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I don't know if this is really a tech support question, but just a curious user inquiring about the workings of FriHost.
This thing is costing you guys at least $65/month... how do you make back the money? I have a couple of theories, and am hoping you'll tell me which one is right, if it's not impolite of me to ask. 
1. You actually run a commercial hosting business, and figured you might as well put your surplus capacity to some kind of use.
2. You're intending to grow this into enough of a high-traffic PhpBB that you'll make your $65/month in ad revenues alone.
3. You're scouts for a VC or some similar entity looking for people with no money but good ideas.
4. $65/month is not all that much to you and it's a fun hobby that helps people.
5. You're planning to eventually become a hosting business and this is your market research to anticipate what kinds of things you can expect to happen and what kinds of questions you'll be asked when you go live.
6. You're planning to eventually roll out extra disk-space and extra-bandwidth for-pay services for people who like what they're getting and are willing to pay for even more.
7. You are the year's most clever viral marketing campaign for the dedicated hosting service you run on... (it's working, btw, once I'm making more than I'd be spending on that, I'm sold!)
Again, I'm not being a wiseass. I'm just curious about the mysteries of FriHost. 
Why would frihost have pay options?, kinder go's against the name frihost.
Because I'm assuming that the FriHost team does not live in a Frihouse with FriFood and FriCableTV, therefore they need some way of making non-fri cash to pay their non-fri bills. They also need a way to pay their upstream hosting provider.
So I'm curious about how they manage to pull it off. Because I like clever business ideas.
| Texas Al wrote: | | This thing is costing you guys at least $65/month... |
here are my theories -
1. Bondings is an all round "do-good"er who has too much money to blow.
2. He won a bet and his friend (the owner of the datacenter) is paying off for it.
3. He works as a night watchman at the datacenter and has secretly started a hosting from a stolen server hidden inside the a/c duct.
4. He's lost it
5. As we are discussing this he's having fun deleting our hard work off the server even as he laughs sadistically (ie., he's a psycho)
6. He's a space alien, from across the universe, on earth on a sponsored mission to study the earth people by scouring through 250Mb each of their data.
7. whatever
but seriously, as per my calculations, the server is costing a lot more than $65.
and (also as per my calculations) the ad-infested phpbb is capable of paying off the server rent, provided we have enough page impressions.
so keep visiting
I just loves this thread.  So funny! You guys made my day.
| Quote: | | This thing is costing you guys at least $65/month |
Honestly, it is much more. But it wouldn't be a good idea to tell you the exact amount, sorry. 
| Quote: | | 1. You actually run a commercial hosting business, and figured you might as well put your surplus capacity to some kind of use. |
Some hosting businesses do that. But they do advertise on the websites and they have to make their paid hosting better than their free plans. How are we ever going to do this without downtime? So, no I don't own a commercial host.
| Quote: | | 2. You're intending to grow this into enough of a high-traffic PhpBB that you'll make your $65/month in ad revenues alone. |
You've got it.
3,4,5,6(I'm getting lazy) : No.
Now mOrpheus:
| Quote: | | 1. Bondings is an all round "do-good"er who has too much money to blow. |
Of course I am. 
| Quote: | | 2. He won a bet and his friend (the owner of the datacenter) is paying off for it. |
If it was only that ...
| Quote: | | 3. He works as a night watchman at the datacenter and has secretly started a hosting from a stolen server hidden inside the a/c duct. |
How did you figure that out? Please keep it quiet, they may find it out! 
Uhm ...
| Quote: | | 5. As we are discussing this he's having fun deleting our hard work off the server even as he laughs sadistically (ie., he's a psycho) |
Thanks 
| Quote: | | 6. He's a space alien, from across the universe, on earth on a sponsored mission to study the earth people by scouring through 250Mb each of their data. |
I've got to search for alien smileys ...
| Quote: | but seriously, as per my calculations, the server is costing a lot more than $65.
and (also as per my calculations) the ad-infested phpbb is capable of paying off the server rent, provided we have enough page impressions. |
Exactly, that's why we need more traffic.
