Ray, I've been doing this for about a year and a half. In part I did it because of the flexibility it gave me with hosting anything I want to host. It also forced me to learn a bunch of other things that I found interesting.
I've been meaning to put together a HOWTO on self-hosting. Unti then, here is my short list of things I did to get setup: - Get a server/servers - Initially I had one server, a tower case with 1 GB RAM and dual SATA drives in a hardware RAID 1 array, running Windows Server, CF, MySQL. - I bought a second machine and installed a mail server, XMail. I like XMail because it it open source, free, uses easy text files for all configuration, and has lots of free plugins, e.g. Scope, a Perl interpreter that can run as a Windows service and invoke stuff like Spamassassin, which otherwise you have to execute every time mail is processed, and plugins to invoke anti-virus programs like F-Prot, which scans all of my mail. - I also installed a copy of MySQL and CF as a dev machine. Recently I merged these two machines into one and I'm using the other as a desktop/dev machine only. - I bought a Maxtor OneTouch external drive to store backups on. I highly recommend a disk-based backup solution. - Power - I have a dead socket in my home office w)where the equipment is), so I need to get an electrician out to check it. My house is 40 years old, so stuff like that is bound to happen. - A battery backup linked to the server is essential for possible power outages. - Firewall/network - I bought a tiny 486-based appliance from Soekris Engineering for this. It's really small and cheap. It allows you to plug in a CF card as the boot device. Mine has three NICs- WAN, LAN, and OPT (DMZ). They also have a model that you can plug a wireless receiver into, but I already had a Linksys router/wireless appliance. - I installed a copy of M0n0wall embedded firewall on the CF card- it's a *nix-based firewall app, freeware, with a nice Web-based UI, easy to configure. - I have the Linksys setup off of the firewall, so I have two levels of NAT in my network- probably overkill, but it was all configured that way already. It is linked to a second Linksys WAP on the other side of my house for expanded coverage (so I can access my TiVo over wireless). - DNS - I use Yahoo as my registrar. They include hosting DNS when you register. - Time-Warner hosts one domain in DNS for me as part of my business account. This is important because hosting a mail server requires a reverse DNS entry, which only your upstream ISP can provide. They have a self-service DNS Web app, where I have registered forward and reverse DNS for my mail server. - Stats - I'm not a stats geek, but I do want to know what is going on with my sites. I use Apache Web server with combined log format. The sites I care about tracking are written in Fusebox, so I parse the logs and generate a modified log file tha converts the Fusebox URLs into something that makes sense when parsed. I then use Webalizer to generate log analysis reports. Self-hosting is definitely a lot of work at the beginning, but I am very happy with how it has worked out. Flexibility is the key. At this point I could host a large volume of stuff at my house with no problem. Does it make financial sense? I don't know. It isn't any cheaper than a single-server hosted solution, so I guess it depends on your needs. >So, for a while now, I've had free hosting w/ Hosting.com (kudos to >them) for cflib, my blog, etc. This is working great. However, every >now and then I wonder if maybe I should consider hosting at my own >house. I know I'd need to upgrade to a business account w/ Cox... I >know I'd have to be a heck of a lot more anal about security - but >what else is there to consider? Anyone else do this? > >-- >======================================================================= >Raymond Camden, Director of Development for Mindseye, Inc (www.mindseye.com) > >Member of Team Macromedia (http://www.macromedia.com/go/teammacromedia) > >Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Blog : ray.camdenfamily.com >Yahoo IM : cfjedimaster > >"My ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is." - Yoda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:174009 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
