I'm planning to start an image hosting website which will be designed and coded by myself. But I would like the professionals to guide me over what I should be aware of or do to handle security issues and related concerns.

Apart from that there are many doubts which I would want to clear before starting it.

Firstly, it will be a small image hosting site, I'm not planning to be ready for millions of images so I would go with small hosting packages.

I would prefer VPS to begin with but should I choose XEN VPS or OpenVZ?

How much RAM is preferred to begin with?

Which host should I opt for? I have tried KnownSRV and VPS6. KnownSRV provides a brilliant service but they are bit expensive as compared to VPS6. I'm not planning to make a profit out of this image host but I would surely try to generate some amount to pay for the server expenses.

Please give your inputs as in what I should take care of while coding the website? I know how to prevent SQL injections and other simple attacks. I have read on various forums that people try to inject shell script and stuffs via uploads but I don't know how it actually works. Is it possible to do so with images as well? If so, how am I supposed to handle it? (Sorry if I'm being a noob here, but prevention is always better than cure)

Also how do I provide hotlinking to only specific users/domains?

There might be many things which I may not be aware of or I can't think of them right now, but if you know something which you feel I should know then please let me know.

Thank you
Spartan Reviewed by Spartan on . Advice on starting a new image hosting site I'm planning to start an image hosting website which will be designed and coded by myself. But I would like the professionals to guide me over what I should be aware of or do to handle security issues and related concerns. Apart from that there are many doubts which I would want to clear before starting it. Firstly, it will be a small image hosting site, I'm not planning to be ready for millions of images so I would go with small hosting packages. I would prefer VPS to begin with but Rating: 5