Home Server

Hi, I have a cable-modem at home (500kb/sec) and was thinking of setting up my own server (to host 10-15) sites with LOW volume of visitors (each site ~ 300 visitors a month). I'll need to install PHP, MySQL, PERL.
What should I use? FreeBSD, Apache, RedHat or...? Have anyone done this before? Will cable-modem (500kb/sec) be enough? What about hardware... what computer should I buy to be a server? i.g. Pentium 500-600Mhz? 128 ram?

Please help!

Cable modems are not designed to be servers. Cable modems are designed to be clients. Cable modems disconnect, and are not reliable. ::EOF

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-Geoff
geoffbp@geoffbp.yi.org

If you have a static IP you should be fine.

True its not the best solution but for 300 visitors a month that will work great.

Don't spend too much money here. grab a lower speed PII(if you want go dual PIIs) and load up on as much RAM as you can. It's a good time with the cheap RAM prices.

Get a copy of Redhat. Install Apache, MySQL, PHP, and SSL( if needed). All this is free if you download it. Be sure to install the recent patches for the version of redhat you use.

If you need help with securing the server you can start in the linux section at www.securityfocus.com. Thats a pretty good site. Remember that security is an ongoing job. You don't want people using your box for services you don't provide and sucking up your cable bandwidth.

If you start to feel the server slowing you down or the pages are taking too long to load then think about co-locating or something, but untill then your cable will be just fine to use.

Zebbx

I would not host & resell service off of a cable modem.

1. Most upstream providers will shut you down if they find out that you are hosting.

2. Cable modems, though fast enough, are not nearly reliable enough to host sites off of.

3. Your network of sites would be open to anyone within the circut of your cable modem. Unless you also ran a firewall.

4. You would need at least 2 IP address to configure your DNS server.

I could set you up with your own server, configured and ready to roll for about $125/month.

Just email me.

I was just saying that if its nothing really serious right now that his cable would be fine for a little while. He can always determine later to move to a host.

I do agree that if you are hosting customers you need to be at a host. You just can't match the backup and facilities of a good host at home.

-BUT-

if you are doing this for you and some friends then have some fun, learn some new things, and set up your own server at home. =]

iqnection,

What are the details on that $125/month?

Would it be possible to just have a plain installation of Linux and the user take it from there?

I am currently with a place using cobalt's RaQs and I pay $100/month, but I would be willing to go with a higher price for a regular Linux box.

Thanks,
Zebbx

I use FreeBSD to run my home server, which acts as a firewall/proxy, and as a development server to test and run PHP/MySQL scripts.

I used two network cards, and use natd (Network Address Translation) to take my one static IP and share it with my home network.

I recommend FreeBSD, especially if you are interested in learning how Unix itself works. It doesn't have as many helper utilities as most Linux distributions, but it's rock solid. I *only* reboot mine when I change hardware. It's also one of the most secure operating systems around.

Yes, cable modems are not in any way dependable, and expect several days a year worth of downtime from most major providers. I use Telocity (www.telocity.com ), which provides a static IP, and they claim they don't mind if you host non-commercial websites, as long as the bandwidth requirements are low. The upstream, though, is only 256kbs. I've heard that Velotel (www.velotel.com ) has some interesting options for home-based servers, such as additional IP addresses for $5/month, etc...

If you want to host actual domain names, your best bet is to find some ISP that will point the DNS for you. (shouldn't cost too much)

I have an adsl-connecting 512Kb up/down with an Ip-adress, which makes it's possible to use a domainname. Cost: 8-9$ per. month with free traffic.
It makes it possible for me to make test-sites before they are published, so my customers can see what is going on. And it works fine.
But I agree, if it's a commercial site, dsl isn't the way to host a site.
But for fun and as a "learning-machine" it works great.
My computer is a 300 Amd K6-2 with 96Mb ram and 3Gb disc. Win95, apacheserver, php4 and Mysql. If not win95, I would use Linux.
It doesn't seem slow at all for the customers, at least they don't "feel" any differens.

So much ram as possible and a fast and big harddisk will do a better job more than changing the cpu.
Steffen

Just emailed you back zebbx