hosting a social network

9thdimension

Banned
Jul 23, 2011
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I have tons of ideas for a social network.

Since I don't know html/php ect... I was looking at word/buddypress which lead me to bluehost.com

However I read shared hosting is bad for high traffic so can you guys give me some tip's & info (like how much server power it takes to have 1000 people at once on your site) ect... so I can come up with a plan of action

I know it'll start out small but what should I do if it blows up like facebook/twitter/myspace
 


if you don't have a real marketing plan or a real idea of how much traffic you'll be sending to the site ( traffic won't come from who knows where just because you have an awesome idea or site ), I'd advise to start it on a shared host or a VPS, at least you won't have thrown away too much money.

The power required to have 1000 people online depends entirely on how your site is done. You might max out the same server with 5 users online or have it run smooth with 1000, it all depends on how well it has been coded
 
Coding is the most important bit. I suggest you hire a professional and let them have a bite at it.

The chances of it blowing up as Facebook are very low, but then again, there is always a possibility.

If I were you, I would throw in some serious money and let the professional do the job.
 
I don't plan on doing it for a while, I'm in the research stage's.

I'm sorry if my long post was confusing/misleading


I just want to learn about hosting.

Pro's & Con's of shared & private hosting
 
shared: you're subject to others overloading the server you're on and penalizing you. There's no real control over the resources others can use (mysql in particular, which is the most common database system)
vps: you get dedicated resources, not really dedicated because servers are virtual and you share the hardware with the others. There are usually way less customers on the same servers and you get dedicated RAM. Hard disk usage can be a problem if others make a lot of IO activity (write to disk or read a lot from it)
dedicated: you get all the resources and you can use evertying as you prefer
complex hosting/clusters/balanced/other fancy names: you can use the power of multiple servers

costs obsviously are shared < vps < dedicated
 
if you're just starting out, try the shared hosting, you probably dont need anything crazy. You can always upgrade hosting down the road. Just get a feel of what you need first before spending 100s a month just a hosting. You should pick a company that would help you upgrade from shared to dedicated when the time comes though