Most sites created by members will never make it popular, this happens. But what if you did get popular??? I've done a fair amount of research on dedicated hosting and found that disk space is quite limited. Now taking that into consideration, how much does it cost for multiple terabytes? I think some fail to realize just how quick disk space can be used up by music, photos and video. And lets not forget about bandwidth! lol It's a real scary thing to think about! I don't yet know how to run a server at the true root level. I'm thinking of building one but lack the expertise to run it. So how bout it folks, what do you think the price tag would be for a community of say 20,000 very active members would be? All with videos music and photos? All the chat, video, music, photo bandwidth. What do you think the monthly price tag is for this.
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not much get a cluster of server
a few .k a month ;) you'll be fine
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Very high. I cannot give you and exact cost. Most of use do not have sites that big.
Anyone that gets that large would most likely need to look into other alternatives. Co-Location is one option. With this option you place servers of your own in collocation facilities where you pay a monthly fee for bandwidth used.
But even that can get expensive depending on how much bandwidth you require.
You can also host yourself which is another option. In this case you would purchase data lines called T1, DS1; DS3
Price varies on size the pipe.
Having someone do it for you is fine until your requirements exceed what the average provider will give.
For instance, a T1/DS1 for example is a dedicated 1.5 megabit per second bi directional line. Does not seem like much, but because it is dedicated, operates at the same speed in both directions and out performs equivalent DSL lines because it is a business grade line, the cost is high. Price for that varies between 250-1000 per month depending on your location. I can quote T1/DS1 prices because I have purchased those before.
A DS3 is 28 times larger than a DS1, but it does not cost 28 times more. The larger the pipe the lower the per T1 cost. So buying in bulk is how the hosting providers are able to offer low prices for bandwidth.
But the service providers are also not going to let you eat up all that bandwidth, so they have to draw the line somewhere. At some point your requirements will exceed what most providers will offer, and obtaining your own data circuits or co-locating will become the only options.
https://www.deanbassett.com |
Very high. I cannot give you and exact cost. Most of use do not have sites that big.
Anyone that gets that large would most likely need to look into other alternatives. Co-Location is one option. With this option you place servers of your own in collocation facilities where you pay a monthly fee for bandwidth used.
But even that can get expensive depending on how much bandwidth you require.
You can also host yourself which is another option. In this case you would purchase data lines called T1, DS1; DS3
Price varies on size the pipe.
Having someone do it for you is fine until your requirements exceed what the average provider will give.
For instance, a T1/DS1 for example is a dedicated 1.5 megabit per second bi directional line. Does not seem like much, but because it is dedicated, operates at the same speed in both directions and out performs equivalent DSL lines because it is a business grade line, the cost is high. Price for that varies between 250-1000 per month depending on your location. I can quote T1/DS1 prices because I have purchased those before.
A DS3 is 28 times larger than a DS1, but it does not cost 28 times more. The larger the pipe the lower the per T1 cost. So buying in bulk is how the hosting providers are able to offer low prices for bandwidth.
But the service providers are also not going to let you eat up all that bandwidth, so they have to draw the line somewhere. At some point your requirements will exceed what most providers will offer, and obtaining your own data circuits or co-locating will become the only options.
Yeah that's scary alright! lmao. Thanks for the reply, I was just curious. I really didn't/don't know a lot about what a big website requires.
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RE: You can also host yourself which is another option. In this case you would purchase data lines called T1, DS1; DS3
Price varies on size the pipe.
Having someone do it for you is fine until your requirements exceed what the average provider will give.
For instance, a T1/DS1 for example is a dedicated 1.5 megabit per second bi directional line. Does not seem like much....
1.5 mbps indeed isn't much, considering the average shared server has a 100mbps connection to the internet. If a server only had a 1.5 mbps connection to the internet, 10 concurrent users would bring a person to tears, and there's no way on earth you could use it as an RMS. A video stream with a resolution of 640 x 480 @ 25 FPS requires a streaming BW of almost 1 mbps. Bottom line: self hosting is not a viable option for ANY web site.... unless you happen to own your own data center.
My opinions expressed on this site, in no way represent those of Boonex or Boonex employees. |
Well that was the kind of point i was trying to make. You would need to be big enough to buy it bulk to do it.
I did run a data center at one time. Using only T1's. I don't anymore of course for that very reason.
Modern software like dolphin requires far more bandwidth than i could provide to anyone.
However, co-location is still a option.
Anyhow. The point i was trying to make is when you get that large, the number of options you have begin to run out.
MySpace for instance i am willing to bet have their own data centers. It's unlikley they farm it out. I could be wrong of course.
