setting up home server. need recommendations.

[glennyong]

guys.

i am setting up a home server to host my website. so er.. i am no computer pro so i am lost in setting it up.

1) basic system requirements ? i know i'll have to get a basic pc, with a good hdd. but will 512mb of ram be enough ?? :dunno:

2) wad OS does the server need ??

3) i am running 2 pcs, and 2 laptops from one router. and the line is shared with maxtv. so can i still run a server ?

4) i dun mind paying for domain names and etc etc.. but i do mind paying for webspace which is rather little.. 100mb cannot tahan my website plus some other websites in the near future so i can only pay for domain names.

5) i need all the help i can get ??

and i dun mind treating the person who get help me set up the server at my home thou...

many many thanks in advance.... and very very paiseh for so many qns at one time....

i didnt ask this is HWZ because i very noob there, and they reply very technical stuffs which i may get lost... :bsmilie:

 

[jnet6]

more ram is recommended.(depending on OS, win XP recommend to have more than 1GB) HDD space depends on what are you running...

There are few choices from windows to linux or other (open source)...

Yes you can still run a server with a router + max-online.

For the domain name... you need to have a permanent IP address inorder for the domain name to recongnise yr computer(server) at home.(which will cost a lot)
i'm not sure is there any software that can do the mapping of yr ip address to the domain name.
if you can solve that, you should be about to use the "full" HDD space @ yr own server.

 

[jbma]

1. Good hard disk alone is not good enough. 512 MB of RAm is certainly not enough. My advice is get the max which usually is about 4 GB.

2. You will need Windows Server 2003 or Linux.

3. You cannot run a server from your current setup. You will need a static IP address i.e. a permanent one.

4. You will need a lot of disk space to run a server especially when running Raid which I strongly recommend.

5. Yes you will need some help here.

 

[glennyong]

seems like the OS problem solved. so its Windows Sever 2003 / XP ?? i have XP, no Windows Server 2003, but shouldnt be a problem landing my hands on one copy.

hmmm.. ALot of hdd, is 20GB enough ??

cause my idea is to run a old pc as a server to host my website and a few others thats all....

1GB rams also expensive.. older 1GB rams are cheaper ? :dunno:

ok i dunno wads RAID too.... :dunno:

static IP. gosh... (this one... i dunno man..... lost totally.. dunno hw to settle this too..)

 

[raptor84]

Umm even my laptop is running out of space at 60GB so 20 gb would not be enough. I beleve now the SATA 160GB hdds are pretty cheap.

A Raid array is just 2 or more hard drives acting to getther to perfrom as one drive. The most popular 2 configurations are Raid 0 and Raid 1. Raid 0 makes 2 drives act one one huge one giivng you much better data throughput while Raid 1 makes one drive act as a mirror so in the event of a failure of one drive, the other still functions as per normal.

As for rams depending on your motherboard it would deermine what sor of rams you can buy. If your server wont be running database intensive stuff I guess 2gb shloud be enough. The best is buying the most you can afford because windows is very ram hungry.

Everytime you switch on your cable modem it queires a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server at SH's side to get an IP assigned. This IP lease expires every 48hours IIRC so after that it will automatically query again to be assigned a new one. I guess this is thier way of preventing people from seting up file sharing servers from thier home.
Static IP's can only be proivded from those busniess based plans i think. I am not sure on this issue.

 

[paper_33]

seems like the OS problem solved. so its Windows Sever 2003 / XP ?? i have XP, no Windows Server 2003, but shouldnt be a problem landing my hands on one copy.

hmmm.. ALot of hdd, is 20GB enough ??

cause my idea is to run a old pc as a server to host my website and a few others thats all....

1GB rams also expensive.. older 1GB rams are cheaper ? :dunno:

ok i dunno wads RAID too.... :dunno:

static IP. gosh... (this one... i dunno man..... lost totally.. dunno hw to settle this too..)

Hi Glennyong

you may want to take a look at no ip
http://www.no-ip.com/services/managed_dns/free_dynamic_dns.html

it's a FREE service, and probaly will solve your problem if you do not have a static ip

Cheers

 

[bionic]

A good place to start is http://www.dslwebserver.com

 

[shojibake]

Deh you don't really need 2GB of ram. It really depends on what kind of services you want to run on your server, and what kind of OS. you could try freebsd.org or any of the other linux distros.

 

[Kho King]

if just a simple server then you dont really need the biggest HDD or RAM. Just set it up to run properly and think about upgrading later.

btw, even if you have lots of ram and HDD space but if your ISP connection is slow, then you will still be serving public slowly.

 

[yanyewkay]

are you expecting tremendous amount of visitors or data traffic to your site?

If it's only for familiy or friends to surf around, share some photos, XP with 1GB ram would suffice, also land your hands on the fastest HD you can get.

Either way, the upload speed of SCV's Maxonline is rather miserly, so even if you're sharing like 10MB of data/photos will take quite a bit of time for your visitors to download. It's worse during peak hours.

:think: what web site you hosting? need such a big webspace? :dunno:

 

[dEthANGeL]

Woah .. you're serious huh :sweat:

I'm running a server for my site.

