DH Templates

How much hosting space is required to host a social networking website?

If I wanted to develop the new 'myspace' or 'Facebook', and guessing that there could be as many as 500,000 or 1million people interested in signing up and using the website, how much space would I need to host a site that could have that many people setting up accounts? Who could I get the space from, and do they have templates for such a site or would I be better off trying to design it myself in dreamweaver or flash?

Public Comments

1. I don't think it's so much space as in servers. Just think if all your users connect at the same time, your server would cave in under the requests. I doubt you'd find a template and would need to code your site from scratch using PHP or ASP and Java etc etc.
2. You don't need any template. You must install a social networking software to your web hosting account. You can choose a web host supporting unlimited space/bandwidth to get rid of the problem of teaffic. My recommended software: http://www.ning.com My recommended web host: http://www.threehosts.com/reviews/1st Hope this helps.
3. I would consult a qualified programmer that has done this before. I agree that the space is one thing and the servers power to handle multiple connections is certainly a concern. You would probably need a dedicated server and not a share hosting solution for this type of service. Dream weaver and flash will also not be able to handle the back end database requirements for this site. You will need to use asp or php to handle this. I would recommend using php as its cheaper to run and host and probably develop as well. I hope this sheds a bit of light on the subject.
4. I would start off with a shared hosting account to save you any expenses.. Once the site has progressed, I would look into a dedicated server. Myspace has over 100 dedicated servers.. Below is a link to a free hosting provider if you just want to get started. http://www.melgurt.com