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Hi,
starting this since ~ 9 years old with hardware stuff ( 2x86 with MFM controller and 20 MB 5.25" harddrive
), my father is an engineer and bought the PC.
Later starting with SuSE linux 6.2 or so.
Organizing LAN parties ( search in ancient scrolls what this was ) playing 0.X counterstrike beta's then quakenet instagib mod tournaments with pricings and overnights in townhalls with some friends while going to school and later was asked about online stuff too.
Doing IRC bouncers ( search in even more ancient scrolls what this is ) and (eggdrop) bots together with webspace and gameservers. And then the first virtualizations with the ctx patch... omg so long ago ;-;
And so on and so on... essentially going from computer gamer to hoster...
I guess i simply made my hobby my profession. The money just came with it.
And yes, its a never ending cycle of requirements resulting in hardware and software fighting
and in between some organization / tax / law stuff and management of/with coworkers and partners/suppliers/customers.
You have in general to decide between:
or
-having development/progress but having no/less time and less/no money
...or finding some way between of course...
@DediRock why did you start? to be able to hook it up?
Dunno where you at but i can be your e.u. hosting business proxy for just a little fee of 100k €/year xD
You come with cash i bring rest.
No summerhost .
Legit business only.
counter strike, hal-life, MuOnline
Great memories, something we spent hours playing with some friends who are no longer present today.
As long as we remember them, they are still here with us.
back in 1999 I was happy repairing and building computers and selling to people in my tiny office.
I then sold a pc to a customer, who happened to be a sex shop owner circa 2000.
he said his customers are ashamed of buying dildo's or inflatable sex dolls in person.
so I said let's build you a website with picture of all the sex toys in your shop, so that they can look for what to buy and order by calling the shop.( landline , remember? )
It started just like that, I was trying to scan all his catalogs of sex toys. Using a SCSI Flatbed scanner connected to a win98 pc !. Back then Internet was just starting to reach common ordinary people in my country. Bought a redhat 6 server from DialToneInternet ( anybody remember this company? )
before redhat, all I used was slackware for bitchx to use teardrop,ssping and land to disconnect all the idiot mirc win95 users from my favorite IRC server ( circa 1998?)
So there comes linux , there comes dedicated servers, there comes computer system room with home build computers as servers, there comes my RIPE Lir application, datacenter, rival companies DDOS ing the shit out of my small 10 Mbit network. Going bankrupt (several times) starting from zero over and over again.
I know nothing else.
I'm in it since I was in the high school.
I just love what I do. I had a small interview here: https://lowendbox.com/blog/mass-deployment-of-ip-addresses-and-virtual-servers-interview-with-shakib-from-hostcram-llc/
Can vouch for this^
Almost got cancelled a few times. No longer a problem with @MannDude
(No, I'm not just talking about Charitygate
)
This is the first time i see something interesting to read on LET. Ofc by not trashing the thread
This is pretty much it. My friends and I were messing around with Linux during summer break in 2001 and it basically went from there. It's been working to tinker and understand new tech over the years. As a host owner, you basically have to understand everything from server software to networking to billing and try to manage it all. It is fun and frustrating all in one, but trying to learn something new every day.
Nice reading here — happy to see that most of us started this out of passion, tinkering with LAN setups in our teenage years.
For me, it was no different. It started around 1996 with BNC networks, then gradually progressed through hubs and finally into more modern switch/router/IP stack environments.
I also started with MFM and IDE drives, back when a 1.44MB floppy disk could hold 1–2 games 😄
I loved iSCSI, LVDS connectors, and the fact that you could stack 12+ drives on a controller and do RAID 10 — that gave you serious performance back then.
When I started playing with this stuff, everything was hardware “accelerated” — probably why I still prefer using local RAID and dedicated appliances for each type of task 😄
Damn... reading all this back in 2025 makes me feel kinda old-ish 😄😄
I dreamed of starting a hosting company when RDS/DIGI rolled out fiber in Romania, but the costs back then were way beyond what I could afford, loan, or even ask for — so I ended up going into the corporate world.
If anyone wants to start something today, I think they should find something they enjoy, research if it’s marketable, and go for it. How much to risk — that’s a personal decision.
Problems, obstacles, and issues are a daily reality, so be prepared: things will break. Most of us didn’t have contingency plans or checklists in the beginning — just passion. Those things come with time as you climb the learning curve.
I welcome anyone wishing to enter this space — competition drives progress, and in the end, the customer wins by this, either by quality or price, tho I would go for the first.
I don’t have a magic formula, but if I could add one thing: if you fail or fall, fall forward. Get up, fix it, and move on.
Cheers!
Snaju Inc ?
went to school for finance, started to work in the finance world and just was not for me. Tech to me is much more fun.
Thank you to all the participants so far. All of this is very nice. I hope that by getting to know more about you and how you became involved in hosting, future customers will be convinced to choose you.
I haven't owned a shared host for ages, but I did it because I wanted to do it myself and challenge myself to be a good and better web host.
I helped Paul from DialAHost and Dan from Host-Mania, when I was 13+. I think I did my first webhost in 2011, under the name BangHosts. I renamed that when I found out most people thought it was for adult hosting in 2012 changed it to CubicWebs.
I closed it because there's too many webhosts, which is a good thing for consumers but not for competition
I can’t remember that, but I can remember that I took too much Amfexa, topped it off with some Xannies, and then some Nitrazepam along with an Iranian Oxy shortly beforehand.
But, no sleep to be had.
Darn it.
I actually do remember why I started. I just dislike bullies and people telling others what to do. Courts exist. Settle it in court.
So, if I can, I will stand in front of yoi and make sure you stay online no matter what, but also get that family-like treatment.
Not the one most of us are used to, LMAO.
Proper… Italian-like family, where you are going to be taken care of and given whatever you need and nice Wine. You will be provided goodies.
So pretty much that, to be honest… probably has nothing to do with the fact I was kicked out of every school I ever went to?
At least I never had the Anarchist’s Cookbook. 😂