My Server is Laughable!
- Tuesday, September 06, 2005I'd recently described my server setup to some friends, and they thought it was pretty funny. So I thought I'd take a minute to describe it to you and see if you thought it was laughable too. Here's some of the items I've got configured on my "webservices" machine:
MailEnable Mail ServerI host at least 35 different email accounts, 10 FTP accounts, and 10 websites. I get over 350 users (including you) accessing the machine on any given day. All of this is running on an eMachines T3085 computer I picked up a Best Buy for under $600. Oh, and it's a Windows XP Home machine too. It's been virus-free, and spy-ware free since I started running it over a year ago.
Apache HTTP Web Server
FileZilla FTP Server
DNS Server
Dual Monitor (my TV is the other monitor)
ATI All In Wonder Pro
ATI Remote Wonder (RF remote for the TV)
Beyond TV3 from Snapstream
I'd say that's a pretty good setup. Granted, I'm screwed if it ever dies. It'll take weeks to rebuild. I think it's the TV that really puts it over the edge. During sweeps weeks, it's not uncommon for me to be recording 10 hours of video broadcasts a day.
When I was describing my network, I think the people I was talking to thought I had multiple machines for all this. Yeah, like I'm made of money. At some point I think I'll try switching this all to a laptop. I'm beginning to enjoy the challenge.
So, what do you think? Am I crazy, or is this an efficient use of hardware? Post a comment below to let me know.
posted by Kevin Watts | 
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4 Comments:
Hey Kevin!
I wouldn't go for one "do it all" computer. I'd setup a Linux box with minimal configuration to run a webserver, a database system, ftp and mail server and I'd keep my desktop/laptop free of all this.
For the Linux box I would go for a weaker processor (after all, it's sitting on it's ass most of the day) and rather spend an extra dollar on a RAID configuration for the hardrives. You could also use this box to do all the TV recording you need. I'd say that a minimum to spend on the box would be somewhere around 200-300 dollars, but you could get it cheaper if you build it from used parts (except the disk drives of course).
A laptop is definitely worth every buck, especially if it's got WLAN. I'm carrying mine all over the house, depending on the mood. At around 600 - 700 dollars you could get a used one (P4, 1.8 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 30-40 GB HDD, DVD+CDRW, 15'', WLAN). Though it won't be extremely suitable for playing the newest games, if you're into that...
Regards,
Vlad
Hey, thanks for the comment! You're right about having a separate machine for my desktop which I do have. I should have made that clearer. I used to use that one machine for email and surfing the web, but found that my use was causing all kinds of problems (both for me and the webserver). Not to mention it's a major security risk.
So I have a separate network for my regular PC which I use for browsing the web and email and other desktop tasks.
Completely agree about the laptop. It'll definitely be the next purchase I make once I get the cash.
Who's your ISP? Most of them get pissy if you start hosting mailservers :-D
My reply to Jan's comment is WAY overdue, but you're right, ISP's don't like web and mail servers. I knew that going in, but figured as long as the traffic was low it would go unnoticed. And it did, for a couple years actually.
But then I switched to Gmail, and am forwarding all my received mail back out to Gmail. Because all spam is forwarded as well, and I get about 400 messages a day, that's a lot of emailing spam. Almost immediately Comcast blocked me.
I switched from Comcast to a small regional ISP here in Atlanta with DSL service. Atlantic Nexus' service couldn't be better, they do NOT block any ports, and don't mind that I'm running a server.
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