Host Your Blog/Website From Your PC.

[anandk]

I came across this 2-3 MB vista compatible freeware softie PurpleNova ! Apparently you can now host a website/blog, from home !

Ya, one could always do so earlier too, but for that you needed to get a static IP address and host a website, or subscribe to a Dynamic DNS service if you had real dynamic IP. Unlike file-sharing in P2P networks, this one claims that it dznt need any special software, and looks more secure, as all content is filtered. On the flip side, Purplenova does not seem to provide a “community” portal like P2P offerings usually do. One drawback of self-hosting, which imdtly came to my mind is the obvious fact that the computer needs to be ON all the time.

Have a look at www.purplenova.com

[ravi_9793]

sounds good....but this need to keep my PC on for 99% time.

[Choto Cheeta]

Not BAD... if you have a Decent Static IP based Connection... TATA Broad Band is known to give great uploading speed... and their Post paid plans comes with Static IP..

So here is one Thought from me...

Start the Web Site from your Home.. I am not sure about th software as not yet tested it...

how ever here is the setup one would need...

• TATA Indicom BoardBand Connection
  Monthly Rs. 1060/- 5 GB DATA Limit with Speed of upto 2 mbps...
  
• Low Budget Web Server
  A PC Under Rs. 20k would do... http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/show...ewpost&t=66140
  
• One DNS Manager Like EveryDNS
  
• A Domain Name around Rs. 450/- per year

hmm.. not a BAD deal..

[Gigacore]

Yeah we need 99.99999 % uptime, which is not possible in India for a common person.

Anyway thanks for the post.

[Choto Cheeta]

Originally Posted by Gigacore

Yeah we need 99.99999 % uptime, which is not possible in India for a common person.

Anyway thanks for the post.

Why not Santosh ??? with a Better UPS we too can run 24x7...

[Gigacore]

What about the net connection bro, is it 100% stable ?

[casanova]

Thx for the info. It can be helpful while some1 is trying his hand at website building.

[mehulved]

I have everything ready for hosting a site except good upload speeds

[iMav]

this wont work in india simply because all the ISPs here have the 12 hr session time out ... yes even tata has it .... sify has it and tata also has it ... which means u need to log out and login again even if a torrent is downloading in the background and even if u have set a page n ur browser to reload every minute

[casanova]

Nah, iMav atleast I never saw it.

I was having a TATA broadband that never required a login
Now, I am having a Reliance broadband and it does require a login however there is no time constraint to it.

PS: Both connections were postpaid

[iMav]

^^ what sh!t .... i have to login after every 12 hours ... else the seesion crashes .... same was the case with sify i asked tata they said our systems are made that way

[QwertyManiac]

I seriously think No-IP + Apache would do a better job than this.

[Choto Cheeta]

Originally Posted by mehulved

I have everything ready for hosting a site except good upload speeds

Mehul, TATA really gives great uploading speeds and all Post paid plans comes with free Static IP...

[piyush gupta]

I have BSNL broadband Post paid plan

I never do a log in ....

and usually i m connected for weeks

[QwertyManiac]

Doesn't BSNL reconnect every 24 hours automatically? I thought mine did... Dynamic IP services need to refresh.

[casanova]

@iMav

I never required to login to my TATA Broadband. BTW, do u have a prepaid connection. Further, there are two distributions of Tata Broadband. One is simply TATA broadband and the other TATA broadband VSNL.

@Qwerty,
My reliance broadband is having a dynamic ip. I never had to refresh it even though I have remained connected for 3-4 days continuously.

@iMav
What do you do to reconnect in your absence and how do you trigger it.

[QwertyManiac]

So you've been using the same IP for 3 days across? I am not saying YOU have to refresh, it automatically does.

[casanova]

Never checked it. Will confirm and let you know soon.

