Hosting from Home

ballooba

I'm just finishing up my final year project. The end product is a J2EE application running on a Tomcat -> JBoss server.

What's to stop me buying a server off Dell, hooking it up to my broadband, getting dynamic DNS of no-ip.org and hosting it from home?

Issues I have thought of are:
A) Pings (May be an issue)
Reliability (It won't be used for critical applications and it's in my house so I can keep an eye on it)
C) Connection Speed (128K Upload on most DSL?)

aidan_walsh

Do you even need a Dell server? If its not critical, but you don't want to install on your primary PC, get a cheap ass system for about €400-500, install Linux, and you're laughing.

rsynnott

ballooba wrote:

I'm just finishing up my final year project. The end product is a J2EE application running on a Tomcat -> JBoss server.

What's to stop me buying a server off Dell, hooking it up to my broadband, getting dynamic DNS of no-ip.org and hosting it from home?

Issues I have thought of are:
A) Pings (May be an issue)
Reliability (It won't be used for critical applications and it's in my house so I can keep an eye on it)
C) Connection Speed (128K Upload on most DSL?)

Well, (C) is the big one, obviously. Depending on your ADSL provider, most of them don't allow it. You may have a quota on outgoing data. Unless you've reasonable experience of running a UNIX-y server, security will be an issue.

Anyway, buying a server seems an improbably expensive way of showcasing a FYP. Why not get shared Tomcat hosting for a few months? It'd be a lot cheaper.

ballooba

It's not for showcasing the FYP.

I've been running my own small business for 3 years doing small websites based on LAMP architecture, I'm new to J2EE but i like it.

I could afford an eApps server but I think it would be nice to have the server in my gaff so that I can interfere with it on a regular basis

I was planning to run it on a windows platform seeing as I'm unfamiliar with Linux.

I have two old laptops sitting beside me here. Screen is toast on one. Both hard drives are mangled. Could I use those do you reckon? [edit] with new HDs of course[/edit].

Never really thought about security of the server to be honest.

rsynnott

ballooba wrote:

It's not for showcasing the FYP.

I've been running my own small business for 3 years doing small websites based on LAMP architecture, I'm new to J2EE but i like it.

I could afford an eApps server but I think it would be nice to have the server in my gaff so that I can interfere with it on a regular basis

I was planning to run it on a windows platform seeing as I'm unfamiliar with Linux.

I have two old laptops sitting beside me here. Screen is toast on one. Both hard drives are mangled. Could I use those do you reckon? [edit] with new HDs of course[/edit].

Never really thought about security of the server to be honest.

Yep, you could; speed mightn't be great depending on spec, but the limiting factor's always going to be that slow internet connection.

Well, you should certainly think of security, ESPECIALLY on Windows.

To be honest, if people are considering paying you to do a site, they probably won't be encouraged by the inevitable slowness.

steve-hosting36

At the price you can get a dedicated server (even an Irish one) these days, hosting from home just doesnt make much sense

pwd

he he did you just put that in your sig?

rsynnott

pwd wrote:

he he did you just put that in your sig?

No, that's been there at least since I asked about his dedicated hostingservice (whyich is also advertised here sometimes) yesterday. In fairness, I think it was there before, too.

steve-hosting36

Been there since we launched rack365 about 7-8 weeks ago

FreeHost

Running a server from home is great for testing stuff and experimenting, you'll also learn a lot in the process. So as aidan_walsh said for couple of hundred bucks you could setup a home server. Because you’re using it for experimental stuff you don’t have to worry too much about security.

However, running a business server from home could present problems; you should factor in, that if you went away for few days and if by chance your ESB went off for a few minutes your sites would be down until you came home to switch your server back on. Dynamic IP’s are also messy for a business server. And upstream bandwidth is another factor. You can check it at this link: http://www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.asp

As a production server for your home business, a box in a Data Centre is the only way to go, you won’t have any problems with IP numbering, bandwidth or power, and because it’s your own box you can put as many sites as you like on it.

For Control Panel software (open source) have a look at these for Linux:

Mitel Application Server: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=92972

BlueQuartz Control Panel: www.bq-i.com

mneylon

You could run it off your old PCs in your house, but if you wanted reliability etc., then you would be better off using a proper data centre, in which case you might as well get some proper hardware for it as well.

It depends on what you are intending to do.

If fiddling around is the key, you can do that remotely over SSH or TS. You don't need physical access to a machine unless you are doing something with the hardware or need to put a CD into a drive.

mneylon

FreeHost wrote:

BlueQuartz Control Panel: www.bq-i.com

That link isn't working.
I presume it's the same as http://bluequartz.org/ which is the OSS version of the Cobalt CP

rsynnott

In any case, this is really the sort of thing you shouldn't know how to do; if you don't know, you probably severely don't want to be doing it.

dahamsta

I used to quite like the RaQ GUI, is there a demo available anywhere?

adam

rsynnott

dahamsta wrote:

I used to quite like the RaQ GUI, is there a demo available anywhere?

adam

Here's one. http://www.raqport.com/demo_550.php

Sun seem to have killed it off tho.

mneylon

Sun killed off the RAQs completely

They had their moments. I sort of feel nostalgic about them, but I wouldn't go back to using one in a hurry

steve-hosting36

We've a few of them still lying around, if anyone wants a deal