Office space, leased lines and stuff.

Garry Newman

– April 10, 2009

We’ve been thinking about office space recently. We don’t really want to go to an office and work every day, that isn’t the main reason. We’ve been thinking it would be kinda cool to have our own servers, on site.

This probably sounds stupid to a lot of people, but this is the way we see it. Right now, with the forums and all the other websites I’m renting about 8 servers, which is running to about £25,000 a year.

We’re thinking, if we could get some office space and a leased line, for about the same price.. that would be a lot better for us. There’s only one problem, we have a very limited knowledge about this stuff. So if anyone could help answer these questions, it’d help us make our minds up:

1. Is this a crazy idea?
2. How much do leased lines cost? I’m guessing you have to pay for a certain speed.. so
3. What kind of speed would we need? 10mbps? 100mbps? Price?
4. When you have a leased line do you have to pay for bandwidth too – or is it unlimited?

This would likely be all temporary anyway, because Walsall is getting a gigaport!

PUMKIN

:( i know no tech stuff.
PUMKIN

:( i know no tech stuff.
Ben Scobie

I can only answer number 3;
If your going to be running Facepunch off it, I would go for 100mbps because of the amount of traffic, on a 10mbps line it may bottleneck at peak times.
Ben Scobie

I can only answer number 3;
If your going to be running Facepunch off it, I would go for 100mbps because of the amount of traffic, on a 10mbps line it may bottleneck at peak times.
LoneIWolf

Yes, I think you pay for bandwidth. I did some work at a web design company which host the websites for their clients and they charge them for bandwidth usage, so I assume the same goes for the line they rent out.
LoneIWolf

Yes, I think you pay for bandwidth. I did some work at a web design company which host the websites for their clients and they charge them for bandwidth usage, so I assume the same goes for the line they rent out.
Kylegar

Call up a commercial ISP and ask around. I think most of those questions vary on an ISP by ISP basis.

I know here in Oregon, Comcast will lease you a buisness line with 14 static IPs, and they don’t charge for bandwidth. It also costs a stupid ammount of money, but, it’s a buisness line, so I guess it makes sense.
Kylegar

Call up a commercial ISP and ask around. I think most of those questions vary on an ISP by ISP basis.

I know here in Oregon, Comcast will lease you a buisness line with 14 static IPs, and they don’t charge for bandwidth. It also costs a stupid ammount of money, but, it’s a buisness line, so I guess it makes sense.
Rob Burke

Leased lines get very pricey – especially if you are limited to T1 or T3 lines for connectivity.

Unless the office space itself has merit right off the bat, it will probably end up being cheaper for you to lease a half rack at a data center. Any good one will offer at least 100Mbps, and you’ll PROBABLY get bandwidth, as most good data centers have multiple ISPs connected with them. Alas, just about everyone charges for bandwidth.

My setup is we get a solid 5Mbps connection burstable to 10Mbps (by self-imposed restraint. We get 5Mbps worth of bandwidth, BUT they use the 95 percentile. So 5% of our bandwidth is “free”, and we can go over as much as we like in that timespan.

Hope that helps.
Rob Burke

Leased lines get very pricey – especially if you are limited to T1 or T3 lines for connectivity.

Unless the office space itself has merit right off the bat, it will probably end up being cheaper for you to lease a half rack at a data center. Any good one will offer at least 100Mbps, and you’ll PROBABLY get bandwidth, as most good data centers have multiple ISPs connected with them. Alas, just about everyone charges for bandwidth.

My setup is we get a solid 5Mbps connection burstable to 10Mbps (by self-imposed restraint. We get 5Mbps worth of bandwidth, BUT they use the 95 percentile. So 5% of our bandwidth is “free”, and we can go over as much as we like in that timespan.

Hope that helps.
Rob Burke

Edit: I meant “you’ll be PROBABLY get [better] bandwidth” ;)
Rob Burke

Edit: I meant “you’ll be PROBABLY get [better] bandwidth” ;)
Gimmik

Don’t get you’re self in debt like moot. haha
Gimmik

Don’t get you’re self in debt like moot. haha
Burning

I worked for a server company for about 2 years. This is what i know from my experience.

1.Servers need to be updated with new hardware every year or so to keep up with the norm and that can potentially cost more in the long run.So yeah it kinda is crazy considering the servers you rent now get free hardware upgrades.

2. leased lines i don’t know much about so i cant really help you there.

3.100mbps is probly what your current servers are running now.Checking your bandwidth usage and seeing how much you use now would help decide on what your needs are.Also you wanna give your website space to grow so you may want to plan ahead for growth.

4. Again I cant really help you here sorry.
Burning

I worked for a server company for about 2 years. This is what i know from my experience.

