I've been hosting a number of things at home for some time, I've been running my own mail server now for nearly 5 years, and web and other stuff for nearly three.
I just recently got some outside hosting for the website as my DSL just couldn't keep up with the load. The outside hosting was far cheaper than adding in the additional bandwidth. I still have some sites hosted at home. But for the most part my home setup is there to support the things me and my wife do. Sharing stuff between the desktops and laptops, and the ability to have unlimited email space. I have WSUS, Exchange and my own DNS, as well as file and DB servers for stuff we do at home, like so we can have a central place to store music and pictures. > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert Munn [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 1:38 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: hosting at home > > 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:5:174031 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=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
