File hosting

Ok so basically there's a commercial website, it needs hosting of medium->large files(anywhere from 1 megabyte to 100ish megabytes) for a new free service that I am about to add on to it. The files need to be hotlinked from the website (ie need a direct link to the file, not a link to the mirror website to download the file like filefront). And I'm also on a budget (though it's not a tight budget, but I'd prefer to not throw all my pennies into this just yet as the service will still be in it's beta stages when i'll first need the hosting, and i'm not sure how long it will take to become popular (assuming that it does))

What I would like to do is get ahold of some people with servers that would like to mirror my files. The problems are that:
a) it's a commercial website, so the mirror would probably want to be paid cash which I would rather not do.

b) the website is still new and receives not much traffic (which is why I want to add this free service to the site). Offering things to mirrors like free advertising may not be of the greatest value

c) In general I don't know much about hosting files for this sort of purpose. I will probably end up having to buy my own servers and hope I get an increase in traffic/customers soon enough to pay for the costs before they get too high. The thing is I don't know what kind of hardware and stuff I need for it. Running websites is one thing, but I'm sure hosting files is a different ballpark somewhat. Being that the focus is more on bandwidth than anything else (I'm not sure how much of a roll RAM plays)

d) so i need to find a mirror that will be interested in something not monetary for at least until traffic picks up. Because I'm sure paying for servers that won't even be fully used is a potential waste of money.

Any input and advice on the topic will be greatly appreciated

My only advice is that this should be in web hosting requests.

I think you will need vps hosting, check out these providers and their plan;

http://www.micfo.com
http://www.webhosting.uk.com
http://www.eukhost.com

I think the thread is in web hosting requests. ?

I'm not requesting webhosting. (the web hosting forum is more for people who are looking to have their websites hosted, not files)

the main difference being that I will need a large amount of bandwidth, higher than bandwidth needed for a typical website. Also I don't want to host the files from the same server as my website becasue I don't want the website itself to face problems if there are bandwidth overages or slow connections from everyone downloading things.

Also the download speed is an important factor. a VPS or shared hosting plan I imagine wouldn't cut it as the bandwidth of one machine is shared with several other people.

You still are on a dedicated box. You share the bandwidth with the entire data center that's hosting the machine. Whether there's 100 sites on 1 box or 100 boxes, they all share that bandwidth. They're not dedicating a portion of the bandwidth to your machine, only.

---John Holmes...

but each box has a specific transfer limit in itself. ie the bandwidth or the entire datacenter can not be used by one machine. the ethernet card usually has a max of either 10 mbits or 100 mbits from my understanding.

If im put on a server which 100 other people are using, I'm going to get capped off by whatever they try to send out from the machine

I would like to set something up so the downloader can expect to get no less than 100 kbps (unless theres a bottleneck on their end) and hopefully be able to get up to 400 and 500.

Generally the bottlenecks are not at the machine, but at the entry/exit circuit(s) of the data center. Or at least that's how it is in the networks I've worked with. Someone can correct me, though.

---John Holmes...