Do you know about servers?

[m0ds]

I have some very general questions that I'd be greatful for any computer whiz to answer, because I really don't know. This is some general market research. Honest!

Firstly, what kind of servers do ISPs use?
Secondly, how much is one of those servers?
Thirdly, how many customers/users would one of those servers support?
& fourthly, other than servers - what tech equipment would an ISP have to consider using/buying to make a customers experience better

Fithly - how would you arrange a server to be capable to provide 2mb broadband, or 1mb? Or do you just buy a "1mb server" ... I really don't know about this stuff but I'd like to get a basic grasp.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[SSH]

Lots of companies resell V21 broadband, such as Naims.

This might be an easier way to get into ISPland.

[scotch]

Having a server (or a thousand of them) is not the most significant part of running an ISP, you can't just get a server and be able to provide internet access to people with it, people generally need internet access to even connect to your server.  ISPs enter arrangements with people who run the phone and cable networks to be able to provide their services to the public, and arrange to peer with other ISPs on extremely fast and expensive connections, so that they can connect to each other quickly.  They buy bandwidth from higher up the heirarchy, in "megabits per second per month", and this is how they communicate with the rest of the internet.

As for kinds of servers... well they would use all sorts of things, basic PCs or other sorts of general purpose servers, which are in the hundreds of pounds each, as well as custom hardware for routing massive amounts of data.

Other stuff you'd want would be phones and employees (preferably ones that have some clue about things) to hande customer support, techies to keep the services running (including mail, news, etc).

This is all millions of pounds of invenstment obviously, so a lot of the smaller ISPs you see aren't really ISPs at all, they are just resellers of other peoples connections as SSH said, marking them up from the wholesale price, doing their own advertising and stuff, and trying to make a profit on that.  This works best for companies with some brand loyalty already I'd imagine.

[SSH]

I'd buy screen7 broadband! If it were cheap enough...

btw:

http://affiliate.v21.co.uk/index.asp?exec=voptions