on. When I didn't have the money to register my own TLD, I'd look for sites that offer free sub-domains. There were so many. I'd register a ton of those sub-domains and point them to whatever free web hosting service I'd have. I'd experiment with HTML, CSS, and PHP. There were an abundance of PHP scripts and content management systems that I was able to upload via FTP to my hosting service, and I'd do all sorts of stupid things with those content management systems. Creating silly websites, silly forums, and whatnot that I'd show to my friends. I was considered a "whizz kid". A computer geek. And boy, I did have a passion for web hosting back then.
But as the curious person I was, I wanted to learn more. I wanted to find out how people offered web hosting services. I had this thought of wanting to offer my own free web hosting services to friends. I was also still into multiplayer games, whether it be those Flash games that you could play online (virtual worlds and whatnot) or those that you'd have to download. I also wanted to create my own "private server" of those multiplayer games.
So I did my research on how I could host my own private server for whatever multiplayer game I was playing, and I also did my research on how I could run my own web hosting service.
And I've gotten the same results, on how I could do that; Virtual private server. It all seemed very, very foreign to me. There was no control panel! What? Linux? Ubuntu? Command line? SSH?
So I read, and I read. What are the chances I could score myself a FREE VPS? Nil. So I thought, nevermind. I dug and dug more about virtual servers and I saw articles and videos teaching you on how to setup a virtual server on your own computer. It involved Virtualbox/VMWare, something I was familiar of at that time, thanks to the curious kid I was, wanting to learn how to install a Hackintosh on a virtual machine, because I didn't have 2 computers. So I downloaded Ubuntu server, installed it on Virtualbox, learned how to use command line interface, install a web server, and from there on-wards I installed various hosting control panels, and from there I figured out on how web hosting services were offered. Or at least, how they work.
I think I am going way too in depth into this and am slowly starting to write out a very boring story about my geek self from many years ago. So I will simplify it. I slowly managed to get my own free VPS from Host1Free, which had allowed me to learn SO much more. I went quite some time before getting my hands on a dedicated server and learning on how virtual servers were created on Linux
This goes to show how much you can learn on the internet for free. All those skills I've acquired and learned all by myself with the help of the Internet and the abundance of information it contains has helped me earn my own pocket money, too, by providing my services to people I know in real life. I don't think people will find my story interesting, because I think I've written a lot of unnecessary things and elaborated on too many things (it is a habit of my own, I've realized), instead of just writing a simple paragraph with the main points on how I've gotten into the hosting industry. Safe to say I have a passion for the hosting industry, and I continue to be involved in it in the future, whether it be in terms of having a career related to it, or just a hobby.
TLDR; Wanted to know how to create my own website, learnt about web hosting, wanted to learn how web hosting works, found out about virtual private servers, wanted to learn how virtual private servers worked, found out about servers.
EDIT: Damnit. I just realized this thread was looking for more of a "how you started your company" type answer, instead of a "how you found out about VPSs" type answer. Don't mind getting this deleted or moved, because I remembered there was a more relevant thread for my answer.
Last edited by a moderator:
Just going to post a link to where I talked about this previously:
D. Strout
Resident IPv6 Proponent
As a client, I got in to hosting mostly because, as a programmer, after building stuff for a while, I wanted to put it online. Like many, I started with free cPanel hosting and such, not being able to afford/pay for (no credit card) anything else. Eventually I got a paid hosting plan with HostNine, and eventually worked up to a VPS. Same with domains - free subdomains and eventually managed to pay for a few. Back on the VPS side, I learned how to handle those by using Ubuntu at home. That's why all my VPSes run Ubuntu. Next step up is dedicated, but I don't see myself using those for a little while yet - no projects big enough to require those.
I took an interactive multimedia / website design class in High School. I was familiar with forums since Game Winners had one. Anyways, I became friends with a few people in my class and their friend started a forum with websitetoolbox. The forum was alright I guess, but I told them that we could do better with vBulletin. vBulletin was $160 of course so we all chipped in and bought it (I rolled up a bunch of loose change to get about $80 worth). After buying vBulletin, I had to figure out how to use it so I had to search for web hosting to use with it. My decision was down to two different hosts that I found which were Hostrocket and Hostony.
