Home webserver.

I am looking to start a home webserver, is it worth the time and money?

I have a dedicated comp, dual amd 64 processors. 500gig hdd, 3 gig ram.

Also i have a dedicated IP for internet. I have verizon fi0s top leval which is 15 mb.


Suggestions? is it worth it?

And how do I go about doing so?

thanks.
- Metalic

 

It really depends on why do you need a server and what are you planning to host?

If you are planning to host your personal blog, it would be unneccessery to host it at your home, especially while hosting prices are so low. You can easiliy find a host for $5-10 for your personal web site. On the other hand, if you want to host a game server, it might worth trying.

 

I am looking at hosting a video streaming website with availible download.

 

Well, it might work for you in the beginning.

Your 15 Mbit connection will let your visitors to get data from your server up to ~2 MB/s (*), which can handle your traffic at your sites initial stages. But, after your site starts to get attention and gets crowded, need for a faster conneciton will be inevitable.

(*) I'm not living in US, and assuming that your "verizon fi0s top leval" connection is a "symetric" connection, which means your upload and download speeds are same.

 

no, its not symetric.

How do I get faster internet? I have the fastest internet possible to public right now, as far as i know.

Is there a way I can get something like a direct line from an ISP or something like that? How do webhosting companys get internet that fast?

thanks,
- Metalic

 

Unless its a hobby and you are trying to learn how to run a webserver I wouldn't recommend it, first you have to make sure your ISP allows you to run a commercial website on a private home IP, while your download is very fast your upload is most likely very slow, add to this the hassle of securing and uptime as well as power needed to run your server makes it uneconomical, I totally suggest you don't attempt this.

 

how do hosting businesses do it then? How do you get faster internet then what is offered?

 

You need T1 or T3. SDSL

ur download speed doesnt matter for hosting

UR UPLOAD dictates your server speed.

 

Sorry buddy, but Verizon is most definitely not the fastest, there is comcast, but they are still not the fastest either.
You need a T3 connection, that is the fastest, and good luck paying that incredibly amazing bill lol.

 

They start with a much large pipe, minimum 1Gbps, we currently have capacity of 16Gbps and adding more as needed and with multiple backbone providers, you on the other hand are limited to one connection with one ISP, also your ISP while trying to satisfy your need for download knows you don't plan on running a hosting company so they limit your upload, you can ask your ISP for pricing on higher bandwidth plans and maybe a commercial plan that gives you more that one static IP, this way you can run other services, while this can help improve your connection you are still have one point of failure.

 

Hi,

You should probably look into either co-locating you server at a data center because in the long run the bandwidth will be cheaper and more readily available for upgrades and you will already get reliable power and other goodies that come with co-locating.

According to Wikipedia on the Fios TOS: Section 3.7.5 states that "you may not use the Broadband Service to host any type of server whether personal or commercial in nature."
It also says that the business plan is excluded from this restriction.

A T1 line is significantly slower (1.544Mbit/s) and more expensive ($1000/m+ in some areas) than his 15Mbit/s Verizon Fios with 2Mbit/s up.
A T3 line is faster at 44.736 Mbit/s but again is significantly more expensive than the 15Mbit/s Fios and T1 line.

These are not even close to the fastest available connections but you may find it difficult to find anything faster depending on your area.

Your best bet is to co-locate or rent a dedicated server from a provider.

 

For any data intensive / high traffic or high bandwidth requirement, suggest you to opt for dedicated servers. They would have professionals to manage the data-center, give you data backup facility and also prevent you to a large extent from hackers etc. God forbid, should anything go wrong with your connection (despite a T1) - the pages would not be served and your site would loose a few loyal visitors... so while you focus on content of your site, you may as well let professionals host and manage your server.

HTH,