web hosting inhouse

[Murugs]

Hello Group
My company is planning to move all the web hosting and mail server operations inhouse and I am incharge for that to work out a cost estimate of how much it would happen to host it.
Our website gives decent hits everyday and we have nearly 20 email users which may grow in near future.
We have a T1 connection for our inhouse internet and data transfer. Is that sufficient or do we need to get another dedicated T1 connection.
Could anyone give me some pointers on what to look for and how to start. Are there companies/products/plans in market, like out of box solutions which come and install inhouse hosting operations etc..

regards
MP

 

[manarth]

wow, the xcope of your query is huge...

first, if you're going to run a web server, you'll need to find out how much bandwidth you'll need. There is no answer to this question - you should check your traffic stats from your current webhost. This will give you a guide of how much bandwidth you'll need.

You'll also need a suitably configured machine - I recommend a linux system (suse is imo very easy to setup, or the ubiqitous RedHat is a standard these days). It will need to run a webserver (normally apache - this is available free). Depending on your web needs, you may also require apache modules for extras such as mySQL/postgreSQL databases, perl, php or asp.

You'll need to choose a pop3/smtp/imap server for your email - again, linux provides plenty of free ones (including some supporting the MS Exchange protocols).

As for out of the box solutions, Dell do a preinstalled Linux setup (Red Hat again). Or you could stick to a good old windows based system, which would normally involve a Windows Server (Win 2000 / 2003) running IIS (Internet Information Services) and again, take your pick between smtp/pop3/imap/exchange mail services.

I'd suggest a £500 machine (for linux, higher initial cost for windows) plus a day's labour to install and migrate the data onto the new webserver (more if you're site is particularly complex).

I imagine there's a firewall / NAT router between the T1 and your LAN, in which case you'll need to configure that appropriately.

If there's heavy server load you can run multiple servers with load balancing - but that would be much more complex and cost a substantial amount more.

Don't forget to have a backup plan in place.
You may want to consider a backup internet connection (in case the primary T1 goes down).
Consider UPS in case of power failure.
There's also companies which provides site monitoring services - they check your site at set intervals and if there's a problem, they notify you.

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[Murugs]

Manarth..that was really wonderful and awesome tips.
I have more questions.

Regarding bandwidth..what I need to do from my end.. do I need to increase my processor speed to get more bandwidth.?

 

[june1980]

Bandwidth is a term used to describe network capacity - the more you have, the more data you at any one time. For example, your T1 line gives 1.54 mbs in bandwidth. So, with a T1 line, the most data you'll be able to move at one time is 1.54. I have a feeling that this will be enough bandwidth for you, but Manarth has a point. Check with your current webhost for stats to see if you need more. What you'll want to check for is speed related things - average download times, average hits per day.