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Creating backup buisness. NAS or normal hard drive?

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relequestual:
Hi All

Not really sure where this fits, but here is safe me thinks.

Im a student, and have recently thought about setting up a backup solution for other students and charging them some sort of fee. ie £15 for setup and £2 a month for online backup. My first idea was to set up the backup to upload to my ftp space, passworded and zipped, but but i have since found this violates my web provides TnC. :(

My original idea before even coming to uni, was to buy a few hard drives, raid them, and set up an ftp server and allow it to be uploaded to that. My issue now is, do I get a NAS hard drive, and buy a router, or do I just get a normal raided external drive, and use software to act as an ftp server. I get the feeling the NAS would be better, but I have no idea how you would set it up or allow it to use FTP.

What's your opinions on this?

f0dder:
I'd set up a custom linux box for the job. If you aren't up to that task, you probably shouldn't be trying to offer a backup service; users will be mad if you lose their data, and with a consumer-grade NAS you're pretty much SOL if it breaks...

relequestual:
Ive decided its a nice idea, but really impractical. I dont have the money to set it up or understand enough to maintain it.
thanks anyway

40hz:
If you are just looking for a business opportunity, there are several remote backup providers that offer vendor programs. They have "the tools and the talent" - and you sell it for them. Much safer than doing it yourself.

Especially when you think about all the illegal songs and software that a student might be interested in backing up. ;D

relequestual:
This is true. I've been looking into a personal online backup solution, and thinking about asking for a reseller partnership of some kind with some backup companies.

Can you suggest a few providers that offer the vendor programe as you said?
As students, we don't have alot of spare cash

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