I finally reached the end of my post!
Lol @ alien smileys  , no seriously I do try and promote frihost as much as I can i'm so greatful for what you supply us, it's apreciated. 
Uh oh, quote-soup time.
| mOrpheuS wrote: |
here are my theories -
3. He works as a night watchman at the datacenter and has secretly started a hosting from a stolen server hidden inside the a/c duct.
|
Heh heh. When I worked as a server-monkey at a big university, I 'hosted' my own domain from an inconspicious-looking box under my desk. Nobody caught on. Not even when someone rooted me and was ping-flooding the network and I had to physically disconnect the machine. If you're the guy who administers the security on the network, it's very, very hard for anybody to pin anything on you. The box was back up a few days later.
It was a non-profit site, though, so I'm not even sure if it was against the rules.
| Quote: |
6. He's a space alien, from across the universe, on earth on a sponsored mission to study the earth people by scouring through 250Mb each of their data.
|
Heh heh. Don't take this the wrong way, Bondings, but if I was a black-hat, and if I was doing this, what I'd be most interested in would be what everyone's favorite password it. Ooooh yeah.
| Quote: |
but seriously, as per my calculations, the server is costing a lot more than $65.
and (also as per my calculations) the ad-infested phpbb is capable of paying off the server rent, provided we have enough page impressions.
so keep visiting
|
Oh, I will. Because you're actually onto something here... the dumb people get weeded out fast, and that leaves fun people with a genuine interest in web hosting for me to talk to.
By the way, for the record, I would consider paying for a drivespace or bandwidth upgrade if one was offered, and I think a number of other people would too. In fact, the only reason I regard this as a 'practice area' rather than the actual future site of my hosting company is because of that 250mb cap. Not that I'm anywhere near it yet.
Here's another esoteric revenue stream for you--
You're sitting on a goldmine of (legitimate) market research. Hardly anybody on the planet knows what a bunch of people would do if given free reign over professional-quality webspace. And you do. You know what web apps are popular, with what sorts of hosts and end users, what characteristics of sites correlate with the most hits, and all kinds of other interesting insights into online behavior.
You could ask Google if there's anything they're curious to know and how much that information would be worth to them. If there's a site that's really taking off, you'll be the first to know (because of the bandwidth spike) and perhaps venture capitalists offer finder's fees for that sort of thing. That would be a scenario beneficial to everyone.
You should have a chat with Paul Graham. Well, after you pass breakeven, that is.
Where are you located, anyway? I'm guessing Great Britain?
| Texas Al wrote: | Uh oh, quote-soup time.
| mOrpheuS wrote: |
here are my theories -
3. He works as a night watchman at the datacenter and has secretly started a hosting from a stolen server hidden inside the a/c duct.
|
Heh heh. When I worked as a server-monkey at a big university, I 'hosted' my own domain from an inconspicious-looking box under my desk. Nobody caught on. Not even when someone rooted me and was ping-flooding the network and I had to physically disconnect the machine. If you're the guy who administers the security on the network, it's very, very hard for anybody to pin anything on you. The box was back up a few days later.
It was a non-profit site, though, so I'm not even sure if it was against the rules.
| Quote: |
6. He's a space alien, from across the universe, on earth on a sponsored mission to study the earth people by scouring through 250Mb each of their data.
|
Heh heh. Don't take this the wrong way, Bondings, but if I was a black-hat, and if I was doing this, what I'd be most interested in would be what everyone's favorite password it. Ooooh yeah.
| Quote: |
but seriously, as per my calculations, the server is costing a lot more than $65.
and (also as per my calculations) the ad-infested phpbb is capable of paying off the server rent, provided we have enough page impressions.
so keep visiting
|
Oh, I will. Because you're actually onto something here... the dumb people get weeded out fast, and that leaves fun people with a genuine interest in web hosting for me to talk to.