[mehulved]

Originally Posted by Choto Cheeta

Mehul, TATA really gives great uploading speeds and all Post paid plans comes with free Static IP...

tata sux big time.
Hathway sucks less. I've hardly had any complaints about them except that I have to use my own DNS server. Downtimes are fixed up quite fast.
From what I have heard about tata, I am much better off staying away from it.
I have no disconnection or any such problem. Hathway gives me a free static IP, too.

[Ankur Gupta]

Yes MTNL/BSNL has a time period for which lease is obtained after which it disconnects and reconnects automatically...You can change it from the router though...its 8 hrs by default for MTNL...

[reachrishikh]

I have been giving a lot of thought to self-hosting, and have come up with this -

MTNL Triband currently offers decent upload/download speeds, and decent packages. I currently use the night unlimited package.
I have often seen that my upload speeds exceed download speeds in torrent clients (even though they have been configured to the optimum).
Which means, MTNL's upstream data capacity is really good.

Now they have a plan for Rs. 200, wherein you get a download cap of 400 megs a month, with no cap on uploads.
They also have a scheme applicable to all plans, where one could lease a fixed IP from them for a cost of Rs. 1000/- per year.

So, if someone wants to host a low-traffic personal (or even business website for that matter), all he needs to do is this -
1) Get a separate mtnl telephone line, so that you do not book up the existing line, and set it exclusively as the internet link for your web server.
2) Get a Rs. 200 Triband plan from them. If you use that phone line/internet plan solely for the web server, and it really is low-traffic, then you're not likely to even use the whole 400 megs downstream bandwidth in a month.
3) Get them to assign you a fixed IP. Now I am assuming the connection refreshing problem you guys have been discussing shouldn't crop up when the ISP assigns a fixed IP to your internet connection, so that's one worry less.
4) Register your own domain name. They cost around 400-450 bucks a year.
5) Set up a separate box, made of cheap hardware parts for the server. You can even use an old computer for that purpose.

So the monthly costs would come to around 320/- bucks a month, dividing the fixed ip charges and the fixed annual domain costs, and calculating their cost in the above figure.

It is far cheaper than many of the paid hosting solutions available out there, and you have all the hdd space you want, instead of the measly few gigabytes that most offer. The only cap on uploads bandwidth would come to around 75 GB per month at an average upload speed of 256 kbps, assuming MTNL does not have a problem with it, and neither does it have an issue with you running a web-server off their home broadband lines, and assuming it utilizes the 256 kbps upstream data transfer every second of the allotted month. But I doubt a low-traffic website would ever utilise that much, unless you also want to use it as an ftp server.
A little tip here - you can always store all pictures on sites such as imageshack and videos on youtube and put up pointer-links to them, so you have less to store on your own server, and consequently, use up less of your own bandwidth.

Also, you are free to set up your server the way you want, install only those applications that you are comfortable with, and see to the security and maintenance of your server/data in the way you want. Think of the convinience!

But this will only work if you're a geek and know what to do and how to manage the server. Otherwise, you'd be better off outsourcing your hosting.


Now the only factor inhibiting myself from going out and doing such a thing is the electricity bills. My dad already is always on my case for the one 24x7 running computer that racks up such a large bill, I wonder how much 2 systems, where atleast one will have to run 24x7 because it is a server, will consume in terms of electricity.
Now there can be a solution to that as well, but it may sound a bit far-fetched. Generate your own energy. I have been reading up on generating alternate sources of energy at home, for personal use, but haven't tried anything yet. But still, it is doable.
You might be able to generate atleast as much energy, as will be required by the box that runs the server, and you're all set. It is really possible to generate your own power. Just don't ask me how yet, I'm still looking for the answer myself, and when I find out, I'll let you guys know.

[amanjagga]

Originally Posted by reachrishikh

I have been giving a lot of thought to self-hosting, and have come up with this -

MTNL Triband currently offers decent upload/download speeds, and decent packages. I currently use the night unlimited package.
I have often seen that my upload speeds exceed download speeds in torrent clients (even though they have been configured to the optimum).
Which means, MTNL's upstream data capacity is really good.

