I hosted my own mail and Apache server at home for awhile. I now pay $25/month for a virtual server at tummy.com. (Unfortunately it's not powerful enough to run tomcat + database.)
The gotchas are: 1) vacations, especially with older hardware. I generally leave my systems up 24/7 and I've had hardware fail. I haven't had any fires, but it's not unheard of. The NSLU2 or the WRT?? is great for this -- these are network storage controlers and wireless hubs that run linux and can be repurposed for general use. Very low power consumption, designed to be on continuously, etc. Great for low-volume mail servers and static apache pages, but no java (since the NSLU2, at least, uses an ARM processor. I can't recall what the WRT uses). 2) connectivity. You don't really notice it as a user, but there are probably gaps in your network connectivity. Just enough for your system to appear to be flaky sometimes. 3) bandwidth. Most broadband connections are highly asymetrical. You might have several Mib/sec download, but only 64kib/sec upload. The latter is what your users will see. 4) filtering. I've done a 180 on this one. Some ISPs already block mail, and I would expect them to start blocking outbound port 80 as well. The problem is the **** spambot networks and a certain unreliable operating system. It's a tradeoff -- do you take heat from the <1% customers who can run their own legitimate services, or the 100% customers who have to deal with phishing expeditions pointing to zombie PCs? I haven't pursued this very far, but you can get a full colo boax at tummy for under $200/month. Split that 10 ways and you still have a decent system that will support multiple boutique sites. Or you can find someone who already has a box and ask them if you can rent space from them. (I need to ask my former boss about that one -- I still maintain the systems and we already host many static sites.) Bear > One option would be to host it on your own machine at home. All you > need is 24X7 (internet and power) Preferably static IP and an old linux > box. > Wim Deblauwe wrote: >> Hi, >> >> for the new website of my band, I am thinking about doing something more >> fancy then static html pages like I did before and use Appfuse 2.0. >> However, >> when I look at getting things hosted, it is a lot more expensive to get >> a >> tomcat then getting for instance PHP support. How do others deal with >> this >> (since our band is very unlikely to get famous and make enough money to >> support those more expensive hosting plans) ? >> >> regards, >> >> Wim >> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
