RSS Feeds: How to Set Up Dedicated Servers at Home
I used to run a dedicated server at home and the only applications that were constantly running on it were a web server, a mail server and an FTP server. I had a low-traffic website that I constantly worked on as part of a learning experience. A friend of mine recently asked me how I did it, so I thought I'd share the information as best I can.
Why?
There are more reasons to run dedicated servers at home than I could possibly imagine. One reason, if your Internet service meets the prerequisites, is to save yourself from the torture of shared web hosting (and some VPS web hosting) and the expense of dedicated web server hosting.
I set up a dedicated server twice, once with a stripped down version of Windows XP and once with Debian Linux. That was back in 2002 and 2003. I'm getting ahead of myself but at the time, even shared web hosting cost more than the amount I was willing to pay for it.
Prerequisites
While you can run dedicated servers anywhere and with any kind of Internet connection, anything less than cable Internet will cause you more grief than it's worth. Technically, you could do it with a dial-up connection, but why would you want to deal with that? You could do it with a DSL connection, but DSL performance could be as flaky as it is where I'm living right now.
Even if you have cable Internet, your ISP has to allow you to run a server from that connection. The one I dealt with required a business connection in order to run any kind of server at home. I ended up having two connections – one residential and one business. The business account was still cheaper than any dedicated server online at the time.
If you use a Windows operating system, like I did at first, you're going to have problems unless you have a heap of memory and a fast CPU. Almost any modern computer will do the trick. I did it with Windows XP and a Pentium 200 machine, but I stripped down Windows to the bare necessities with a program called XPlite. I still have a copy of the latest revision.
Considerations
If you set up a dedicated server on a Windows machine, you'll have to use the best applications available to get the most of out of it. The applications don't have to be expensive, but they have to be designed to work without hiccups. Luckily, the best web server I know of, Apache, runs on Windows without any problems if it's set up right.
Way back when, I bought an FTP server application called Serv-U, before it was bought out by Rhino Software. I have a lifetime upgrade license for it, and I have the latest version, but I never use it anymore. It was before Gmail existed (or it was just starting, I don't remember which), so I used the Mercury Mail Transport System. Mercury Mail is still available as part of XAMPP for Windows. If I was going to do it with a Windows machine today, I would just use XAMPP for everything.
If you set up a dedicated server on a Linux machine, and unless you specify otherwise, the necessary software will already be available to you. I'm not familiar enough with all the variations to continue with the line of information and I don't want to feed you falsehoods.
As far a RAM is concerned, a Windows machine (because of the GUI) will require more memory to run the equivalent servers on Linux. With Windows, it would also depend on which version of Windows you're running. I'm only familiar with running it on XP and I can tell you that you would need a minimum of 1 gigabyte of memory for a stripped down version and 2 gigabytes if it isn't stripped down. A server hitting the swap file isn't a good thing.
Ideas
I wouldn't recommend setting up dedicated servers at home if you have one or more websites with heavy traffic, unless you know what you're doing to begin with. If this is the case, you're going to have to deal with load balancing, overload prevention and things of that nature. I'm talking about multiple machines, firewalls, bandwidth managers and the like.
If you run only one server application per machine, you could get away with running Linux on a cluster of three or more netbooks and spend less than you would on a single good desktop machine. You could use one for a web server, one for an FTP server, one for a SQL server (preferably MySQL) and possibly one for a mail server, all connected via a simple cable router. Neither an FTP server nor a mail server is required if you don't plan on accessing the machines from outside the network and don't need the branding of your domain name for your email.
If you use regular desktop computers, you don't need monitors for each of them. You could have one monitor connected to all of them with a multiple-port KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch. I used a dual-port KVM when I was running two computers (one of them being the server) side-by-side.
Stuff I've Left Out
I don't like to get too long-winded, but I've provided the basics. I'm more than willing to provide more specific information if you want me to, but I could turn this into a book if I don't watch myself.
I didn't mention upload speed, which translates to download speed for the people accessing your website. I didn't mention the cost of a business account. I'm sure there are more things I didn't mention and I won't go into detail about setting up a network because everything I just mentioned can vary widely depending on your location and Internet connection availability.
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try WAMP for windows it is the easiest apache/php/mysql, there is also xampp for linux and windows with apache/php/mysql/perl.
http://www.wampserver.com/en/
My last blog: James – The Psychology of Belief
I moved to a home-based web server about a year ago. It is a dream come true for so many reasons!
1) When there is a problem I am right there to fix it. No waiting on remote staff.
2) Upgrades are cheaper. When you lease a dedicated server you pay royally for any and all upgrades. Want a machine with 4GB? Expect to pay a premium EVERY MONTH for that benefit.
3) Control. I like FreeBSD and run it on my server. If I want to add to it I can do it from the comfort of my own home without having to connect over the Internet to it.
Right now I'm running with a dual-core Opteron, 4GB RAM and 2×500GB RAID1. I have a spare drive in my desk drawer for the inevitable disk failure as well as a two hour UPS system and a 2/8 cable modem service.
The server itself cost less than $500 and the cable modem runs about $150 per month. Cost wise I am way ahead of the game and I run about 17 websites on this machine.
There is a down side. For one thing when something breaks it is up to you to fix it. For another you need to be available to fix it when something breaks.
I wish I had that luxury in my location. Alas, I can't even get decent DSL.
I used to do this but now fully host everything. I don't even build my own PCs anymore. Had a restaurant rack in our basement full of servers (old PCs really) but that's been gone for years.
My last blog: By: Belated Thanks to November Commenters : Lillie Ammann, Writer & Editor
http://www.feralhosting.com/
dedicated server for about 48 a month US, they are located in france i think and install debian linux which had problems with xammp/lampp, it was my first time so i had to go with ISPConfig, but first two are good for desktop development at least.
My last blog: James – The Psychology of Belief
like what philosophy says, try to use the WAMP or XAMP, it is commonly used when you are working with PHP it has a server but it is only a localhost, I recommend this two for it is tested and i was using this before, try to use it, it is more compatible also in Windows and it is free
A dedicated server shares its resources, and only uses the resources itself when performing administrative tasks for the network. Servers in client/server databases are ordinarily dedicated to making database resources available to client computers. It is very interesting to install dedicated server.
Excellent tips to for having servers at home. Thanks for sharing.
What better to use Linux or MacOS server? I think MacOS is more expensive.
Thanks for this information shared. It was really useful in giving ideas about servers that are to be use at home. In a way, I would prefer to use MacOS instead of LInux.
I found the information about dedicated servers to be very helpful for everyone who wants to set up a server. Well if one gets confused with the settings of firewalls and more I would suggest to find a good professional who can do the job for you.