Ok.

I'm not trying to start a true webhosting company. But very similar. We want to be able to host our own sites we have and template sites for clients. So it is a webhosting but no need for the fancy features, such as giving FTP access, or MYSQL access. All my clients will need are websites, email access and i think thats it.

Anyways. I have a Windows 2003 server. Hosting Controller. and SimpleDNS. What I want to know if anyone can give me some sort of an outline of all the steps I'd probably need to go through. Or even point out a website that will tell me. Anything! Not even sure if this question makes any sense. But any help what-so-ever would be truely appreciative.

Thank You Much,
Lost and Confused NEWBIE!!
ONEINC

It sounds like what you are looking at doing is setting up a design firm and simply hosting the site through your server. If that's right, I can help you with any specific questions you might have. I started with that type of setup back in 1994 and have grown since then. Is it more on the marketing side that you need ideas for or is it more on the technical side?

Feel free to email me or call me.
Denny Gilbert
1-866-588-2526 ext. 303
denny@dgctechnologies.com

The first thing i would recommend is to secure your server, or get someone to do so, then just go to www.hotscripts.net and have a look for scripts for all the things you have asked im sure they will all be available Hope this helps a little

hi,

asking in proper forums and learning from other people whois doing the same business is a quick way to learn the ins and outs of the business.

you need to learn how to do maintenance of the your servers and also do the basic marketing on how to sell your busines to proepective customers.

read and read from very informative forums like this and if you have questions, do not hesitate to ask. most people here are firnedly and wouldny mind sharing some tips for you.

HTH.

james

If you are thinking of running your own server, I would go with Fedora/Apache web server. If you need help to set it up, there is a lot of people at fedoraforum.org would love to help.

Instead of giving you a drink I would rather lead you to the water.

You need a good understanding of web server fundamentals and for that I would recommend a good book on IIS or whatever web server you plan on using. Read the book. Set aside a weekend. Drink some coffee. Configure a web server from scratch. Hook it to the Internet. Read some more. DNS ain't easy but SimpleDNS will certainly help - I use it.

Configure your websites on the server. Run them for a while. You don't want to go into panic mode when your clients' webs are having a problem. It's all really very simple you just have to learn how it works then it's easy to control.

Good luck!

You might be better off signing up with someone that offers multi domain hosting so you do not have to manage the servers. cheaper too

I agree,

If you are new to providing web hosting service to your customers, you may start with a reseller plan that allows you to host multiple web sites in a single account. When you grow your customer portfolio you may then switch to dedicated server or VPS.

Though this thread is some months old, just for further reference I will post some URL where newbies can find useful information and articles:

http://www.myhostkit.com/
http://www.webhostgear.com
http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com

Regards,

You may choose a reseller plan for your customers, this is the best way to start with up. If you need with the reference about how to start with and if you need very much customized plans,

Please check out with www.ourinternet.us

Awesome suggestions. Appreciate it a lot.
My opinion - it is always good to start a web hosting business by resell web hosting (well known as Reseller) before running own web server.