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question for Webdude re rackshack

ln

New Member
Originally posted by Webdude
Pentium 4 1.7 GHz, 1GB ram, with 120GB HD
http://www.rackshack.net/p4specs.asp

Anyone wanna bet whether I am right or wrong? :D
Those servers are ready to go. After you order, you recieve your info via email for the one you just ordered, and you can log in right away.

...and no I havent ordered one. I cant stand Headsurfer and wouldnt put a server on his system if it was the last one on the planet. I seriously despise the guy. I wont lie about why either, it's because he is doing so damned well and has been so successful. At least I can admit that... Not that I am not doing well. It's that he found the same niche I had, but he acted on it and I didnt. Now I sit around thinking about it and wondering if my foot can reach my ass.

Hey Webdude can you elaborate ? What is exactly the business model of Headsurfer ? Why is it that you can't compete with him doing exactly the same thing ? Is this niche so small that there won't be enough room for another player ?
 
i think the biggest problem is the start up costs. to compete with rackshack u wouldnt be able to afford to eat for a very long time. you would have the start up of servers, datacenter and everything involoved with them and bandwidth providers and electricity which is a huge start up venture and you would have to charge more than them to get off the ground and wouldnt b able to price competitively. Rackshack is already established and they have a following already set. so if u were to start up and try to compete u would have to charge more till after you got established and couldnt compet with what they offer 2 well unless u planned to loose money.
 
If I had a minimum of $100,000 but preferably $300,000 then I could do it. I could at least start it and grow from there. There is plenty of room in that niche, but you have to have the money to do it.

There are several other ideas I had as an offshoot that would be even bigger. Headsurfer has not and probably will not see that additional niche, and I will not tell. If I cant do it, I am not going to help anyone else do it by providing the idea. I would have done the same as Headsurfer is doing now, but the money derived from that venture would merely have been to fund the much bigger plan. I never went after venture funding, which was my mistake. I thought I had another way to come up with the money and it didnt work.
 
Here's a good what if question... If Cogent goes under or is forced to drastically increase pricing what do you think will happen to Cogent users? Will they all have to raise their prices? Will the customers stay?

Note that they use other providers as well but a good amount of bandwidth is through Cogent: http://www.rackshack.net/aboutus/networks.asp

It's a good question that really only RackShack knows. I think it becomes a question on if they have enough customers using the server without pushing much bandwidth. Like WebDude said it would take significant amounts of money as they no doubt receive large discounts for bulk purchases.
 
Todd,

I think your question has been answered many times on WHT and the RS forums as well. Before RS had Cogent, they were fine with giving away 300 GB per month. Im sure they will be fine after as well. The reason they can afford to basically give away the bandwidth is because of EV1. The dial up accounts use one side of the bandwidth, which is what they pay for, and the servers use the other side, which they don't have to pay a penny for. So, as long as they can keep a good dial up to dedicated server ratio ( I don't think they are having a problem in that dep. ) then they are solid.

I wouldn't be surprised if cogent either 1. Droped of the face of the earth in about 16 - 18 months or 2. Got bought up, and had to raise there price to become profitable. But I really don't think either case is going to change a thing @ RS.
 
Yes EV1 has dialups, but that client base is dwindling. I know the commercial. They look like they had a good time making it. Neat song too. "Catch a new wave, it's Everyone's Internet!"

I know that dialup base is dwindling due to the cable and dsl's coming available everywhere. I know they are in Houston, and there's not many areas here where you can't get one or the other anymore. So why have dialup? I'd like to think they could keep doing so because it would force other bandwidth providers down on their outrageous prices. It's a hopeful outlook that companies like RS can do such a thing. There needs to be more RS's out there to make Cogent popular enough that it worries the other guys. Bandwidth is bandwidth. Although UUNET tries to make everyone think they are better, you are actually doing nothing more than paying for a namebrand.
 
Originally posted by LindaG
Yes EV1 has dialups, but that client base is dwindling. ... I know that dialup base is dwindling due to the cable and dsl's coming available everywhere. So why have dialup?
Although DSL and cable are reaching more and more people, I'm not sure that the client base for dialup is dwindling (at least I don't personally have that type of information). Are there any statistics you can provide?

I used to be a dialup user, now DSL user, but I'd imagine that even though I switched, at the exact second I became a non-dialup user, 100 people bought a computer and became candidates for dialup.

I also know many people who do not use the internet in the way I do, and they do not want to pay $50/mo. for high speed access.

As I said, i don't have any figures to indicate dialup dying or not dying. I'm just using common sense to determine that there still is a need for it now, and for some time.

Edit: 'Some reel bad grammer'
 
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Cable/DSL is great.

But simple users don't need it. Can't understand it and don't want to spend the money.

Dial up is still the most popular means of connecting to the Internet.
 
DailUp is still the most popular means of connecting to the net in the UK. Cable & ADSL is far too expensive here.
 
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