By the way, for the record, I would consider paying for a drivespace or bandwidth upgrade if one was offered, and I think a number of other people would too. In fact, the only reason I regard this as a 'practice area' rather than the actual future site of my hosting company is because of that 250mb cap. Not that I'm anywhere near it yet.
Here's another esoteric revenue stream for you--
You're sitting on a goldmine of (legitimate) market research. Hardly anybody on the planet knows what a bunch of people would do if given free reign over professional-quality webspace. And you do. You know what web apps are popular, with what sorts of hosts and end users, what characteristics of sites correlate with the most hits, and all kinds of other interesting insights into online behavior.
You could ask Google if there's anything they're curious to know and how much that information would be worth to them. If there's a site that's really taking off, you'll be the first to know (because of the bandwidth spike) and perhaps venture capitalists offer finder's fees for that sort of thing. That would be a scenario beneficial to everyone.
You should have a chat with Paul Graham. Well, after you pass breakeven, that is.
Where are you located, anyway? I'm guessing Great Britain? |
The servers are in washington savvis datacenter and bondings hes from mars jk , no I think europe.
| Texas Al wrote: |
Where are you located, anyway? I'm guessing Great Britain? |
Probably europe if you look at my avatar.
Belgium, Brussels to be precise. Easy to imagine why I'm a European Union fan.
| Bondings wrote: | | Texas Al wrote: |
Where are you located, anyway? I'm guessing Great Britain? |
Probably europe if you look at my avatar.
Belgium, Brussels to be precise. Easy to imagine why I'm a European Union fan. |
Belgium power 
But the servers doesn't seems to be located in Belgium, Am i right ??
| Maka wrote: |
The servers are in washington savvis datacenter and bondings hes from mars jk , no I think europe. |
You shoud read this very carefully, Slay. The answer is hidden in that sentence.
| Bondings wrote: |
You shoud read this very carefully, Slay. The answer is hidden in that sentence. |
Read? We don't get FRI$ for reading, we get it for writing!!! Who needs reading?
This all seems a lil' too good to be true, the last few hosting providers have fallen through, and closed down...
please don't do it to me  anyway back on topic.
"3. He works as a night watchman at the datacenter and has secretly started a hosting from a stolen server hidden inside the a/c duct."
hehe. Would have to say that was my guess, I know of a few secruity gaurds that are evil and have evil powers to curropt all that is good. and I was just hoping that you were the Good night watchman that was finally helping people
and acully. thats not such a bad Idea. hehe my school has a website, and I've been looking into it, I think I may be able to over take it:> I could get in there and change a few things around, since I know the teacher that set it all up and I know her psswrd. Its always changed to a color, bad idea:\ anyway without incrimiating myself futher for future plans of world domination I will just add that I think this is a great atmostphere, and the idea behind posting is awsome 
I will soon request a site. I've been search for a great webhost for quite some time. and I will be staying close to these forums, always reading, ever whatchful  (and posting, who needs reading... ) I need to learn to spell:D
| Quote: | He works as a night watchman at the datacenter and has secretly started a hosting from a stolen server hidden inside the a/c duct."
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now i see why me and bondings meet when im online...because...he is
around when im at deep sleep lol...
now that this community is getting bigger and bigger...
i hope our community becomes better and be the best community around
this net community...i hope bondings wont stop this great service...
we love and enjoying it...
| Bondings wrote: |
Probably europe if you look at my avatar.
Belgium, Brussels to be precise. Easy to imagine why I'm a European Union fan. |
that explains the time difference. Pls hook me up with a belgian beauty! Women from your side of the planet are exceptionally beautiful.
I wouldn't dig around for where the money is coming from, but I hope it doesnt run out! Giving a lot of people a chance to express themselves online is just...*sniff* *sniff* 
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