What Is A Dedicated Server? How to build a dedicated server

It is a dream of mine to build a dedicated server and make a web hosting site or lease the servers(its still a dream but its not that impossible to become true). I've been searching the net on how to build your own dedicated server but the search engine always took me to thae page of paid webhosting that has their own dedicated servers like godady and xlhost. Anyone here knows how to build a dedicated server? what are the components and softwares needed? I live in a developing country and you wont find any web hosting company or a real company that has their own servers(there is a one webhosting company but they are just a reseller). I want to take that oppurtunity. Its hard but I know I can do it. I love challenges but this will be a big one.

Edited November 7, 2006 by jlhaslip (see edit history)

First off you would need about at least $20,000-$40000 because the good servers cost about $3000 and upalso you would need anywhere from T1-T3 lines to make the connections fast that will run anywhere from $1000-$4000.Extra components to fix your servers just in case they break down, thats a few hundred per server.A building with a good air condition system that keeps the servers cool and from over heating.And some of hte best security software that money could buy as well.So you see it's not hard it's just very very expensive.

The idea of building a dedicated server is intriguing, I would also like to do it if I had the cash. Like what was mentioned in the previous post, you need lots of money. Purchasing a server which has high speed access and 0.01% downtime would be difficult. I have seen that most servers are mainly located in the U.S.A. but I have also heard of servers being in Korea, China and even other European countries. I think a server in the centralised position on the globe would be your best bet. But you also need to equip that server with the most common technologies in today's internet world like Apache, MySQL, CPanel, PHP, Email ... etc, and on top of that, buffing up the server with security, and we are not talking solely about norton, it is far more than that, let the experts enlighten you on this. I have seen a lot of hosting sites who have their servers fail because of their uptime, there are not many hosts who can really provide 0.01% downtime, even Xisto isn't able to do that, for their free hosting accounts (GAMMA server). I have not really experience any sort of downtime for their paid servers

Edited November 7, 2006 by darran (see edit history)

Yes its very expensive... Dont heard much about T1-T3 connection here in our country (first saw it in limewire when I'm downloading). But I know I can't start with that $20k - $40k... I know this thing requires a lot of time. My dream plan is to make a reseller webhosting site, (Paid, Free (ad supported and forum points)) then build a nice reputation around the net and use my earnings to buy a server to host my own site and site of my customers and all my earnings will go to buying servers and things I need to run many servers. When its succcessful I can now have a company like godaddy and xlhost... I am intrigued with this idea seeing the site xlhost.com (dedicated server of phpnet I think) and the customers will cover the costs.BTW. This is the second time my post has been moved from what is section...

Edited November 7, 2006 by fr0z3n (see edit history)

Yes its very expensive... Dont heard much about T1-T3 connection here in our country (first saw it in limewire when I'm downloading). But I know I can't start with that $20k - $40k...
I know this thing requires a lot of time. My dream plan is to make a reseller webhosting site, (Paid, Free (ad supported and forum points)) then build a nice reputation around the net and use my earnings to buy a server to host my own site and site of my customers and all my earnings will go to buying servers and things I need to run many servers.

When its succcessful I can now have a company like godaddy and xlhost... I am intrigued with this idea seeing the site xlhost.com (dedicated server of phpnet I think) and the customers will cover the costs.

BTW. This is the second time my post has been moved from what is section...

By the looks of things, you want to start a web hosting business? I think you would need far far much more than $20k-40k, remember we are not only talking about setting up servers. Being a business, a lot of money would have to be placed on marketing, both on the web, and also in your local media. You have to set up your servers, get everything placed and that alone would cost a lot of money. The addition of marketing would add an ever bigger load, remember when starting a new business, the emphasize is to make it as well known as popular, so people might decide to try it. Lets not forget about scouting other web hosts, what are their price range? You need to have an attractive plan which will entice customers to your host.

Most importantly, once you are up and running, there can't be much downtime and even if it has, the responsibility to send out an email to your customers is a must. People will stick with you if your hosting is cheap and really reliable. I would definitely not see out hosting if it is expensive and always down

Yah you got it! I really want to start a webhosting business, there is only one web hosting service here in the philippines but I dont know if they own or lease their servers or if they are just a reseller. I want to try that oppurtunity because there are lots of people here in the pihilippines that are now into web designing but doesn't have interest in making their own server, they just search for a free host or paid host if they have a credit card then dump their files in it.I only want to start to lease a server, dont know yet which company. Maybe it will cost me about $200 - $400 for advertising. Then if I can earn enough, I will start to buy the things I need bit by bit to have my own server. If my business wont click, I will advertise my business more before jumping to building my own servers. If it will start to cost me so much that I am not earning enough to cover the cost, I will drop it immediately.

Edited November 10, 2006 by fr0z3n (see edit history)

Well, it would be great if we all could have a dedicated server of our own, just to make sure our site is always online and under your control, etc. but seems quite like a utopia. As for setting up a business on webhosting I wouldn?t do it, there are lots of competitors and you should make a strong (and maybe spending lots of money) promotion for people to know you and then trust you enough to choose your dedicated server hosting.