I've seen a lot of this recently - people getting hosts by friends with dedicated servers. This results in great support, you know the people there, you tend to get very fast speeds due to only 20 sites or less on a server and you get a very cheap price.

What do you all think about this?

Unless the person is extremely good with the Server OS that they have, I don't like it. Most of the time it causes a greater hassel. Hosting really should be left to people that know what they are doing.

I agree 100%. If you don't know what you are doing, then don't try it..

Yeah its just said, people think they can just buy a server, domain, and some billing software and bang! .................................................. .............................

We have another over night hosting company!

It's a bit emblematic of how consumers view this industry, though.

They know that it deals with computers. They know that it's a bit too complex for them to do themselves. They know that there are lots of hosting companies out there...

...but they don't trust or outright mistrust most of us. And with all the fly-by-nights that there have been, plus the recent memory of the whole dot-com situation, it's not easy to blame them outright.

A lot of my first clients commented to me that, if they hadn't known me, they wouldn't have gotten web hosting from anyone. They were on the various freeservers, or, in one case, were prepared to trust Yahoo only because they were such a pervasively-known name (and this client in particular had to have a web presence). They're all very glad that they knew me.

It's very, very much a matter of who you know and how your customers recommend you to family, friends, and co-workers. That may ameliorate some if or as the industry is able to find a good way to police its own (because looking at the searing ignorance of the politicians in America and Canada, they won't be able to do it with their current knowledge levels. They couldn't find their sockets with tracert and a T-1. Heck, they approved CAN-SPAM, an utter limp noodle of a law.)

Yeah I agree, you need to know what you are doing to avoid problems

Assuming the person is good, you can have good results. I have seen this situation recently and they have done incredibly well, including fighting off a terrible DDos attack from them and their customers/friends/users, so it can work/

It depends on the situation... it's like asking "What do you think about getting a lift from a friend instead of getting my own license? I know the person, and he won't charge me much at all." - It's all fine if that person has a license and can drive, but if he can't... well then you'll have problems.

I don't see a problem, as long as they know what they're doing - if they don't, then there is a problem, like the driving example.


Exactly - It's all fine and all if you can actually manage your own server, and if you're able to handle it, however if you don't know a clue... best to leave it alone.

Although - it wouldn't be as bad if you actually say went to a fully managed dedicated server provider. However, I'm not talking about a semi-managed placed like ServerMatrix/ThePlanet, I'm talking about a completely managed company like RackSpace or ServInt. If you went with a company like this, then there wouldn't be a problem.