1.Servers need to be updated with new hardware every year or so to keep up with the norm and that can potentially cost more in the long run.So yeah it kinda is crazy considering the servers you rent now get free hardware upgrades.

2. leased lines i don’t know much about so i cant really help you there.

3.100mbps is probly what your current servers are running now.Checking your bandwidth usage and seeing how much you use now would help decide on what your needs are.Also you wanna give your website space to grow so you may want to plan ahead for growth.

4. Again I cant really help you here sorry.
http://denzor.org/ Denzo

100MBps won’t be nearly enough, for the whole of Facepunch. How much are you using on all the 8 servers altogether? 100MBps is my home connection. But I can’t see what the usage currently is. It’s probably better to get more than what you have, but leased lines are TONS more expensive than a normal line which is overbooked ( to a ratio of 1:20, which is ridiculous ). I don’t think it’ll be any cheaper than the 8 servers you have now, especially if you need office space too. I don’t live in the UK though, so I have no clue about the prices.
yohan

There are no crazy ideas in the world of computing.

Leased lines cost a chunk more but you usually pay based on reliability as well as bandwidth. I don’t know about cost but a dedicated T3 all the way to backbone-size line is usually available and shouldn’t be too hard to come by from a man in your position!

Speed wise I don’t know, look at your bandwidth charts, find a good provider and negotiate a price.

It completely depends on the provider, but usually you’ll be paying for reliability more than bandwidth.
http://denzor.org Denzo

100MBps won’t be nearly enough, for the whole of Facepunch. How much are you using on all the 8 servers altogether? 100MBps is my home connection. But I can’t see what the usage currently is. It’s probably better to get more than what you have, but leased lines are TONS more expensive than a normal line which is overbooked ( to a ratio of 1:20, which is ridiculous ). I don’t think it’ll be any cheaper than the 8 servers you have now, especially if you need office space too. I don’t live in the UK though, so I have no clue about the prices.
yohan

There are no crazy ideas in the world of computing.

Leased lines cost a chunk more but you usually pay based on reliability as well as bandwidth. I don’t know about cost but a dedicated T3 all the way to backbone-size line is usually available and shouldn’t be too hard to come by from a man in your position!

Speed wise I don’t know, look at your bandwidth charts, find a good provider and negotiate a price.

It completely depends on the provider, but usually you’ll be paying for reliability more than bandwidth.
Turbis

Aren’t there consults for these kind of things? Or maybe books?
Smurfy

THERE’S NO- THERE’S NO WORDS ON IT
Turbis

Aren’t there consults for these kind of things? Or maybe books?
Smurfy

THERE’S NO- THERE’S NO WORDS ON IT
Smurfy

FUCK IT
Smurfy

WE’LL DO IT LIVE!
Smurfy

FUCK IT
Smurfy

WE’LL DO IT LIVE!
SEKCobra

1. NO
2. I pay 20 € for a glas-fibre with no limits (ok, my father works at the company)
3. The highest you can get
4. Comes with your Contract
SEKCobra

1. NO
2. I pay 20 € for a glas-fibre with no limits (ok, my father works at the company)
3. The highest you can get
4. Comes with your Contract
Bad HAL 9000

I can’t speak for your area, but I have ideas on how much it would cost in the USA.

I doubt you would be worried about 10 or 100mbps links. In the WAN/long haul world you are going to be looking at T or E carrier lines or OC (optical carrier) lines. In I know the standard in UK is E1 or E3 lines (similar speeds, just the signaling is a bit different)

For a realistic estimate you really need to do a study on your bandwidth usage. A fractional T/E-3 would probably be best solution. However you would be busting your current 25k a year cost quite easily using that route. Most commercial lines (At least in the USA) are quite expensive when you consider the residential alternatives.

(All of these figures are estimates based on my current area, and once again, USA standards, not EU, but I assume the costs would be similar)

We just did a T3 upgrade recently, from a fractional (running 14mbps) to a full 45mbps. We are paying just over $14k a month for the full T3, plus we have a higher support package so we pay more for that as well.

I would just take a guess that you have quite a bit of traffic. First start would be to figure out how much bandwidth you really need and then build a solution on that. Also take a look at your current servers and see if there is a way to consolidate some of that to cut costs. Anyway, shoot me an email or hit me on irc (BadHAL) if you want more advise.

PS: I am NOT a salesman and don’t sell services or products :P
Bad HAL 9000

I can’t speak for your area, but I have ideas on how much it would cost in the USA.