Its an aging HP Netserver LH Pro (Pentium Pro) 128MB of RAM... it currently serves my webpages/FTP. - You don't need such a high end machine. What's with going everything high end? You're not running something mission-critical.

You just need to have say maybe a Pentium II ... with 256MB of RAM 8-10GB, go download a copy of Ubuntu, read up and configure accordingly.

1) basic system requirements ? i know i'll have to get a basic pc, with a good hdd. but will 512mb of ram be enough ?? :dunno: - read above.

2) wad OS does the server need ?? - Win2k / Any variant of linux - Ubuntu prefered.

3) i am running 2 pcs, and 2 laptops from one router. and the line is shared with maxtv. so can i still run a server ? - yes and no. You can run a server on SCV, but make sure you read SCV's T&C ... and make sure you SECURE YOUR server.

4) i dun mind paying for domain names and etc etc.. but i do mind paying for webspace which is rather little.. 100mb cannot tahan my website plus some other websites in the near future so i can only pay for domain names. - Go for dynamic DNS services.

5) i need all the help i can get ?? - Read. Read. Read. There is no quick and fast way. You have to understand the basics and risk involved in running servers from home. Last thing you want is your site being defaced.

 

[Ola]

Most important is to consider your upload speed first.
No use setting up a server with lots of RAM and hard disk space but your upload speed is slow.

Upload speed for Maxonline -
Maxonline 2000 - Max 256K
Maxonline 6500 - Max 384K
Maxonline Ultimate - Max 1M

 

[dEthANGeL]

Most important is to consider your upload speed first.
No use setting up a server with lots of RAM and hard disk space but your upload speed is slow.

Upload speed for Maxonline -
Maxonline 2000 - Max 256K
Maxonline 6500 - Max 384K
Maxonline Ultimate - Max 1M

Maxonline maybe slow, but it still gets the job done provided you don't have people hot-linking and in the end - hogging your connection.

Proper QoS on router end is important too to limit the amount of traffic and speed made available.

 

[Ola]

Maxonline maybe slow, but it still gets the job done provided you don't have people hot-linking and in the end - hogging your connection.

Proper QoS on router end is important too to limit the amount of traffic and speed made available.

True but if you are opening the server to everyone, then the upload speed is a consideration.
Imagine if Clubsnap server is using a Maxonline 2000 line. :sweat: :sweat:

 

[dEthANGeL]

:bsmilie: For that sort of purpose - cannot lar... personal gallery / webpage / blog is sufficient. Not for heavy traffic.

At least you're in control of the machine and the machine lies in your own home. But like i said before, PLEASE SECURE YOUR MACHINE if you ever want to run such tasks.

 

[glennyong]

whoa.. i am extremely surprised that soo many people rallied to me when i called for help... i am so touched.. :cry:

ok. read up and did seek some advice thou... but none of my friends gave me good advices as compared to here... (darn them..)

i maybe linking up 1-2 pcs for the server thing. rams i will source for 2GBs, and the HDD, i will source too.

actually my purpose of setting up server is to host my portfolios, 1 photography gallery and 3 - 4 design portfolio, both of them are image intensive, however they are all around 56kb/picture. so i guess isnt much of an issue ?

both "websites" are flash animated. while i am making a non-flash webpage too.

first of all. i would like to say thanks to those who have contributed to this thread. very grateful to all !!

hmmmm this server security is something i fear also.... :think:

OS, i am not sure yet. but will decide again when the computers comes in.

 

[glennyong]

Most important is to consider your upload speed first.
No use setting up a server with lots of RAM and hard disk space but your upload speed is slow.

Upload speed for Maxonline -
Maxonline 2000 - Max 256K
Maxonline 6500 - Max 384K
Maxonline Ultimate - Max 1M

i am using 2000 thou.... but would be upgrading to 6500 in september...

 

[Klose]

Can buy a xbox and make it to a server running tux

 

[kegler]

i am setting up a home server to host my website. so er.. i am no computer pro so i am lost in setting it up.

1) basic system requirements ? i know i'll have to get a basic pc, with a good hdd. but will 512mb of ram be enough ?? :dunno:

Intel Xeon Processor 3GHz/ 2mb cache/ 1GB ram/ 3x72gb U320 HDD 10k rpm/ Raid5 controller etc

2) wad OS does the server need ??

easiest to setup would be Microsoft windows server 2003 standard R2

3) i am running 2 pcs, and 2 laptops from one router. and the line is shared with maxtv. so can i still run a server ?

sure, why not?

4) i dun mind paying for domain names and etc etc.. but i do mind paying for webspace which is rather little.. 100mb cannot tahan my website plus some other websites in the near future so i can only pay for domain names.

Get a static IP and register a domain name

5) i need all the help i can get ??

pm me if you need professional help

and i dun mind treating the person who get help me set up the server at my home thou...

many many thanks in advance.... and very very paiseh for so many qns at one time....

i didnt ask this is HWZ because i very noob there, and they reply very technical stuffs which i may get lost... :bsmilie:[/QUOTE]

 

[Drudkh]

why talk about spec when you have not even tell us what's the purpose of the web server and how much traffic can you expect? what ISP service are you using currently and the upstream speed available?
by the way, local ISPs discourage web hosting, as stated in the contract when you first signed up.