Ok fellow admins. I own my server its a P4 3.0GHZ 64BIT HT, 2GB of ram, x2 80GB SATA 150 Hard drives. I will be adding a 250GB backup drive next week and then shipping it to the data center. (The OS is Linux)

I am looking for some idea's on what to do with the left over space/bandwidth on the server? I have a few idea's but I am not sure how well they will work out. Here they are....

1# I thought about running a add and renting out half of the server to someone else. The problem I see with that is who knows what they are going to run on your server. And my colocation host does not allow adult content.

2# I thought about running a proxy website on the server. I don't know much about them and if there are any leagal matters with running one. I am currently looking into this one.

3# I thought about running a free image website on the server. But I would need to put lots of man hours into it checking for porn if it ever got big. I am looking into this one as well.

4# I thought about sponsering a website for a link back to my forum on their website. To try and drive up the traffic on my forum. I dont know where to look for someone to sponser with out pissing off another forum.

5# I thought about buying a few websites relating to computer's and putting a link to my forum on it to try and drive up traffic on my forum.

6# Make a some google adsense website's and try making some money off them.

I get 660GB of transfer per month with my colocation. I am trying to look for ways to max the bandwith with out going over and to try and break even with my colocation costs. I do not want to get rich, I just want my own little pice of cyber space. Any of you guys have some ideas on what to do with my server?

Well, having extra space and bandwidth is good because it allows you to safely grow down the road. But those specs give way more safety than needed. So you're probably right to put some of the left overs to use.

Your suggestions aren't bad, but they all have their drawbacks. My suggestions aren't perfect, but two I thought of which you might wish to consider:

Your staff deserve something in return for the help they provide you. But you don't want to spend extra money on that. So why not use something you've already invested in? Offer your mods some free hosting on your server. Just make it clear that no adult content is allow (though how that happens with a colo is beyond me).

Option two that strikes me as somewhat worthwhile is either buying or using a free email program and running email, presumably with tiered service which includes premium options.

My toughts exactly

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Soulwatcher
Re: Proxy Server: The legal issues are important. Furthermore, it is not known to be a good profit making venture.

Image Hosting is based on advertising, unless you intend to charge for it which severely limits the clientele. 660 GB is not a lot of bandwidth for image hosting and there are many well established ones around. It would require a lot of work to get it running successfully.

One of the areas that seem to be doing well as far as advertising is concerned is the forum hosting.
There are a few free forum hosting around and subject to set up, there are easy to run and maintain. The revenue is made from adverting ie Google AdSense etc.

You may want to check my signature for above

Good luck
AZ

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AZbb :: AZ Bulletin Board - Secure PHP BBS script, front page CMS, Chat, No Database

AZbb I have to agree with you on the whole proxy thing. Knowing my luck some one would use my server to down load child porn, illegal files, warez, ect. That would be the last thing in the world I need.

About the free image thing. You think it would suck up more than 660GB of bandwidth a month? Even if I keep the file size limit to 1mb?

I think I may be better off just running my forum. I do not want any head aches.