Hans-Christian Andersen
ha at phulse.com
Thu Apr 29 12:19:15 CDT 2010
>From a pure technical point of view, you only have 3 main problems to be concerned about when running a site from home. 1. A typical internet connection for personal or small business use has poor upload bandwidth and a higher latency. Run a speed test and you'll probably see that your download speeds are up in the megabits, while upload is a paltry 128-256 kbps. If this is just for small sites, that is fine. Just don't expect it to handle high traffic loads and bear in mind that this will start to eat into the bandwidth for your own internet usage. 2. Your internet connection probably changes IP addresses periodically. This isn't a huge issue. Using a service like dnsomatic.com, you could configure your router (if it supports that) or use dhclient or similar daemon/client application to update your DNS when your IP address changes. dnsomatic works with dyndns and zoneedit and more, so that's quite neat. Typically your ip adderss only changes once every few months and you may have a few minutes or less of downtime while the new IP address propogates. 3. Security. I think the first line of defense and most important thing to do is to put your server in a walled garden. So, put the server behind it's own router on a separate network. This way, if you do suffer a security breach, those hackers don't have access to the rest of the machines in your LAN. Secondly, it can be a hassle having to maintain yet another server against the nasty background internet traffic on your own, but this need not be a big issue, if you just make sure to configure things right the first time around. I assume you will probably use Windows, but in my case, I have an Ubuntu server deployed even without a hardware firewall in front of it. I keep software patches up-to-date and have a daemon (fail2ban) that routinely checks various logs for repeated brute force logins and other nasty things and bans that IP address for an hour. This has been pretty effective at stopping hackers, script kiddies and scripted attacks from mindless zombies. Make sure you restrict any services that don't need to be exposed to only your IP address. Use a VPN if you want a way of accessing it from outside your green zone. All in all, I've been doing this myself and it's definitely doable - not insane. But make sure you have a plan B, in case you suddenly find yourself in a situation where you quickly need to move it somewhere with a fatter pipe. Hans-Christian Software Developer, UK ----------------------------------------------------------------- tel: +44 (0)782 894 5456 e-mail: hans.andersen at phulse.com www: nokenode.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unique Gifts, Collectables, Artwork ----------------------------------------------------------------- Come one Come all to www.corinnajasmine.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- On 29 April 2010 16:47, Gustav Brock <Gustav at cactus.dk> wrote: > Hi John > > Main advantage for an in-house server is that you are in full control, no > need to fit into some standard package. > > Disadvantages - in addition to those already mentioned - are several > including usage of your limited upload bandwidth and added cost for power > consumption. > > /gustav > > >>> jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com 28-04-2010 15:39 >>> > I just need a reality check as to whether trying to host a website in-house > is insane, doable, easy, > difficult? If I did this it would be for my own web site (very low > traffic), and would need to > include email (also low traffic). If I lost internet (which I get over the > local cable) then > obviously I would be out of commission for the duration of that outage. > > I have been in this home / office for close to four years and have had only > one single extended > outage (11 hours, due to weather). > > I have a server that I keep up 24/7. I have battery backup etc. I run VMs > and it seems like I > could put something like this in a VM so that I could move it to another > machine if I had a machine > issue. > > I am actively considering building a new server with 16 or 24 cores because > it would be a big boost > for my SQL Server work and with so many cores it seems like having a VM > running my web site might > make sense. > > -- > John W. Colby > www.ColbyConsulting.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-VB mailing list > dba-VB at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-vb > http://www.databaseadvisors.com > >