I doubt you would be worried about 10 or 100mbps links. In the WAN/long haul world you are going to be looking at T or E carrier lines or OC (optical carrier) lines. In I know the standard in UK is E1 or E3 lines (similar speeds, just the signaling is a bit different)

For a realistic estimate you really need to do a study on your bandwidth usage. A fractional T/E-3 would probably be best solution. However you would be busting your current 25k a year cost quite easily using that route. Most commercial lines (At least in the USA) are quite expensive when you consider the residential alternatives.

(All of these figures are estimates based on my current area, and once again, USA standards, not EU, but I assume the costs would be similar)

We just did a T3 upgrade recently, from a fractional (running 14mbps) to a full 45mbps. We are paying just over $14k a month for the full T3, plus we have a higher support package so we pay more for that as well.

I would just take a guess that you have quite a bit of traffic. First start would be to figure out how much bandwidth you really need and then build a solution on that. Also take a look at your current servers and see if there is a way to consolidate some of that to cut costs. Anyway, shoot me an email or hit me on irc (BadHAL) if you want more advise.

PS: I am NOT a salesman and don’t sell services or products :P
Conor

You’d be probably better off getting a rack in a data centre and hosting servers from there.
Conor

You’d be probably better off getting a rack in a data centre and hosting servers from there.
DEADBEEF

It’ll be much cheaper to go the co-location route and put your own servers in a rented rack.
DEADBEEF

It’ll be much cheaper to go the co-location route and put your own servers in a rented rack.
http://vladh.net/ vladh

What DEADBEEF said. (#18)
Cheaper but less convenient…
http://vladh.net vladh

What DEADBEEF said. (#18)
Cheaper but less convenient…
Bad HAL 9000

Yea, if you really need the power of 8 servers, the best /cheapest route would probably be to purchase a bladeserver chassis and send that to a colocation facility.
Bad HAL 9000

Yea, if you really need the power of 8 servers, the best /cheapest route would probably be to purchase a bladeserver chassis and send that to a colocation facility.
Jonnerz

@9 It’s all about the upload speed, I doubt you have 100mbps upload.
Jonnerz

@9 It’s all about the upload speed, I doubt you have 100mbps upload.
http://AntiD2.com/ TJ

if your talking about servers for the websites you run fp/gmod.org ect. why go with owned servers? i know its alot of information or databases to be stored but some of my friends and lots of people to Unlimited bandwidth and space, i knows its not unlimited but its abundant amount of space and bandwidth if you have any questions contact me Admin@antid2.com or msn iv dealt with servers for a couple years now game servers/web server/ vps’s ect. so just ask, im also a web designer and i used to run my own web hosting/game server hosting company so i got some experience to help you with i guess.
http://AntiD2.com TJ

if your talking about servers for the websites you run fp/gmod.org ect. why go with owned servers? i know its alot of information or databases to be stored but some of my friends and lots of people to Unlimited bandwidth and space, i knows its not unlimited but its abundant amount of space and bandwidth if you have any questions contact me Admin@antid2.com or msn iv dealt with servers for a couple years now game servers/web server/ vps’s ect. so just ask, im also a web designer and i used to run my own web hosting/game server hosting company so i got some experience to help you with i guess.
Smurfy

gary doesnt even know how to internet? then how can he gmod?
Smurfy

gary doesnt even know how to internet? then how can he gmod?
Hivemind

It would probably take up huge amounts of time and money. Think about it, these server owners have multiple skilled people working 24 hours a day to fix the inevitable bugs and errors that crop up all the time.

Not to mention the cost of powering and upgrading the servers, which you get for free at the moment. Not to mention the salaries of extra skilled staff to keep them running.
Hivemind

It would probably take up huge amounts of time and money. Think about it, these server owners have multiple skilled people working 24 hours a day to fix the inevitable bugs and errors that crop up all the time.

Not to mention the cost of powering and upgrading the servers, which you get for free at the moment. Not to mention the salaries of extra skilled staff to keep them running.
http://www.zombiesurvivalists.co.uk/ Kris

Hello Garry, I’ve never commented on any of your articles before, but I’ve played Garry’s mod since Gmod 5. I’d like to offer my help in this area, well, not particularly MY help, but I’ve got plenty of contacts readily available to help you out with these questions, and you’d get a reply almost instantly.

My E-mail address is attatched to this comment, so if/when you reply, please inform me if you’d like me to put you in touch with my contacts.

Thanks,

Kris
http://www.zombiesurvivalists.co.uk Kris

Hello Garry, I’ve never commented on any of your articles before, but I’ve played Garry’s mod since Gmod 5. I’d like to offer my help in this area, well, not particularly MY help, but I’ve got plenty of contacts readily available to help you out with these questions, and you’d get a reply almost instantly.