Hostrocket was recommended by many at vBulletin and had "unlimited bandwidth" so I bought it on their month to month term (was $11.99 I think per month?) before I switched over to 2 years worth when it went on sale for $4.95 / month.
It was actually pretty good, and I was getting familiar with cPanel because of it. Then, I ran across a forum while looking for some tips from The Admin Zone (people kept saying DP) we all know, Digital Point.
I joined and went through their marketplace. I saw the web hosting section and low and behold it was littered with these "unlimited lifetime master resellers" and I fell for it. Fast forward, the guy disappeared about 6 months later and told me that he bought a new computer with all that money and that he didn't give a crap about hosting. I negotiated with him to keep the server online for one month so that I can get people off of it. He gave me the keys to it and I ended up getting my first dedicated server with VersaWeb and moved all of my stuff off of it plus a few other people on DP who also were interested in moving with me.
That was the start of my hosting era. I do regret jumping into a dedicated server off the bat. I didn't do my research at all about hosting. Had I done my research, I would have went with a VPS instead which would have saved me a ton of money.
TL;DR:
Had a website, fell for cheap hosting, got screwed, got a dedicated server, rescued whoever I could, started my first hosting company.
Hostrocket was recommended by many at vBulletin and had "unlimited bandwidth" so I bought it on their month to month term (was $11.99 I think per month?) before I switched over to 2 years worth when it went on sale for $4.95 / month.
It was actually pretty good, and I was getting familiar with cPanel because of it. Then, I ran across a forum while looking for some tips from The Admin Zone (people kept saying DP) we all know, Digital Point.
I joined and went through their marketplace. I saw the web hosting section and low and behold it was littered with these "unlimited lifetime master resellers" and I fell for it. Fast forward, the guy disappeared about 6 months later and told me that he bought a new computer with all that money and that he didn't give a crap about hosting. I negotiated with him to keep the server online for one month so that I can get people off of it. He gave me the keys to it and I ended up getting my first dedicated server with VersaWeb and moved all of my stuff off of it plus a few other people on DP who also were interested in moving with me.
That was the start of my hosting era. I do regret jumping into a dedicated server off the bat. I didn't do my research at all about hosting. Had I done my research, I would have went with a VPS instead which would have saved me a ton of money.
TL;DR:
Had a website, fell for cheap hosting, got screwed, got a dedicated server, rescued whoever I could, started my first hosting company.
I'm really making myself seem old but back in 1992 I was doing website design, when two colors and the "lake applet" was cool. I have little if any artistic capability and it dawned on me that I was paying for the hosting every month, so I decided to see what that was all about. It's been a wild 22 year ride. I have owned and sold two hosting companies and built brands for four others.
It's a completely different world in hosting now than it was in the 1990's. Some things are better, some are worse. There has been a lot of progress none the less.
It's a completely different world in hosting now than it was in the 1990's. Some things are better, some are worse. There has been a lot of progress none the less.
And the money is a big + hehe
I started off running gameservers, and the more I ran them the more I noticed i enjoyed the admin side of things. Soon I was selling my services as a freelancer (linux based gameserver setups and troubleshooting). After 4-5 years of that I started looking into vps and cloud hosting, 2 years later here I am, and loving it
Wintereise
New Member
I blame @concerto49.
I never pushed you into selling ga y p0 rn.
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Wintereise
New Member
Pffft, hosting's worse.
Then maybe you should switch industries?
Started developing a web application, back to the year of 2000. Then seeing several companies lost data because their hosting vendors disappeared without any reason. So, started a hosting company for providing better service for market We did have web design service before, then dropped it and just focus on hosting.
We did have web design service before, then dropped it and just focus on hosting.
I am not going to make a long post but try to be basic.
I started to learn about it at about age 13 when I was doing some websites and stuff, started a free hosting co then closed it - Decided to do a proper business at 15 and sold that 3 years later due to bad health and plans to start up later in the future with the cash - Did that and nearly 4 years going strong glad I made the choices I did, I love tech and hosting stuff
I started to learn about it at about age 13 when I was doing some websites and stuff, started a free hosting co then closed it - Decided to do a proper business at 15 and sold that 3 years later due to bad health and plans to start up later in the future with the cash - Did that and nearly 4 years going strong glad I made the choices I did, I love tech and hosting stuff