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THanks for the input guys. I appreciate it, very informative.

Imoapie as far as how well business is going it has ups and downs, just like any other market. I spend alot of time researching potential houses as wells as the houses environment. Meaning, if other houses in the area are less than average, then fixing the house up, selling it, and making a profit can be hard. On average, after all expenses are paid (realtor and materials to make the house "liveable") we have made a profit. Me and my 2 friends stand to make a few thousand each for each sale. At this point in time, that is all I want. I can only get out of it what I put into it. Ultimately, the goal is to buy low and sell high.

Well back to the reading.

THanks,

Z

Find me a house around Toledo Ohio for that amount.

If you do dont hesitate to PM me!

lol

I was just looking at this eariler today: http://www.1and1.com

This is supposed to be a good webhosting service. It is fairly cheap too.

XP is fine. I'm using XP Home on mine. Linux is the best choice, but I have not learned it yet even though I have one or two copies of it somewhere. You won't really want Linux unless you are a true geek. Linux isn't easy; it requires commands and experience with a few other operating systems to really know how to use it.

Cox is here too, they do have 5 megabit connections, which is about 625 KB/s max download. Upload is slower @ 768 kbps or 96 KB/s. We thought about switching to that, but the lady said that $55 is the promotional discount for 3 months and then they charge $80 a month, me not like that...

You can call and ask about Cox's Business services. You can see what they have available for what you would want to spend a month (this would be if you were looking to spend $60-90 a month).

When overclocking the CPU, be cautious. Only up the voltage to the core if you really need to and also you may not want to exceed the RAM's bus speed which would cause system instability with many ram chips. A full copper heatsink is necessary for overclocking as well as a fan that moves lots of air. Good case cooling is a must whether or not you overclock (for a server at least).

Check into Windows 2000 Server Family. Thats what it is made for.

I am doing this is Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. I live in NE and those other states are 2 out of 16 that I work on bankruptcy cases in. I live in NE so its not to bad. Was looking at a property in Chamberlin, SD last fall. Could of gotten a house cheap in a great location but couldnt setup the over-the-phone bidding in time. The IRS foreclosed and just wanted there $2000 in back taxes. I would of paid them, paid the attorney fees and would of had the house on 1 acre for $5500. It needed some work though. Maybe $10,000. But I can do most the work myself so I can save on remodeling costs.

Yea I am pretty much set on my idea for the computer, 2 ghz CPU, 1 gig ram, and might jump up to a bigger hd b/c they are so cheap. I can overclock the CPU im gonna get up to 2.6 Ghz. Not to bad.

I have cox cable internet. the commercial i saw said up to 5 megs/sec. not sure about that. I think that my cable connection would work. I will take a look at Frontpage.

Any ideas on the OS? I have been looking at linux for the past few days. Seems alittle complicated. I have been going through their website reading everything. Just not sure what version of linux I would need. Can XP Pro do the job?

thanks,

Z

EPZ great ideas you have. I actually want to get into the foreclosure buying and selling. I don't want to steal your thread but let me know how its going. Also what state are you doing this in?

As far as the server and things. William said it best. You need good processor, hard drive and ram. Sound and video forget about. Get the most basic as you really want to dedicate a separate computer as your server. For you website definitely use Frontpage. It is the easiest to use and can do more than you think. I have built pages in it and they come out good. The connection speed for the server is important too. I actually work at a computer place, we offer web hosting, web design etc etc., and my boss has 2 dedicated T1 lines for the service. 1 to run and 1 as back up. The costs of that can get hefty and it really depends on your traffic and your ideas.

Anyway, good luck and let us know how it goes.

You don't need a speedy computer to serve fast. The only thing that matters most is the connection; this is something that you want a syncronous upload/download (same speed) of the fastest you can afford.

As for server software, there are a few programs out there that are completely free. You can even use a free operating system! (Linux) The server software I use is Sambar v6.0 it's completely free and works flawlessly. For my pages, I don't even use Frontpage or Dreamweaver, I am slightly lazy and use MS Word 2000; the only thing I do is go back over the pages I create in it and remove all of the crap word puts in (done in a text editor).

You can visit my site and test out the speed which is really only limited by my connection which is 48/380 KB/s upload/download. This is really what most people wouldn't use for a server, but I don't expect a lot of visitors. If you have a dynamic Ip address, then use this free service to redirect people: http://www.no-ip.com

For anybody who browsed my site longer than 6 months ago, you would have been served from an Intel Celeron 550 MHz with 128 mb of ram.

You can see my current specs at: http://megahurts4.servebeer.com/recordinggear.htm

For the hard drive partitioning, you should definately do that. That is much more secure for your running computer. And ALWAYS!!! backup your website. I find it very easy to move it to another network computer (all the files and folders), but always keep everything on cd/dvd externally.

For a good server that will do just about anything:
2 Ghz processor
1 gig of ram
fast hard drive (low seek time and good transfer rate- 100 mb/s and up)
Case cooling (fans)
Decent power supply (don't cheap out, this thing runs 24/7, no need to spend more than $80)
Don't get good video or sound cards if you don't plan to use them

No offense taken Jszar. Im actually am very up to date with the computer hardware stuff. I just pieced together a pretty sweet tower for my little brother with stuff from newegg. Its great considering he had $300 to spend. A friend of mine is a programmer and gave me XP Pro and Office Pro 2003 with corporate keys for free.

Its website builder software is what I have no experience with or building a website. I would like to design a webisite myself and build a new tower dedicated for that specific webiste. Any suggestions on hardware?

I saw that Dreamwaver software. Looks pretty sweet, but could be complicated. Im just looking for some basic user-friendly software that some of you computer guys have used and liked.

I found some great tutorials on website building for beginners. Im confident that I can do it. Just gathering some info thats all.

As far as the plan. Basically, money is my motivator. I have been doing some research on home-based businesses for sometime now. Read a few books and some other online reading. There is alot of money to be made. Its just a hard market to break into and be successful. I see all those BS sites where you can make "$58,000 your first month!" I avoid those.

I started to look into Affiliate programs that the large companies offer where my website would act as a portal to products and services offered by those larger companies. Some I have found seem pretty good. Offering a large percentage commision. Im just taking my time with the research as far as what the business is and what I will offer. There is so much out there it would be hard to distinguish what I would offer compared to what is already being offered. Just need to find some original ideas. The computer aspect of it is why I started this post. Just understanding what kind of hardware I need or if I want to use a webhosting service.

2 friends and myself just opened Property Solutionz (the Z is for me). We invest in 'problem houses'. Buy them cheap, we all can do most of the work, and sell them for a profit. I work full-time as a bankruptcy paralegal. So i have access to foreclosures, trustee sales, and sheriff sales. I can get notices right away for houses and bid on them cheap. Its a great money maker.

Building my website is for advertising in my city for the property business as well as the affiliate thing. I got some good ideas so far.

Z

for software, Macromedia Dreamweaver is pretty nice. unless you've done this sort of thing before, it takes a while to pick up. you don't sound very up to date on computer/web stuff, not to sound rude, so i think designing with a large software program like dreamweaver is probably not efficient.

its cheaper to just buy web hosting. most provide a site builder, but its very limited in its creativity.

what are you planning on doing?