# I'm new and I need help to decide ivest **URL:** \ **Category:** Node Operators\ **Tags:** hardware\ **Created:** [July 11, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045 "2024-07-11T20:48:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![miguelangeldgonzalez](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/miguelangeldgonzalez/32/1132_2.png) [@miguelangeldgonzalez](https://forum.storj.io/u/miguelangeldgonzalez)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/1 "2024-07-11T20:48:51Z")
Hello! I’m new trying to set up nodes, and I’m having several problems. First, my ISP doesn’t offer port forwarding for personal contracts, so I have to get an Enterprise contract whose cheapest price is $25 for 150 Mbps. I have two computers of 1 TB and 2 TB respectively. How much storage would I need, at least to pay for the internet contract? I assumed at least 14TB of storage, but I don’t know if 150Mbps would be enough for that. I greatly appreciate any help in deciding what to do. ---
**Author:** ![JWvdV](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/jwvdv/32/7814_2.png) [@JWvdV](https://forum.storj.io/u/JWvdV)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/2 "2024-07-11T20:59:28Z")
> [@miguelangeldgonzalez](#): > > First, my ISP doesn’t offer port forwarding for personal contracts, so I have to get an Enterprise contract whose cheapest price is $25 for 150 Mbps. Is this per month? And how does it compare to personal contracts? I mean, you only have to make up for the difference. In the long run you get $1,50/TB. So, you computers will deliver $4.50 of filled up to the rim. And some egress. So, might be $5/month. But first it takes probably half a year to fill this space. And till 9 months you have some held back amounts. Besides the costs of your ISP, you’ve also some electricity costs and time you need to spend now and then. So, it’s complicated to decide for you. But I hope this helps you. ---
**Author:** ![miguelangeldgonzalez](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/miguelangeldgonzalez/32/1132_2.png) [@miguelangeldgonzalez](https://forum.storj.io/u/miguelangeldgonzalez)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 9:38pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/3 "2024-07-11T21:38:01Z")
Yes, is per month. The contract have another benefits like static IPs, network priority and another features. But the price difference is painful, I mean my current contract for personal use is $40 for 1 Gb. On the other hand, I don’t have to pay electricity in my country, so that’s not a problem. Thank you so much for your annswer! ---
**Author:** ![Alexey](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/alexey/32/41_2.png) [@Alexey](https://forum.storj.io/u/Alexey)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 6:48am UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/4 "2024-07-12T06:48:56Z")
Hello @miguelangeldgonzalez, Welcome to the forum! Please note, this is not mining, the usage depends on the customers, not your hardware or software. We always recommend to use only what you have now and what’s would be online anyway - with Storj or without. In this case any income is a pure profit. You may also use this Community Earnings Estimator to get an idea how long it may take to fill up all your free space and how much you may earn: > [@Realistic earnings estimator](https://forum.storj.io/t/realistic-earnings-estimator/6693): > > The original earnings estimator is no longer online, so I’m altering this suggestion to advocate for the return of a realistic earnings estimator. In the mean time SNOs can use this community version to get a good estimate of the earnings potential. Please be respectful of others using this sheet. If someone else is looking at their results, give them a moment before overwriting their inputs or copy the sheet to your own Google account to fill in your own inputs. The sheet is protected against … ---
**Author:** ![zip](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/zip/32/7813_2.png) [@zip](https://forum.storj.io/u/zip)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 11:43am UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/6 "2024-07-12T11:43:28Z")
> [@miguelangeldgonzalez](#): > > On the other hand, I don’t have to pay electricity in my country, so that’s not a problem. What country is this? ---
**Author:** ![miguelangeldgonzalez](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/miguelangeldgonzalez/32/1132_2.png) [@miguelangeldgonzalez](https://forum.storj.io/u/miguelangeldgonzalez)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/7 "2024-07-12T13:50:28Z")
That’s sad, I was thinking to set up many nodes to take advantage of the electricity price in my country. But if don’t recommendable, I don’t know if it would be a good idea. Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![miguelangeldgonzalez](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/miguelangeldgonzalez/32/1132_2.png) [@miguelangeldgonzalez](https://forum.storj.io/u/miguelangeldgonzalez)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/8 "2024-07-12T14:01:25Z")
I supposed it, I had in mind to buy disk and PCs to be self-sufficient, but now I don’t see it feasible. My current contract is $40 for 1Gb, soooo changing would not be a good decision, especially if the income would not be enough. ---
**Author:** ![miguelangeldgonzalez](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/miguelangeldgonzalez/32/1132_2.png) [@miguelangeldgonzalez](https://forum.storj.io/u/miguelangeldgonzalez)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/9 "2024-07-12T14:03:36Z")
Venezuela, in some regions we don’t pay for electricity. In other regions they pay, but it is very cheap. ---
**Author:** ![pangolin](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/pangolin/32/15685_2.png) [@pangolin](https://forum.storj.io/u/pangolin)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/10 "2024-07-12T14:18:09Z")
> [@miguelangeldgonzalez](#): > > My current contract is $40 for 1Gb That’s not bad if traffic is unlimited. Just use it with some kind of vpn for port forwarding. ---
**Author:** ![miguelangeldgonzalez](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/miguelangeldgonzalez/32/1132_2.png) [@miguelangeldgonzalez](https://forum.storj.io/u/miguelangeldgonzalez)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/11 "2024-07-12T14:20:45Z")
I didin’t know that I can do that, can you tell where or how can I find informations like tutorials of how can I do it? ---
**Author:** ![arrogantrabbit](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/arrogantrabbit/32/11200_2.png) [@arrogantrabbit](https://forum.storj.io/u/arrogantrabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:50pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/12 "2024-07-12T14:50:17Z")
You can use commercial VPN services, like AirVPN, that offer port forwarding. Setting them up is pretty trivial — e.g. with wireguard you can use wg-quick with the connection profile AirVPN generates for you (you would need to remove MTU and DNS specification from there, and adjust AllowedIPs if you don’t want full tunnel, but otherwise they are quite usable as-is). Pick endpoint that has the fewest neighbour nodes, as reported here [Neighbors](http://storjnet.info/neighbors), because nodes in the same /24 subnet share the ingress allocation. The downside is — the throughput of such services usually limited to few tens of megabits per second, with rare exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![Alexey](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/alexey/32/41_2.png) [@Alexey](https://forum.storj.io/u/Alexey)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 7:18am UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/im-new-and-i-need-help-to-decide-ivest/27045/13 "2024-07-13T07:18:20Z")
It’s ok to run multiple nodes behind the same /24 subnet of public IPs, but they would share the ingress as for a one node. You may also setup multiple nodes across different physical places. Using a VPN to bypass the /24 limit is against ToS though, because it will change the default network behavior. It could be tolerated only if you have a Highly Availability for your hardware, electricity, disks and internet, otherwise it is only to damage the network, because your nodes could get more than a one piece for the same segment, increasing the risk of unrecoverable segment. The lost data = the lost customer = the lost reputation = no payments = no payout to everyone. Please, do not do this. And you are now aware, that it is a breakage of ToS.