Webhosting and Diginet service providers is Australia

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hi All

I was wondering if there are any of you forumites out there that are in the web hosting/web development business.

I am in IT, at the moment as a network administrator but deep down in my heart I am actually a web designer/developer. I was wondering what options there are for people who want to start a web hosting/design company.

1. What would the Australian equivalent be to Telkom's diginet lines?

2. Who is the registering authority for .com.au domains?

3. What is the average cost of having a website designed and hosted in Australia?

4. Are there any feasible alternatives to diginet with fixed IP offerings?

Any help on this would be appreciated! I have done some searching on Google but am completely dazed and confused as to what the different options are and who offers what.

[Nev]

Hi,

Cant answer all the questions but here is a start

Firstly the last mile to the units is not owned by a telkom type company, it is registered to a service provider and changed as required, the place we moved into was registered to Telstra and we went with OPTUS, they first had to re-register the line into our unit off telstra and into their name, then hook us up (took 7 working days from application to switched on)

There are a ton of service providers, Telstra is the biggest but they require credit history and your SA credit history means jack here, Optus was happy to deliver and install based on a phone application only so we went with them

I deal with a lot of different companies in my job so i can say with confidence that diginet is dead, long live ADSL (Or cable if it is available)

The quality of even home ADSL here is better than Diginet in SA, like ridiculously so

There are no line drops, latency is great and the connection is stable, you get the speed you paying for, ADSL is running the 2+ version so max speed is 30meg per second, my home line has been set to 12meg due to the distance from the exchange and i ALWAYS get 12meg/s

Cable runs at 100meg/s the problem is only telstra offers it and for them you need a credit record

(and you need your unit to have a cable connection)

The moral of the story is that all the businesses run off ADSL or Cable lines, once you have a line you set the router to keep alive, call up the SP and have them set up a static IP for you

If you are in IT, you are going to love Auz, welcome to the first world

Website design is really expensive as it has a labor component, for this reason most places that need something simple will just use a online tool to build something, it is the more complex sites that will pay for design, anything that has labor included in Auz is really expensive

Hosting is really cheap, because the lines are good and not expensive the infrastructure cost comes way down, end users in Auz pay about 20% less than dealer prices (in SA) for PC hardware, as long as you build it yourself, getting it already built has labor in which is expensive....

[Nev]

Pricing, ADSL 2+ line with 120gigs of data per month (approx what i paid)

$70 setup (once off)

$65 per month (About R600 per month)

[Biker]

For ADSL, I can highly recommend iiNet.

[MrsMupersan]

2. Who is the registering authority for .com.au domains?

I've recently registered a .com.au domain name and just received an email outlining policies etc from .au Domain Administration http://www.auda.org.au/

[MrsMupersan]

There are a ton of service providers, Telstra is the biggest but they require credit history and your SA credit history means jack here, Optus was happy to deliver and install based on a phone application only so we went with them

I'm really not sure where this comes from as we have never had to provide any credit history to Telstra. I was all prepared with a letter from FNB and also from our business accountant. They didn't ask for them though. Perhaps this was because you wanted to bundle it with a mobile phone contract? You'd definitely need a credit history for that. I remained on pre-paid mobile for a year or so before going onto contract, so I already had a history with them.

[Nev]

Nope, no mobile phone as i got one from work, I applied for a internet line and the application was rejected "Due to credit history" & I don't have any credit history in Auz

The application was done through one of these places that sets up all your energy accounts though, perhaps they messed something up

[MrsMupersan]

Yeah, sounds like they definitely messed up. I've never trusted those company's who promise to do everything on your behalf. It means I have no control over how the account is set up, what service provider I choose. I'd rather make the call myself with the SP, ask all my questions and know that I have a reference for the recorded call if there is any need to come back to it.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the info. I gather from this that ADSL in Australia is far more advanced than South Africa. The question is, is it stable enough to run web servers on?

[MrsMupersan]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the info. I gather from this that ADSL in Australia is far more advanced that South Africa. The question is, is it stable enough to run web servers on?