I would still love to be in the hosting business. But bandwidth that modern data centers need is way out of the reach of most people. I had no choice but to close mine. It became obsolete, and buying bandwidth in bulk was more than i could even begin to afford.
https://www.deanbassett.com |
Getting popular doesn't have much to do with bandwith. Yes, it plays an important role when it comes down to the financial part of the site. However, most sites that people launch is just right our of the box. I have viewed many websites that all look and have the same features. Even when you customize the look you can tell that it's a dolphin site, if your not familar with dolphin then you may not notice. Anyone who searches the web will eventually come across this software. The reason why people don't get popular and big because they don't spend the money or time to change their site. You can't upload a site and expect people just to come. When users join social-networking sites they want something new and unique. There is still alot of things that you could do and give all major networking sites a run for their money. Yes, they might develop the same things eventually, but that would make them a copycat. Look at myspace.com, they started out small and they are the Number 2 site. Facebook went to Number 1, not sure when. I heard of a guy who built a dating site and it made him a millionaire. So, anything can happen. It takes work and alot of money over time. Also with the financial part, once you get to a certain size you'll have advertisers wanting to advertise. This will create some revenue for the hosting to be where it should. |
Getting popular doesn't have much to do with bandwith. Yes, it plays an important role when it comes down to the financial part of the site. However, most sites that people launch is just right our of the box. I have viewed many websites that all look and have the same features. Even when you customize the look you can tell that it's a dolphin site, if your not familar with dolphin then you may not notice. Anyone who searches the web will eventually come across this software. The reason why people don't get popular and big because they don't spend the money or time to change their site. You can't upload a site and expect people just to come. When users join social-networking sites they want something new and unique. There is still alot of things that you could do and give all major networking sites a run for their money. Yes, they might develop the same things eventually, but that would make them a copycat. Look at myspace.com, they started out small and they are the Number 2 site. Facebook went to Number 1, not sure when. I heard of a guy who built a dating site and it made him a millionaire. So, anything can happen. It takes work and alot of money over time. Also with the financial part, once you get to a certain size you'll have advertisers wanting to advertise. This will create some revenue for the hosting to be where it should.
I definetly agree on the unique thing. You are absolutly right that when I come across a dolphin site, I know it's a dolphin site. I even came acrossed a porn site that is a dolphin platform, they tweaked the hell out of the template, but I am almost positive it's a dolphin platform.
I got an ebook in the works that's hush hush till I release it that will make things unique for my interests in the web. All I can do is keep my finger crossed and hope it helps.
Any idea on the average cost for a totally custom look to a dolphin site?
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The numbers are by no means 100% accurate, but a while back, I gathered some info from various dolphin site owners regarding bandwidth usage.
For active sites, your RMS will be what consumes the most BW. For reasonably active sites, the numbers I looked at indicated that an average of 1 out of 80 site members are active in chat, or other areas that use RMS at any given time. From this, I estimated that an RMS on a dedicated 100 mbps server, would experience a significant load when your site membership reached approximately 5,000 members. Membership levels over that would start to saturate the RMS during peak hours. When your site membership approached 7000 members or more, it would be time to move your RMS to a different server. ALL of this assumes you run a site where the membership is reasonably active in chat or other services that use RMS. If your membership base shows an above average chat activity, you'll likely need to make the move sooner. This may be the case for sites with a video chat focus. If your membership has very little interest in video chat, you may be able to go over 10,000 members before you need to upgrade your RMS
When a sites membership reaches those levels however, you most likely could begin to generate some revenues from advertising to help cover the costs of hosting. For my D7 site, I plan on always using a seperate server for the RMS, so I don't have to move the entire site.... I just upgrade the RMS. The price jump from a 100mbps server to a 1000 mbps server is a significant one. 100mbps servers wil cost $150 - $200 per month, while a 1000 mbps servers are in the $600/month range and up.
My opinions expressed on this site, in no way represent those of Boonex or Boonex employees. |
The numbers are by no means 100% accurate, but a while back, I gathered some info from various dolphin site owners regarding bandwidth usage.
For active sites, your RMS will be what consumes the most BW. For reasonably active sites, the numbers I looked at indicated that an average of 1 out of 80 site members are active in chat, or other areas that use RMS at any given time. From this, I estimated that an RMS on a dedicated 100 mbps server, would experience a significant load when your site membership reached approximately 5,000 members. Membership levels over that would start to saturate the RMS during peak hours. When your site membership approached 7000 members or more, it would be time to move your RMS to a different server. ALL of this assumes you run a site where the membership is reasonably active in chat or other services that use RMS. If your membership base shows an above average chat activity, you'll likely need to make the move sooner. This may be the case for sites with a video chat focus. If your membership has very little interest in video chat, you may be able to go over 10,000 members before you need to upgrade your RMS
When a sites membership reaches those levels however, you most likely could begin to generate some revenues from advertising to help cover the costs of hosting. For my D7 site, I plan on always using a seperate server for the RMS, so I don't have to move the entire site.... I just upgrade the RMS. The price jump from a 100mbps server to a 1000 mbps server is a significant one. 100mbps servers wil cost $150 - $200 per month, while a 1000 mbps servers are in the $600/month range and up.
Thank you, that's more the kind of stats I was looknig for. I did re enable the music gallery, but I will leave the chat,video,shout box,white board and presence disabled. This should buy me some more time to learn more about servers at the root level. I wish I could give members all the bells and whistles, but I can only do what I can do and sell myself and my idea of a community rather than sell myself based on bells and whistles. I only have a few members and the site is a month old, so I'm sure I got quite awhile! lol
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