setting up a server for profit

[cracked]

ok guys. im a college student. like many college students, i am broke. ive been thinking about setting up a file/web hosting service to make some money for myself. i have all the skills and knowledge required to do this, but my question is, in all probability will i make any money at all? is it even worth trying?

the way i plan to set it up is this: build me a server from spare parts i have lying around. add lots of hard drive space. set up an http server and a ftp server, that way i can offer simple file hosting(webspace) or i can offer a webserver. i dont plan on charging very much, that may be how i actually get some business, if any. ill set up a website telling all about it and explaining the benefits of hosting with me (low cost, high speed(im on a college campus=lots-o-speed ), ease of use). people can then email me saying "i want to buy x amount of space for x amount of time" and thats how i will price it and then i email them back with a price. after they deposit their money into my paypal account then ill give them access to my server and they can upload their files and do what they want with it.

now i know im not gonna turn this into a huge business or anything, but since i just want a little extra money is it worth trying?

thanks!

drew

im pretty sure charging people to host their websites will be against your school policy to use the campus network

What sort of bandwidth you looking at?

NM, I didn't see that campus part. I'm w/ GZ3 on this one.

[cracked]

i did a speedtest at bandwidthplace.com and got 19.4MBPS

so not bad

ill have to check on the campus website and you are prolly right but i bet they would never know ;-)

drew

[Aaron_J]

To go along with what GroundZero said....

It will work out great untill your school shuts you down and you either have to face putting up the money to get a real server on a real network for your clients or having all of your clients really p/o'd at you.


It may seem a little harsh but thats like asking if you will do well renting out abandoned building that don't belong to you. Or running a cab service with stolen cabs.

Because in the end you will get shut down.

edit:

An even better analogy would be trying to sell cable television service by paying for cable for yourself and then splitting it off to your neighbors.

Wow, someone willing to risk their college education just to turn a few $.

Do you really think you're the only one to have thought of this? They'd probably let you go through all the trouble of getting it setup, then come down on you like a ton of bricks. Just think, they'll even charge you back for the bandwidth you tried to make money on.

Be sure to get the Sunday paper so you can find a nice minimum wage job to go to.

Originally posted by Aaron_J
An even better analogy would be trying to sell cable television service by paying for cable for yourself and then splitting it off to your neighbors.

OMG! That's illegal?

[Aaron_J]

I hope not.

[cracked]

ok fine, i get the point guys.

but my question was, do i have any chance of making any money from this? say i set something like this up in the future when im not at college? 50$ would qualify as "making any money" for me

drew

[Aaron_J]

In that case, given your criteria for what qualifies as making money, then yes.