Questions about Reseller Account

[Supaflyfrank]

I am planning on starting a webhosting/webdesign company specifically for small business. I am marketing as a hands free service and I will not be hosting things such as php forums or databases for the most part. The webpages will pretty much consist of 5-10 static html pages with few graphics besides the initial layout images which will be cached. And since these are small businesses not many people will be going to these websites and they will be using small amount of bandwidth and hard drive space. I plan on starting with the aluminum package reseller package and offering 500 mb of hard drive space and about 5 gb of bandwidth for each site. I have five questions.

First I know that reseller websites are shared but I was wondering is 48 small very low traffic websites a crazy number for a shared server. Like how many sites does Hostgator fit on a shared server with out having operation issues like its going down all the time or site is downloading very slowly. And if I am being affected by another website due to their high performance needs and not because of my own websites will hostgator move me to a less populated server for free?

Second question is I see advertised 5 free ips and 2 dollars per additional ip. I know what an ip address is but why would I pay for more I dont see the point of having more then one.

Third question is I figured it might take quite of bit of sites I am hosting before I need to go to a dedicated hosting plan but I may want several reseller accounts before I do this. Is it possible to have one MAIN account that can have several reseller and maybe then a dedicated account under it. What I mean is say for some reason I want to move websites that are getting more traffic to a dedicated server and group up the low traffic sites to non dedicated server but I still want to use one panel to handle things like billing and what not to reflect ALL my websites. Is there a way I can manage that Ive seen other companies saying they can so I am wondering if hostgator offers the same.

Fourth question from my understanding host gator offer for reseller and dedicated server offer free 24/7 technical support. Since my clients are using my service which inturn is using your service does that mean their technical support questions can be answered by you directly? If so is there a way I can directly send my customers to hostgator for their technical support questions if I can either cant answer it or I am very busy without my clients knowing that hostgator doesn't work for me.

Last question is how hard is it to do web hosting on a dedicated linux server when you have not linux experience/computer networking. I am a computer engineering student that does computer programming, web design (html, css, javascript and photoshop), web programming(php, asp.net/asp and coldefusion) and I am fairly proficient when it comes to computers but I have no experience with linux. Is it that hard to pick up and will most issues I have be something relatively simple to fix?

[slapshotw]

1. 48 5-10 HTML page sites without any databases should be fine. Hostgator puts far more than the equivalent resources of that on their servers. If you're being affected by another website, let support know and they will investigate and, if necessary, quickly shutdown/suspend that user.
2. The 5 ips are for dedicated servers. The only reason you'd need your own IPs are for SSL certificates. You need a new dedicated IP for each SSL certificate you need to install. The form for that is here: http://www.hostgator.com/ip.php . They are $2/month each.
3. Yes, you can have multiple packages under your account. When you order the additional packages just choose "I'm an existing customer." Just make sure you're VERY clear which package/account needs support when you are talking to support.
4. No, hostgator will not whitelabel their support services for you.
5. It's very easy to be a reseller-- you need to know nothing or almost nothing about linux. Dedicated Servers need a little more linux knowledge but not much; there are plenty of people on the rest of the forum (which you'll have access to as a customer) that didn't know anything about linux but are now stars at administering their dedicated servers.

[Goddess Dix]

in addition to matt's response...

Originally Posted by Supaflyfrank

First I know that reseller websites are shared but I was wondering is 48 small very low traffic websites a crazy number for a shared server. Like how many sites does Hostgator fit on a shared server with out having operation issues like its going down all the time or site is downloading very slowly. And if I am being affected by another website due to their high performance needs and not because of my own websites will hostgator move me to a less populated server for free?

for future reference, it's not how many sites per server, it's what those sites are doing. usually, a slow server (at least here) isn't slow because of two many accounts, but one account that is hogging resources.

hg doesn't move you, as mentioned. much more effiecinent than moving all the OTHER accounts on a shared, they shut down the resource hog instead.

Second question is I see advertised 5 free ips and 2 dollars per additional ip. I know what an ip address is but why would I pay for more I dont see the point of having more then one.

if you don't see the point, you have no need for one.

What I mean is say for some reason I want to move websites that are getting more traffic to a dedicated server and group up the low traffic sites to non dedicated server but I still want to use one panel to handle things like billing and what not to reflect ALL my websites. Is there a way I can manage that Ive seen other companies saying they can so I am wondering if hostgator offers the same.

this would not be an effective way to do it. once you go dedi, if you have smaller accounts, your best bet is to move all of them to your dedi unless your account on the dedi needs the whole thing for some reason.

you also can't have the same control panel accessing sites on different servers, so no, you can't have a "master control panel". the whm cp will allow you to manage your resold accounts. a dedi whm gives you a lot more options than a reseller's whm.

you can, however, have reseller accounts under your dedi whm. but they have to be on the same server.

Last question is how hard is it to do web hosting on a dedicated linux server when you have not linux experience/computer networking. I am a computer engineering student that does computer programming, web design (html, css, javascript and photoshop), web programming(php, asp.net/asp and coldefusion) and I am fairly proficient when it comes to computers but I have no experience with linux. Is it that hard to pick up and will most issues I have be something relatively simple to fix?

make sure you get a managed dedi, and be willing to learn. expect to feel overwhelmed for a bit, but with hg support and the help from the forums, you'll be able to pick it up.