Running A Web Server Out Of Your Home

[Mayo]

I ran across an item about the appropriately-named Matt Drudge and it was noted that Drudge has five computers in his apartment which I took to be the servers for his website.

Seeing how he claims 8 million hits a day, is it possible that he operates his own servers?  What does it take/cost to operate a server, and would a standard cable connection do the trick, assuming one is getting less than 8 million hits a day?

Or is it more of a headache than it is worth?

Links to info on websites, books, etc. always appreciated.

[Mrious_be]

Woooow, not sure about that.
But aren't Apple's (and others) able to set up as a webserver?
So... i do think you can just do it at home and a simple conncection is enough.
Actually, that's how all those hotline (and clones) are working i guess.

[CyberPet]

Although we don't have that many hits per day (how can he afford that??) we do have our own webserver at home. For the time being it's a Wintel-machine but the plan is to also set up a Mac OS X Server machine to try.

We have a broadband connection and we've also bought a domain name that is being re-directed to our ip-number so that people don't have to remember a stupid number.

This is the service we use for our "domain name-relay": http://www.24x7dns.com/

This is the link to our webserver at home: http://halls-lulea.com/

[Paddy]

Mayo, it depends on your ISP - ATTBI/Comcast take a rather dim view of running web servers out of your home, and in fact ATTBI makes it virtually impossible since they do not allow static IP's. I have friends who wanted to try it, but found it was no-go with the only high-speed connection around (which was ATTBI). So, you may well find that you're limited to using someone else's servers. There are lots of very good, very reasonable services out there though. The community group site for which I am webmaster is hosted through 0catch.com - for $6.95/mo. I've found them extremely reliable, with lots of useful services.    Just as happy to let someone else administer the server end of things!

[kelly]

Ask Diana.

[CyberPet]

If you don't have a static IP it's still doable. We're not having a static IP, however ours seldom change. But even if it changes on a daily basis you can still run a webserver at home and use a service like the one I linked to, they relay a DNS-address to the correct IP-number that your server is on.

[Xairbusdriver]

I had a reply almost ready to go a few hours ago and got interupted    

Most of my thoughts have been expressed. Except: It won't be hard for your ISP to find out your running a server, if you have much traffic at all. And everyone else in your neighborhood will not appreciate the slowdown in their access if you have much traffic - that may be the only tipoff the ISP needs to check your traffic. If they discover your actions you would at least be disconnected, check the contract for other penalties.

If you find you can have a server (and a static IP, for free) go for it. But you can probably get by with any Mac made. As long as you have low traffic and small file exchanges, even a 601 CPU should do fine!    Just don't use that box for anything else!

Jim C.

[kps]

Yup, when I had cable it was verboten to run a server. Same with my "consumer" ADSL service.

Now if you get ISDN with a static IP, I think it's doable and relatively affordable, but somewhat slower compared to cable and dsl. Provided... your telco can and is willing to pipe it into a resi neighbourhood.

If you're going to do it, you'll have to switch to OS X and take advantage of Apache, ftp, telnet and all the other server services built into it.

[Diana]

*nods to Kelly

Mayo, Paddy and others are right, check with your ISP before you do anything. If the contract allows you to run a web server, then it will work just fine. If they say you can't, dont, unless you're willing to run the risk of losing your account. If you are wanting to run I business site, then go to a real hosting provider for help. If all you want is to purchase your own domain name and use that for e-mail and a small personal web site, then go for it. Petra's link to a DNS provider is good, and there are others.

As for the time to maintain your own server...with just one, running an OS you are familiar with, all you need to do is spend the time necessary to stay on top of security issues and keep ALL unnecessary ports closed up tight. That time is determined by your present expertise. If you're not providing service to someone else for money, then it won't matter if it  is unavailable occasionally.

Al should pipe up any time now. He's running a server.

See ya,

[Al]

I am on cable that is not a static IP address, but the IP address seldom changes anyways.

Most comsumer internet services do not allow you to run a web server off their standard connection, but if the traffic to your site/sites are not heavy, then it is doable.

OS X is great at this, it can do a whole lot more than just serve up html, with apache you can also run PHP, CGI and MySQL (plus more) and do a whole lot.

My home server consists of a simple beige G3 running @ 400 MHz w/ 576MB of memory and running Jaguar (10.2.4), apache, PHP and MySQL, it hosts basic web pages and a bulletin board service for Hawaiian topics.

One thing to remember when running a server is it's security, run a firewall.  I have both hardware and software firewalls.  Never can be to safe.

If you want to compare how my G3 does as a server, feel free to.

http://www.hawaiianflavor.com

and the bulletin board.

http://www.hawaiianflavor.com/forums/index.php

If you plan to have a lot of traffic you will want to consider a host.  These business hosting accounts can be expensive through your ISP, but there are other hosts out there at very reasonable prices.  For a Mac Host, try take a look at this company.  All state of the art Macintosh servers.

http://www.macdock.com

If you want the best service from a host don't go any further than our own hostess herself, Diana.  She's the best!

http://www.crestcommunications.com
 
 [ 05-03-2003, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: Al ]

[Mayo]

Thanks for all the input.  I will check with Charter before persuing this any further.

Maybe Mr. Drudge has his own T1 connection...

[tacit]

If he's getting eight million hits a day, he has more than one T1 line! A single T1 line is unlikely to be able to support that much activity...

[cdub1988]

TSers -

My apologies for my previous post here.

That was wrong of me to say any of that, especially given I had not researched enough of my own situation to find that  in fact the Acceptable Use Policy was the same for my setup. This was something that had escaped me as I had spoken to so many who had done it on the same network.

That goes totally against what I believe, and I do apologize.

Just goes to show me not to follow everyone else's lead.  

Sorry.    

Take care, all.

Chris
 
 [ 05-06-2003, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: cdub1988 ]

[Diana]

Hi,

I looked just real quick at the  Charter Acceptable Use Policy

The first part makes it pretty clear. Unless you have a contract explicitly specifying that you can run a server, they say you can't. Granted, you might get by running one "quietly" as long as you don't violate the prohibition against using excessive bandwidth lower down in the document, but if you get caught, it may mean more than the loss of the account. They might claim damages and make you pay.

I'm betting any "contract" you could get into that would allow the running of a server would cost way more than some of the basic hosting services already mentioned here would charge.

see ya,