Now they have a plan for Rs. 200, wherein you get a download cap of 400 megs a month, with no cap on uploads.
They also have a scheme applicable to all plans, where one could lease a fixed IP from them for a cost of Rs. 1000/- per year.

So, if someone wants to host a low-traffic personal (or even business website for that matter), all he needs to do is this -
1) Get a separate mtnl telephone line, so that you do not book up the existing line, and set it exclusively as the internet link for your web server.
2) Get a Rs. 200 Triband plan from them. If you use that phone line/internet plan solely for the web server, and it really is low-traffic, then you're not likely to even use the whole 400 megs downstream bandwidth in a month.
3) Get them to assign you a fixed IP. Now I am assuming the connection refreshing problem you guys have been discussing shouldn't crop up when the ISP assigns a fixed IP to your internet connection, so that's one worry less.
4) Register your own domain name. They cost around 400-450 bucks a year.
5) Set up a separate box, made of cheap hardware parts for the server. You can even use an old computer for that purpose.

So the monthly costs would come to around 320/- bucks a month, dividing the fixed ip charges and the fixed annual domain costs, and calculating their cost in the above figure.

It is far cheaper than many of the paid hosting solutions available out there, and you have all the hdd space you want, instead of the measly few gigabytes that most offer. The only cap on uploads bandwidth would come to around 75 GB per month at an average upload speed of 256 kbps, assuming MTNL does not have a problem with it, and neither does it have an issue with you running a web-server off their home broadband lines, and assuming it utilizes the 256 kbps upstream data transfer every second of the allotted month. But I doubt a low-traffic website would ever utilise that much, unless you also want to use it as an ftp server.
A little tip here - you can always store all pictures on sites such as imageshack and videos on youtube and put up pointer-links to them, so you have less to store on your own server, and consequently, use up less of your own bandwidth.

Also, you are free to set up your server the way you want, install only those applications that you are comfortable with, and see to the security and maintenance of your server/data in the way you want. Think of the convinience!

But this will only work if you're a geek and know what to do and how to manage the server. Otherwise, you'd be better off outsourcing your hosting.


Now the only factor inhibiting myself from going out and doing such a thing is the electricity bills. My dad already is always on my case for the one 24x7 running computer that racks up such a large bill, I wonder how much 2 systems, where atleast one will have to run 24x7 because it is a server, will consume in terms of electricity.
Now there can be a solution to that as well, but it may sound a bit far-fetched. Generate your own energy. I have been reading up on generating alternate sources of energy at home, for personal use, but haven't tried anything yet. But still, it is doable.
You might be able to generate atleast as much energy, as will be required by the box that runs the server, and you're all set. It is really possible to generate your own power. Just don't ask me how yet, I'm still looking for the answer myself, and when I find out, I'll let you guys know.

Kai ko itna panga karta hai!
I am giving more cheap unlimited hosting than this.
If interested add me on
arinjagga@gmail.com
or
arinjagag@yahoo.co.in

[reachrishikh]

Kai ko itna panga karta hai!
Simply, because I am a geek, and, in the true spirit of loyal, long time Digit readers, I like doing crazy stuff/engaging in DIY projects.

And, this is the third time you have tried to push your hosting on me, desptite my having told you I don't want to spend any money on it the first time.
You are either using really hard sell tactics, or this is turning into spam.

And please read my post again, and more carefully. I don't think you can offer me more than what I get from self hosting.
I checked your website, your cheapest plans start at 500/- a month, with plenty of riders.
Whereas, in self hosting, I get essentially a fully customisable dedicated server, with my choice of hardware, and, not counting electricity costs, I only have to pay 320/- a month.
So, which is better, logically?

BTW, are you really 15?


(Look at me, I'm new here, been here hardly a couple of days, and I'm already getting into arguments/ and seemingly making enemies than friends. I din't want that, really. I wanted meaningful, technical discussions.)