My E-mail address is attatched to this comment, so if/when you reply, please inform me if you’d like me to put you in touch with my contacts.

Thanks,

Kris
aspi

I’m also agreeing with deadbeef.
100mbit would be barely enough to cope with peak times, would be VERY vulnerable to DDOS, no redundancy. You’re way better off renting servers from a company like OVH or similar(not sure which UK based ones are like them)
They usually provide energy efficient housing, good cooling, very redundant backup space, and security.
depending which hoster/housing you choose, you even get support when setting up your server/infrastructure (OVH are awesome at that)

Could someone talk about uk based offers? I dont want to look like a OVH fanboy :)
aspi

I’m also agreeing with deadbeef.
100mbit would be barely enough to cope with peak times, would be VERY vulnerable to DDOS, no redundancy. You’re way better off renting servers from a company like OVH or similar(not sure which UK based ones are like them)
They usually provide energy efficient housing, good cooling, very redundant backup space, and security.
depending which hoster/housing you choose, you even get support when setting up your server/infrastructure (OVH are awesome at that)

Could someone talk about uk based offers? I dont want to look like a OVH fanboy :)
aspi

In case you want to know OVH prices, check the “unmetered” ones for constant bandwidth.
example:
Intel Bi Xeon Quad
8x 2.33+ GHz
12 MB L2 – FSB 1333 MHz
16 GB FBDIMM DDR2
Hard disk 2x 1000 GB
Disk type SAS – RAID 1/10 HARD
Bandwidth: 1Gbps(per server, if you order another one you dont get limited)
£1198 pm
http://www.ovh.co.uk/products/hg_2009_bestof.xml
aspi

In case you want to know OVH prices, check the “unmetered” ones for constant bandwidth.
example:
Intel Bi Xeon Quad
8x 2.33+ GHz
12 MB L2 – FSB 1333 MHz
16 GB FBDIMM DDR2
Hard disk 2x 1000 GB
Disk type SAS – RAID 1/10 HARD
Bandwidth: 1Gbps(per server, if you order another one you dont get limited)
£1198 pm
http://www.ovh.co.uk/products/hg_2009_bestof.xml
stgn

@21 don’t even bother replying to him, he’s a fucking idiot
stgn

@21 don’t even bother replying to him, he’s a fucking idiot
Andrew

I think you should be careful about hosting servers in your office.

You then turn in to sysadmins; you will need to ensure your servers are backed up, running the latest patches, have suitable UPS, cooling, not to mention the power bill, etc.

That does sound like a very hefty price for only 8 servers.

Have you considered finding a reputable dedicated server facility, buying a few servers, and letting them handle power/backup etc for you?

As for cost of bandwidth there are usually two scenarios you can go with: Buy bandwidth pre-purchased (several hundred $$$) and pay extra when you go over your allowance, *or*, buy bandwidth in Mbps increments for a flat (hefty) fee, but its unlimited.

I personally would be looking in to just going with one of the big server providers (try the Web Hosting Talk forums) to handle all of the messy details for you and give you a better price.
Andrew

I think you should be careful about hosting servers in your office.

You then turn in to sysadmins; you will need to ensure your servers are backed up, running the latest patches, have suitable UPS, cooling, not to mention the power bill, etc.

That does sound like a very hefty price for only 8 servers.

Have you considered finding a reputable dedicated server facility, buying a few servers, and letting them handle power/backup etc for you?

As for cost of bandwidth there are usually two scenarios you can go with: Buy bandwidth pre-purchased (several hundred $$$) and pay extra when you go over your allowance, *or*, buy bandwidth in Mbps increments for a flat (hefty) fee, but its unlimited.

I personally would be looking in to just going with one of the big server providers (try the Web Hosting Talk forums) to handle all of the messy details for you and give you a better price.
Lulzworthy

Not a bad idea. Do it. I’m thinking if Facepunch gets bigger this could be a good investment.
Lulzworthy

Not a bad idea. Do it. I’m thinking if Facepunch gets bigger this could be a good investment.
http://www.killersservers.co.uk/ Killers2

It would take up a lot of time and you would need to invest in large ammounts of expensive hardware to run the servers well. Also you would need to buy a rack for server.. unless you planned to leave them on the desk… (don’t leave them on the desk)

You would need a very good router, most likely a extrerly good switch and invest money on generators and a large UPS.

You would also need to make sure that the place was extemerly secure.. think about how many idiots you might get trying to smash up the Facepunch servers.

I would say it is a bad idea unless you are willing to invest a LOT of money. Also 100Mbps at least and you would have to pay for the bandwidth I would expect.
http://www.killersservers.co.uk Killers2

It would take up a lot of time and you would need to invest in large ammounts of expensive hardware to run the servers well. Also you would need to buy a rack for server.. unless you planned to leave them on the desk… (don’t leave them on the desk)

You would need a very good router, most likely a extrerly good switch and invest money on generators and a large UPS.