LOL! Yes, I would say that's a yes.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hey Mrs Mupersan be nice - I am use to having to have a 10MB diginet line from Telkom (which is not always that stable and costs a small fortune) to do things like hosting multiple web servers/DNS servers/mail servers. It is going to be a welcome change to the way of doing things.

[21yearsoutofrsa]

Metropolitan private homes will be served by adsl, or in the future NBN (fibre to the home (though who knows we're that is going, with the current political situation in Australia, possibly scaled back to fibre to the node)). Many small to medium sized business' will also use adsl but commercial centers will have access to Corporate type data services.

Have a look at the business and enterprise section of Telstra.com.au

You'll be amazed at the wireless speeds in Australia. The 4g service is max rated at 42 Mbps, I'm on 3G and regularly get 17 Mbps, it's max rating is 21 Mbps.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Thank you everyone for the feedback, at least I have a starting point to do some research now.

[Rover]

<p>

<br />

Hi Guys<br />

<br />

Thanks for the info. I gather from this that ADSL in Australia is far more advanced than South Africa. The question is, is it stable enough to run web servers on?<br />

<br />

<br />

</p>

For commercial purposes it would be a terribly bad idea. It would be fine if you're just a hobbiest.

ADSL is asynchronous, meaning traffic can only go in one direction at a time, which is ok for bursting. The speed also normally differs in each direction, with a heavy bias towards the side of the user. A typical 4mbit line only has 1024kbits in the direction of the web, which means your requests happens a lot slower than your response, but its better for you as user.

When you host on such a line, the clients downloading from that server has the opposite; 4096kbits request, but only 1024kbits download, meaning it will suck, especially with multiple concurrent requests, which would for all intents become synchronous due to the nature of ADSL.

If you want to start a hosting company, which is a totally flooded market, you are better of hiring a server of sorts, which has a full-duplex connection onto a backbone. I have a MS Hyper-V server we use for our familys email and a small web-site. It has a 100Mbyte/s connection and cost about R220 a month. Unlimited bandwidth.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hi Rover.

Thanks for the info. I realise that the ADSL is asynchronous, that's why I wanted to know what the equivalent of Diginet in Australia is. It's not so much that I want to start a hosting or ISP company, I am a web developer and was thinking of offering and all round service from, domain hosting and registration to web design/development and hosting. I have to do something when I get there and at this stage with me battling to get references from my previous employers and not having any formal qualifications it looks like I am going to have look for some unskilled labour (so to speak) until I can find or create work for myself. The only other alternative for me is to go back to the diving industry, and to continue my qualifications is going to cost a small fortune.

[Nev]

Rover is spot on, virtual server hosting should be the best bet, I had a quick look and as an indication of pricing you can get an unlimited data server for $2.20 per month (R20 ish) and register a domain through them at the same time for $12 per year for the .au and/or $6 for a .com

http://www.crazydomains.com.au

They are the budget bunch but this gives you an idea at least

Trying to do something yourself is probably the best bet, getting that first job into the market here is really tough

Just check before you look at the diving though as i think there is something about commercial certs for diving not being recognized here, friend of mine did commercial diving on the west coast in SA and said something along those lines

Where you guys headed, we have a bit of contact with web development guys between Melbourne and Adelaide so i could keep an ear to the ground?

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Hi Nev

Thanks for the info. I will definitely look at the options before jumping into anything. My current diving qualification is as a PADI Rescue Diver (recreational diving) and if I do end up looking at something in the diving industry I will continue my qualifications in Australia.

As for the place to settle story, we have not really started looking because we are not sure which state our agents (who are seriously dragging their feet) are going to apply for the sponsorship in. We are stressed about the deadline of 30 June 2012 because if we don't make it we may not be able to go at all, our ranking on the SkillsSelect program does not seem likely to be good. Thanks for the offer, when we find out what's going on and whether we will be able to go I will definitely let you know.

[Nev]

Cool stuff