Image hosting website?

[PizzaBoy]

Could an image hosting website like Imageshack be hosted with eUKhost? A friend and I were thinking about starting an image hosting site. Could you recommend us a dedicated server we could start with? Preferably a Windows dedicated server with lots of bandwidth...

[Ben Stones]

Yes image hosting websites are fine as far as I'm aware. Though you will need to make sure the images hosted are in compliant with laws in the UK and eUKhost's Terms of Service.

If you think your site will become popular quickly, a dedicated server may be the best option, otherwise I'd consider a cheaper virtual private server (VPS) which is a virtual dedicated server - virtual private servers are available in Windows and Linux packages, which can be found at the eUKhost website.

I would of thought a shared hosting package would be fine if it wasn't incredibly popular, but thinking about it, it may be best to have a VPS in case it becomes popular and saves headaches if eUKhost ask you to consider upgrading to a VPS or dedicated server.

A cheaper alternative to a dedicated server by the way is a semi-dedicated server.

Unless you and your friend know how to set up the prerequisites for a VPS/dedicated server in regards to security, etc., I would recommend you get eUKhost to properly configure your dedicated server/VPS/semi-dedicated server, whatever you choose to go for. You can contact the sales dept. for information about it.

Hope this helps.

By the way, I'm not a staff member at eUKhost - though I'm a moderator on the forum.

[cranzi]

Set out what you plan to do with this project just like any other business plan. I know someone that tried this with the thought "This will be simple". It ended up being too much, the site was taken down and tons of people complained over it.

[Noel]

Check out Cloud based storage solutions like Amazon S3 which is extremely scaleable and very reasonably priced. And you just pay for what you use which is about 10p per GB per Month for storage and another 10p per GB of data transferred in or out.

You can run your database and web site logic on a fairly modest hosting plan and store your files in the cloud. If you work through Amazon Cloud Front you can even use your own domain name to access the files.

If your volumes are huge then it is probably cheaper to run your own server. But using cloud computing gives far more reliability and allows people to get to the files if they know the resource URL, even if your web site is down.

[Ryan]

Hi There,

Unfortunately we do not allow Image Hosting websites on our servers mainly due to blatant abuse by users and violations involved with copyrighted, illegally obtained and objectionable images uploaded.

If you are starting such a websites, I would suggest you to have a TOS on your website and lay some guidelines with regards to uploads that explain everything. Maybe something that specifies that you reserve the right to remove any such image that violates your terms of service.

[BritishFlag]

Most image hosting websites that I use have a Terms of Service section in which they mention the type of content they do not allow (copyrighted images, adult-oriented images etc.). Needless to say, the right to remove any image for whatever reason should be stated in the FAQ section.

[TiffanyWebb]

Hi There,

Unfortunately we do not allow Image Hosting websites on our servers mainly due to blatant abuse by users and violations involved with copyrighted, illegally obtained and objectionable images uploaded.

If you are starting such a websites, I would suggest you to have a TOS on your website and lay some guidelines with regards to uploads that explain everything. Maybe something that specifies that you reserve the right to remove any such image that violates your terms of service.

Will image hosting be allowed if a proper TOS is provided?

[MattBarthorp]

I don't think if any of the hosts would have any problem if their TOS are followed. You should surely proceed with ordering a package with them.

IMP. NOTE : Make sure that you at no time violate the terms of service, if someone launches a complaint against the images uploaded on your website, with them, you'd either be asked to remove the particular file or the account would get suspended.