You would also need to make sure that the place was extemerly secure.. think about how many idiots you might get trying to smash up the Facepunch servers.

I would say it is a bad idea unless you are willing to invest a LOT of money. Also 100Mbps at least and you would have to pay for the bandwidth I would expect.
Dudermomo

Cheaper in the long run, but you’ll have to worry about hardware problems among much other worries. When I interned at Qualcomm we had people whose job it was to worry about the hardware of our servers but the programmers still worked with the Soft side of the servers. Plus Servers are Really expensive.
Dudermomo

Cheaper in the long run, but you’ll have to worry about hardware problems among much other worries. When I interned at Qualcomm we had people whose job it was to worry about the hardware of our servers but the programmers still worked with the Soft side of the servers. Plus Servers are Really expensive.
adamscybot

Yes your crazy.

I run a game server providor – why the hell is it costing you £25,000 to host?! Are you renting the server os co-locating?

If you buy 8 servers – get em from dell or IBM or someone. You can co-locate them for about £50-£60 each per month. Thats a yearly spend of £4800 nevermind £25,000.
adamscybot

Yes your crazy.

I run a game server providor – why the hell is it costing you £25,000 to host?! Are you renting the server os co-locating?

If you buy 8 servers – get em from dell or IBM or someone. You can co-locate them for about £50-£60 each per month. Thats a yearly spend of £4800 nevermind £25,000.
adamscybot

Oh, and for that amount you should buy your own quarter rack in a datacenter. That turns out at about £400 per month. You would have to buy extra power though and bandiwtch. I reckon per year youd have about £10000.
adamscybot

Oh, and for that amount you should buy your own quarter rack in a datacenter. That turns out at about £400 per month. You would have to buy extra power though and bandiwtch. I reckon per year youd have about £10000.
pipodebeuker

This is not a bad idea, garry.

Keep in mind that dedicated (fiber optic) lines such as an e3 of 34 mbps can cost you around 3 to 400 euro’s a month (at least here in holland)

See if you can rent a so called “dark fiber” from your office building to your telecom provider. Mostly the line itself is still pricy, but you are in charge of the equipment on both ends, which can save you shitloads of cash !
pipodebeuker

This is not a bad idea, garry.

Keep in mind that dedicated (fiber optic) lines such as an e3 of 34 mbps can cost you around 3 to 400 euro’s a month (at least here in holland)

See if you can rent a so called “dark fiber” from your office building to your telecom provider. Mostly the line itself is still pricy, but you are in charge of the equipment on both ends, which can save you shitloads of cash !
iChris

I know that ntl:Telewest provide leased lines within the UK. It might be worth asking for a quote off them for a price of a leased line. They offer dedicated lines up to 1Gb.

http://www.ntltelewestbusiness.co.uk/products__solutions/broadband__internet_services/managed_internet_access.aspx
iChris

I know that ntl:Telewest provide leased lines within the UK. It might be worth asking for a quote off them for a price of a leased line. They offer dedicated lines up to 1Gb.

http://www.ntltelewestbusiness.co.uk/products__solutions/broadband__internet_services/managed_internet_access.aspx
CoolMe

Contact BT and see what their business options are, if your going to do it all yourself, it might be worth selling hosting/webspace to help pay for line ect?
CoolMe

Contact BT and see what their business options are, if your going to do it all yourself, it might be worth selling hosting/webspace to help pay for line ect?
CFF

At $50,000/year you better get another game out, or hope gmod keeps selling =). That’s like yearly income where I live.
CFF

At $50,000/year you better get another game out, or hope gmod keeps selling =). That’s like yearly income where I live.
CFF

or $36,000 never mind. still alot
CFF

or $36,000 never mind. still alot
Blake

It would be expensive. You’re not crazy, but it probably won’t be any cheaper. It’ll probably be more, especially the initial cost. You’ll want a 100mbps line. You usually buy stuff like that unmetered.
Blake

It would be expensive. You’re not crazy, but it probably won’t be any cheaper. It’ll probably be more, especially the initial cost. You’ll want a 100mbps line. You usually buy stuff like that unmetered.
Mophed17

I work for a web-design company, and we host our servers all on-site. The prices are going to be locally based, so I can’t really give good advice in that area. However… we’ve had huge problems with certain cable companies (*cough* Comcast *cough*) and their reliability. We have a T1 line at the office and it goes out as frequently as every day. So stability is your main concern with a leased line.

