Providing Web Servers viable

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TheUndyingLord

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Good Evening (or morning) Beautiful People

So recently I was given 5 old pc's and I was wondering would it be a viable service to provide web servers that could be used for gaming , basic website hostage , data access and other stuff?

It would be like only R100 or of similar sort....
thoughts?
 
Website hostage? You going to hold them for ransom? :p

Not sure what you want to do really, you want to do web hosting on old home PCs? If so then no, you should not do that.
 
What is your connection type to the "servers"? It doesn't make financial sense.
You need to think of physical safety, redundant power and networks.

Rather get a virtual machine somewhere, or resell Hetzner or simiar services
 
gfmalan said:
Maybe start a internet cafe in the rural area, "partner" with someone in the area.
Click to expand...

are internet cafes still a thing? I mean with mobile being so widespread and relatively affordable? The ones i come across in SA are always in dodgy nigerian areas, who knows what they have running on those machines :D
 
Ja, everyone suggests go to the providers.... of course everything is hunky-dory there ne?

You know what I am doing with an old box? Its running virtual instances of Linux, and also, it is running my VPN server.
Its nearly 10 years old, and it has been re-used for that, so if they break in here and steal my stuff again, they can steal a worthless computer. But even so, it works, and it works damn well.
 
naeem said:
are internet cafes still a thing? I mean with mobile being so widespread and relatively affordable? The ones i come across in SA are always in dodgy nigerian areas, who knows what they have running on those machines :D
Click to expand...

I also thought it was a no-no, but when I had conversation with the gardner, I realized the "need". I organized 15 old machines, and 3 dsl routers, and he went home and setup 3 locations. It doesn' make allot of money for me, but it keeps him busy and he makes the extra bucks... He appoints people to run tha cafes in the day ( people that was just sitting at home)

I found software that you install on all the machines, and handles the billing.

So its a use for the OP, i would steer away of the hosting idea with old pc's
 
Sonic2k said:
Ja, everyone suggests go to the providers.... of course everything is hunky-dory there ne?

You know what I am doing with an old box? Its running virtual instances of Linux, and also, it is running my VPN server.
Its nearly 10 years old, and it has been re-used for that, so if they break in here and steal my stuff again, they can steal a worthless computer. But even so, it works, and it works damn well.
Click to expand...

I don't dispute the fact that it can work, and can be stable solution, for the OP himself cool, but if I were to be a client of such hosting services, I would not be impressed if my site goes down, because there is loadshedding or "the cap" is finished. Also static IPs would be great.
Then the expenses start, and then its not worth it....
 
Huge Area Wifi?

Would providing a large area with a cheap local wifi hotspot work? I think it would a large area wifi network could work, it targets mobile users as well as desktop users (2 things internet cafes cannot). Also a large local network makes local LAN's much more relaxed. Problems arise in the setup of desktop pcs to get internal wifi routers (but that can be easily solved with the sale of internal routers). Local news could be shared much easier and many people will say social media solves that problem but im talking a network where people share anything in there area (business ventures, local food fairs , gossip etc).

Basically a local bazaar on a local wifi

Thoughts?
 
And you want to use the pc's for that?! Sure, that would be a great use!

Would you control the wifi access? Or are you planning to build the network, and only you can make structural changes?!
Do you want to sell internet breakout from that network?
How many users per AP/high site?

Awesome idea, best of both worlds WUG and Internet, just to figure out were you can make your money, while giving a cool service to the comunity.
 
TheUndyingLord said:
uhm..... cant tell through the internet but are you being sarcastic XD....-.-
Click to expand...

Nope, not sarcastic...

The way i see your idea: You setup a huge wifi network, that provide coverage to the whole area... So this give all the users wifi acces to the network that you build.
Then you have a server room, with your pc's setup with BSD or some other Linux distro, hosing "internal" mail and web pages for the local news etc, maybe some blogs and news servers.
This is all local to you Huge WiFi Network.

Then my question was, are you going to control te access to this wifi network, or is it a free for all?!
Second question is if you are going to connect this network to internet, and provide internet to the end users? If so there is costs (re-occuring), so then i wanted to know if you want to resell internet, so monitor that link, and the users buy tickets. (To give them x amount of internet per ticket) or something like that..
 
gfmalan said:
Nope, not sarcastic...

The way i see your idea: You setup a huge wifi network, that provide coverage to the whole area... So this give all the users wifi acces to the network that you build.
Then you have a server room, with your pc's setup with BSD or some other Linux distro, hosing "internal" mail and web pages for the local news etc, maybe some blogs and news servers.
This is all local to you Huge WiFi Network.
Click to expand...

uhm so a WUG then?

Yeah he should host some services on his local wug (for free).
 
Sorry about my earlier reply but with all those exclamation marks, I honestly thought you were using those instead of facial expressions ( I overthink things).

Anyway to answer your question. I was thinking of separating a large area, for instance I live in Strandfontein and their are generally 2 parts to this area. You got the lower part (basically from the robot at the start of Spine road) and up until Bayview. Now what I thought was providing WiFi to the 2 areas but use 2 server rooms and jump the signal.

Secondly, I was thinking ticket based for like a month with different subscription models (basic , advanced ). All would have the same network speed (obviously) but more data size. The thing is I was thinking of giving each user a "username" and "password" , which would enable them to access the wifi in the entire area and have to go to a friends house and use their connection (hypothetically).

Thirdly, this is an idea I just thought of and I have done my research extensively. What I was thinking of is allowing one big gaming LAN every month for users in the area and providing a IM (instant messaging ) service for users in the area. A business hub that provides users with all the latest news and advertising local businesses. For instance what I was thinking ( I have a wild imagination) was fast foods using the service to allow people to make orders from home and just arrive and pick up (not making phone calls).

I feel that although we live in a digital age many people do not actually have reliable internet access (BTW I do not consider mobile access a reliable internet service) and this service could possible make people more open to the internet access and still be a cheaper option than buying a Telkom adsl account. Sure over the network will most likely be slow but the fact that you have a cheap internet service, local gaming servers make and access to local businesses be better than nothing?
 
Free, don't you think it is a little bit unrealistic to provide a huge WiFi service for free?

If I was making a wifi area just for gaming and networking maybe but that is not at all what I was thinking.
 
I think clarification is needed...

I never said I was going to make a free WUG (I'm not competing against CTWUG), what I was thinking is making an Internet connected Wireless User Group (IWUG) and providing it at a subscription fee (sounds fare to me).

Secondly, this is an idea and I am making up all these ideas on the spot....

Anyway I enjoy criticism and am currently enjoying this discussion.
 
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