To use a home server or not?

9 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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That is my question.


As some may have known, I was experiencing a lot of trouble from the person ("Tony") designing my web site. It is a fully custom site built from the ground up. He is talented, but flaky.

He is now in dental school exacerbating the flaky-ness.

Nonetheless, he says the site is finished, we just have to get it up and running.


He gave me a server, which I love because it gives me full control. However, I am technologically challenged. Thanks to Jill (who is awesome sauce) I was directed to articles regarding using a server.

Will I be in over my head? I do not want to rely on Tony. I would love to just hire Jill, but she said that she was not the best person for the job (she uses WordPress).


I have ATT for my Int. provider.

Thank you for your response.

Sean


PS: I just priced the server, a D link DNS-325. The best price I found used was $200.
#home #server
  • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
    Hey Sean,

    Not sure if "website design" is the right forum for this conversation, but will let the powers that be move it. Maybe they did already.

    I sent you that brief link about the home server thing, but here is a video to better explain the potential issues I was trying to get across to you.


    That covers a good chunk of it as far as the responsibilities of doing your own web server.

    For the others, here is a quick background of where Sean is coming from.

    Sean had a friend/acquaintance offer to build him a website from scratch.

    This person seems to have a techie/programmer hobby/background, but as to his abilities in actual web marketing I have no clue where he'd be on that.

    Seans friend built the site, and stuck it on a server which got dropped off at his house. It doesn't look like things actually got hooked up.

    Sean has now been left with figuring out how to first get the server connected up and running, and then he's still going to need to access the back end of his site to make edits/adjustments.

    Personally I think Sean is down to 2 options at this point.

    Either hire someone to come over to help him get it all set up right and sorted out - provided ATT will let him do what ever he is doing based on what ever plan he has with them - or drop this whole server idea, see if he can load that site up onto a shared hosting platform on the web and then find someone at that point who can help him manage edits to the site.

    My reasons for backing out on this is I know where my expertise is, and it's not with someone elses custom coded scripts.

    Sean, I think you should watch the video above, consider the costs for running that server and compare it to a basic online hosting package where you'd get 24/7 phone support and a decent "uptime" offered. Factor in as well the need to possibly have to swap out some of the hardware after use.

    I think you are going to find while it might sound cool to have your own server running at your house, it's totally overkill for what you really need for your website/business. I think you are going to spend much more money then you need to, too much time on techie stuff you are not into, and your poor wife is going to have just another thing to dust off in the house . If you ever move, you are going to have to move and set up all this again.

    Any time you lose power, your website will be down - unless you have a generator or back up batteries - and even then things may not work if ATT cables are not working into your house.

    Perhaps you can put an ad on craigslist or something looking for a tech savvy highschool student who could get the set up working for you. Someone you can call on when the equipment goes wacky.




    As a consultant, this is my personal opinion based on what details I've received.

    Of course, personally I'd dump the whole home server idea, get a nice shared hosting plan, install some wordpress, get a nice canned theme to modify, and move the content on into the new site.

    This whole process would take a week tops. And I dare say can be done for less than what you are going to find you are going to have to invest from this point on just to get that site up that you already have. Not to mention, you would have full control over it.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Why in the world would you want a server?

    If your traffic volume is going to be low get a shared host for a few dollars a month.

    I seriously doubt AT&T will allow you to run much traffic through a basic ISP plan.
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  • Profile picture of the author deepCode
    I think you are going to find while it might sound cool to have your own server running at your house, it's totally overkill for what you really need for your website/business. As a consultant, this is my personal opinion based on what details I've received.
    Listen to this guy! It is hard enough to get a server up and running (and secured!) when you have the support from a hoster. Also, most home-internet has really bad upload speed, and your upload is the visitor's download
    Also, for a basic VPS, you will not have to spend a lot of money.

    Btw, some basic security points:
    * Move your SSH port
    * Make a special user-account for sftp
    * Disallow root login in SSH, make an account specifically for this.
    * Use sftp, not ftp
    * Use htpasswd wherever you can (phpmyadmin, wp-admin etc)
    * Use mod_security and suhosin if you are good enough
    * Update, update, update. You will be surprised how many bots - looking for security holes - will visit you
    * Harden your PHP.ini

    etc
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by deepCode View Post

      Listen to this girl!
      Fixed that for ya.

      I've come close(a few years ago) to wanting to set up my own hosting, but once I factored in all the costs involved of doing it and keeping it up and running I tossed that idea into the trash.

      Even last year I was looking at doing some reseller hosting, but again I still have enough to worry about with all my own sites - let alone determining and fixing issues on all my client sites. Didn't want to be getting phone calls in the middle of the night if things went wrong.

      Anyway, if Sean can at the very least get that site uploaded to hosting somewhere he could at least see/assess if it's even worth finishing out with what was started on it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Key Seek
    Jill et al,


    Thank you all very much for your insight. My guy finally got back to me (took 2 days as usual) and he said he was working out some issues with D Link.


    He said that he was going to teach me everything I needed to know to manage the system/program. Upon Jill's advice I did some research regarding servers and yes, they can be overkill. Having someone to call when things go wrong is a good option.


    It seems that if I want to use this system, I need a local tech person. When I was teaching I often recruited a tech savvy student for IT issues. I still have one who I can contact.

    Edit: Shoot, my ex student is in the Army now and is not local anymore.
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    Security is the main reason I have been hesitant. I think it is unlikely I could defend against an attack as well as the pros who do it every day. I have thought about using a home connection as a file server or backup for my website, but with no public IP/domain.
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    It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by Key Seek View Post


      Thank you all very much for your insight. My guy finally got back to me (took 2 days as usual) and he said he was working out some issues with D Link.

      Your "guy" is really pi**ing me off. lol

      It's up to you obviously on what ever you decide, but from a business perspective I feel you've been badly taken advantage of.

      You know where to find me if/when the apocalypse happens - but just be aware. I've got family ripping into me for the past few months for not charging nearly enough for things I do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Key Seek
    Jill: I can teach you how to defend against the family ripping thing


    With family members/drunken in-laws I usually advocate choke holds. None of my "Filthy fighting" techniques (head butting, eye gouging, groin shots). And make sure not to hold the choke too long.


    We always have at least one melee event around the holidays.
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  • Profile picture of the author DownTown
    how fast of a downstream/upstream do you have at your house? Dynamic IP address?

    I think you are already in over your head unless you expect it to be a very low trafficked site... for a few bucks a month you can pay for webhosting with backups.

    Your ISP already probably monitors traffic.. and if they see a huge spike on your IP.. its going to get bottlenecked and scoped.

    If your server gets pwned and you dont even know where the holes in the swiss cheese are.. you could be opening yourself to a world of hurt: CP, pirated warez sites using your computer as a temp distro site, script kiddies, DDOS attacks, malware...etc. if you really dont know anything about network security,

    I dont recommend a home server.

    Better off leaving it to a corp that deals with this type of stuff daily and knows how to deal with it.. or atleast presents themselves that they do, so that you can stay online 99.4% of the time.
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