A user above mentioned upgrading the hardware every year, but that’s a little crazy… it will need to be replaced every once in a while, but upgrading every year isn’t something a for-profit data center would do. Maybe every 2 years or so.
Mophed17

I work for a web-design company, and we host our servers all on-site. The prices are going to be locally based, so I can’t really give good advice in that area. However… we’ve had huge problems with certain cable companies (*cough* Comcast *cough*) and their reliability. We have a T1 line at the office and it goes out as frequently as every day. So stability is your main concern with a leased line.

A user above mentioned upgrading the hardware every year, but that’s a little crazy… it will need to be replaced every once in a while, but upgrading every year isn’t something a for-profit data center would do. Maybe every 2 years or so.
http://www.garry.tv/ garry

GMod is averaging about £35,000 a month
Garry Newman

GMod is averaging about £35,000 a month
http://justextreme.blogspot.com/ JustExtreme

Garry, which other websites do you run besides facepunch, garry.tv and garrysmod.com?
http://justextreme.blogspot.com/ JustExtreme

Holy shit, that’s a nice profit :)
http://justextreme.blogspot.com JustExtreme

Garry, which other websites do you run besides facepunch, garry.tv and garrysmod.com?
http://justextreme.blogspot.com JustExtreme

Holy shit, that’s a nice profit :)
Garrett

Cloud computing
Garrett

Cloud computing
Warman

35,000 a month?!!!
Holy shit man!
This could..
yeahh! This’ll be the beginning of a better Facepunch.
Garry Newman shall be known worldwide (atleast by awesome people that are gamers and stuff)
Woohoo! Go go garry!
Warman

35,000 a month?!!!
Holy shit man!
This could..
yeahh! This’ll be the beginning of a better Facepunch.
Garry Newman shall be known worldwide (atleast by awesome people that are gamers and stuff)
Woohoo! Go go garry!
http://www.cafegaming.fr/ Max of S2D

It’ll be cheaper, but you’ll face a lot of issues:

- Bandwidth
- Power (outages…)
- Server support (DIY)
- etc.

It’s working fine right now, why change it?
http://www.cafegaming.fr Max of S2D

It’ll be cheaper, but you’ll face a lot of issues:

- Bandwidth
- Power (outages…)
- Server support (DIY)
- etc.

It’s working fine right now, why change it?
deadollie

On one hand there is the “if it ‘aint broke, dont fix it” argument. But i can see how now that you’ve become a ‘real’ company you want to start changing things around and taking things into your own hands. Power outages shouldn’t be too much of a worry, if you invest in an Uninterrupted power supply that should do it, the office bulding you move into may already have these facilities.

This isn’t a crazy idea in the slightest, i think it’ll help facepunch grow and move forward, which now you’ve become an LTD (?) is something you should be doing.

If you want to employ me, you should, i know stuff and i make a darn good cup of tea.
deadollie

On one hand there is the “if it ‘aint broke, dont fix it” argument. But i can see how now that you’ve become a ‘real’ company you want to start changing things around and taking things into your own hands. Power outages shouldn’t be too much of a worry, if you invest in an Uninterrupted power supply that should do it, the office bulding you move into may already have these facilities.

This isn’t a crazy idea in the slightest, i think it’ll help facepunch grow and move forward, which now you’ve become an LTD (?) is something you should be doing.

If you want to employ me, you should, i know stuff and i make a darn good cup of tea.
Lynxifer

I realise that you’ve already decided that asking the Internet for advise on this may not be the best of ideas, but regardless this one is probably one of the better ones to get posted;

Hire someone.

Go out and advertise for this, and hire someone who’s got experience concerning this, and let them do all the grunt work. Even if you just have them consulting full time for a month or two to get it all setup, then have some kind of support contract with them for when bad things happen, it’s never a good idea to manage something like that if you don’t know all the ins and outs of the procedures, and any money you’d save in doing it yourself you’d instantly lose when problems arise.
Lynxifer

I realise that you’ve already decided that asking the Internet for advise on this may not be the best of ideas, but regardless this one is probably one of the better ones to get posted;

Hire someone.

Go out and advertise for this, and hire someone who’s got experience concerning this, and let them do all the grunt work. Even if you just have them consulting full time for a month or two to get it all setup, then have some kind of support contract with them for when bad things happen, it’s never a good idea to manage something like that if you don’t know all the ins and outs of the procedures, and any money you’d save in doing it yourself you’d instantly lose when problems arise.
ijyt

I was shocked at the £25k a year cost, but then more so at the £35k a month earnings. Though I’m not 100% clued up on running servers, common sense would suggest running it yourself would cause many more issues and raise costs.
ijyt

I was shocked at the £25k a year cost, but then more so at the £35k a month earnings. Though I’m not 100% clued up on running servers, common sense would suggest running it yourself would cause many more issues and raise costs.
Craig Messer

Hi, I run a webhosting business and offer colocation and dedicated servers in wolverhampton! :)

if you’re interested, drop me an email.

cheers
Craig Messer

Hi, I run a webhosting business and offer colocation and dedicated servers in wolverhampton! :)

if you’re interested, drop me an email.

cheers
Craig Messer

We can also provide rackspace (Quarter, Half or even full racks)

The datacenter is located in the heart of wolverhampton! :) as i say drop me an email and ill be sure to get you a quote! :)
Craig Messer

We can also provide rackspace (Quarter, Half or even full racks)

The datacenter is located in the heart of wolverhampton! :) as i say drop me an email and ill be sure to get you a quote! :)
SamuelH

Garrysmod.org is slow as hell at some times, we definately need a much faster speed on there, it’s like trying to win a race in a smart-car.
SamuelH

Garrysmod.org is slow as hell at some times, we definately need a much faster speed on there, it’s like trying to win a race in a smart-car.
http://aranw.net/ Aran

What I think you want to do is Co-location, then get a office…

Does Walsall have a media centre where business related to the media industry? They provide cheap officers, phone lines, internet connections, conference rooms the works for small growing businesses…

With a decent internet connection and servers being hosted somewhere close on co-location you should have no major problems…

Maybe even look into Virtual Machines as well… Like buy 2 or 3 high end servers and then run 2-3 servers on them each…
http://aranw.net/ Aran

What I think you want to do is Co-location, then get a office…

Does Walsall have a media centre where business related to the media industry? They provide cheap officers, phone lines, internet connections, conference rooms the works for small growing businesses…

With a decent internet connection and servers being hosted somewhere close on co-location you should have no major problems…

Maybe even look into Virtual Machines as well… Like buy 2 or 3 high end servers and then run 2-3 servers on them each…
Chris

If you fly me out there i`ll work for $1 an hour xD
http://FP? Chris

If you fly me out there i`ll work for $1 an hour xD
The Pro

1. Is this a crazy idea?
No.

2. How much do leased lines cost? I’m guessing you have to pay for a certain speed.. so
It depends, in a modern office building it should be cheaper then an older office building as the lines are already there.

3. What kind of speed would we need? 10mbps? 100mbps? Price?
Look at the average total of you are using when most users are on (daytime in multiple timezones), get enough extra to handle spikes.

I’d expect that FP uses around 500Mbps-1Gbps most of the time (I’d like to hear what it actually uses, get checking)

4. When you have a leased line do you have to pay for bandwidth too – or is it unlimited?
You can go either way, I’d go for unlimited because then you don’t get fucked over when somebody decides to DDoS you or you decide to host something that is suddenly extremely popular.

It depends on how much you know about hardware, how much you want to deal with hardware and how much you like doing it, things should not be breaking if you have decent parts so after you get everything setup and working correctly it’s smooth sailing and you get to brag about it on the internet.

For a router/firewall you could/should go with a pfsense box instead of coughing up a cool 10K+ (multi-gigabit) for some overpriced cisco with fuck you in the ass licensing.

If you decide to do this you should defiantly get somebody local who knows what they are doing, from the questions it doesn’t appear that you know much about this sort of thing.

You also should see how much everything (bandwidth, parts, labor) will cost compared to the existing situation, i’m not sure how much internet costs over in harry potter land for what you would need, you also need to cover the costs of hardware upgrades/replacements.
I’d expect it to be much cheaper though.
The Pro

1. Is this a crazy idea?
No.

2. How much do leased lines cost? I’m guessing you have to pay for a certain speed.. so
It depends, in a modern office building it should be cheaper then an older office building as the lines are already there.

3. What kind of speed would we need? 10mbps? 100mbps? Price?
Look at the average total of you are using when most users are on (daytime in multiple timezones), get enough extra to handle spikes.

I’d expect that FP uses around 500Mbps-1Gbps most of the time (I’d like to hear what it actually uses, get checking)

4. When you have a leased line do you have to pay for bandwidth too – or is it unlimited?
You can go either way, I’d go for unlimited because then you don’t get fucked over when somebody decides to DDoS you or you decide to host something that is suddenly extremely popular.

It depends on how much you know about hardware, how much you want to deal with hardware and how much you like doing it, things should not be breaking if you have decent parts so after you get everything setup and working correctly it’s smooth sailing and you get to brag about it on the internet.

For a router/firewall you could/should go with a pfsense box instead of coughing up a cool 10K+ (multi-gigabit) for some overpriced cisco with fuck you in the ass licensing.

If you decide to do this you should defiantly get somebody local who knows what they are doing, from the questions it doesn’t appear that you know much about this sort of thing.

You also should see how much everything (bandwidth, parts, labor) will cost compared to the existing situation, i’m not sure how much internet costs over in harry potter land for what you would need, you also need to cover the costs of hardware upgrades/replacements.
I’d expect it to be much cheaper though.
Meeee

People that are recommending a T1/T3 line re in the USA, The EU doesn’t have T lines, they have E lines and are marginally slower. E1/E3.
Meeee

People that are recommending a T1/T3 line re in the USA, The EU doesn’t have T lines, they have E lines and are marginally slower. E1/E3.
Denzo

@29 I’m not an idiot, I actually have 100Mbit up and down. Since about a year or so.

Here’s my speedtest.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/372333304.png
Denzo

@29 I’m not an idiot, I actually have 100Mbit up and down. Since about a year or so.

Here’s my speedtest.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/372333304.png
Daman

@132

confirmed for complete idiot
Daman

@132

confirmed for complete idiot
KyleBaczynski

It takes quite a bit of cooling for even 8 servers, especially if they eat up a lot of power.

A leased line, I have no clue about costs in the UK. You lease by megabit. You are not limited to a certain number of GB throughput, unless the provider is weird. I have never seen a high tier provider limit on GB per month.

We lease two 1gbit lines, and just pay a fixed cost per month.
KyleBaczynski

It takes quite a bit of cooling for even 8 servers, especially if they eat up a lot of power.

A leased line, I have no clue about costs in the UK. You lease by megabit. You are not limited to a certain number of GB throughput, unless the provider is weird. I have never seen a high tier provider limit on GB per month.

We lease two 1gbit lines, and just pay a fixed cost per month.
Ryan

If you were to get fiberoptics run which in my opinon would be the best for what you are running, I’m guessing the cost would be about $700 to get the line even ran to the office. Then I’m guessing it would be about $300-$400 a month. For a server I would go with this 1.5TB HD space 2.0 GHz With a Intel® Celeron®.

Here is a link for it at best buy. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9184599&st=server&type=product&id=1218049410829

With the comcast buisness line you’ll be able to transfer 1 gigabit per second.

How big are you wanting the office to be? You can email me at Haxphaze@gmail.com I hope I helped you.
Ryan

If you were to get fiberoptics run which in my opinon would be the best for what you are running, I’m guessing the cost would be about $700 to get the line even ran to the office. Then I’m guessing it would be about $300-$400 a month. For a server I would go with this 1.5TB HD space 2.0 GHz With a Intel® Celeron®.

Here is a link for it at best buy. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9184599&st=server&type=product&id=1218049410829

With the comcast buisness line you’ll be able to transfer 1 gigabit per second.

How big are you wanting the office to be? You can email me at Haxphaze@gmail.com I hope I helped you.
Ryan

I forgot to talk about the water cooling, But I have no time I have to get back to school Here is a link for a nice Kit. http://www.xoxide.com/swiftech-apex-ultima-plus.html
Ryan

I forgot to talk about the water cooling, But I have no time I have to get back to school Here is a link for a nice Kit. http://www.xoxide.com/swiftech-apex-ultima-plus.html
http://daveoh.info/ Daveoh

If I were you I wouldn’t trust some random from the Internet, seeing as most answers can be very different and most people don’t live in the UK.
http://daveoh.info/ Daveoh

If I were you I wouldn’t trust some random from the Internet, seeing as most answers can be very different and most people don’t live in the UK.
leelad

One thing that no one has mentioned is security.

You’re gonna want some hefty hardware firewalls – not cheap.

More importantly is building security It’s OK protecting the servers themselves from the hordes of 12 year olds who have a personal vendetta and an internet connection but if the servers can be picked up and walked out with with it’s all in vain.

most hosted server farms are 24 manned and are housed in what ammounts to a nuclear bunker.
leelad

One thing that no one has mentioned is security.

You’re gonna want some hefty hardware firewalls – not cheap.

More importantly is building security It’s OK protecting the servers themselves from the hordes of 12 year olds who have a personal vendetta and an internet connection but if the servers can be picked up and walked out with with it’s all in vain.

most hosted server farms are 24 manned and are housed in what ammounts to a nuclear bunker.
Ryan

Leelad, I’m pretty sure they can make there own… They did make one of the most amazing games in the world. So server security should be covered, if not leelad is right.
Ryan

Leelad, I’m pretty sure they can make there own… They did make one of the most amazing games in the world. So server security should be covered, if not leelad is right.

Office space, leased lines and stuff.

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