Hosting from home

UK based

[mack]

Does anyone have any experience about home based hoasting in the uk using broadband with fixed ip address. I know that some of the service providers state that this is in breach of the tos within the connection package but some still allow it. How sucessfull would you say this aproach is when compared to the cost of conventional hosting for a large site. Obviously thre are downsides such as maintainace being your responsability and suport being non existant. what are your views on this?

[roscoepico]

I've hosted small sites here on my brdband connection in the past using a hostname my isp provided. It all came down to bandwidth, which after having more then 10 people connected at once didn't cut it. What type of connection speed are you working with?

[mack]

As of yet I dont have a conection set up. I am concidering ordering a broadband package, which I have been told will be available in my area within the next 3 months. The BT pachage is the one I was thinking about but I have been told that blueyonder is currently offering conection up to 10 times faster that bt broad band. I have been testing running my site loacly on apache. When you said it came down to bandwidth. Where your pages average or where they bandwidth consuming?

[roscoepico]

Mack, I'm not really the one who should be answering bandwidth questions but I believe you are to be concerned with your upstream as opposed to your downstream. Downstream is for downloading files/webpages while upstream would be the biggest factor in hosting your server at your home b/c this is going to determine the rate in which you can serve files, etc. So, I guess the question is whats's your upstream going to be like? I'm guessing your bandwidth won't be metered and will be unlimited?

[mack]

Yep upstream is always a lot slower than downsteam but is still a lot faster that an standard phone line.

Calls to bt and various providers have been pretty unhelpfull because this is a fairly unusual request. In a perfect world the solution i need would be a leased line. but that is 100% out of the question because of the cost involved.

[Crazy_Fool]

i wouldn't bother trying to host at home on broadband. fixed IPs aren't always as fixed and reliable as you think they are and although you get good upstream connection (for you to download), you get much worse downstream connections (for others to download from you).

the broadband providers will be unhelpful any time you try to do things on the cheap - you're just one of thousands that want to do the same. they all provide for server hosting at home / office / wherever, but it's a business service so you would need to call their business line and pay their business rates.

i'd recommend either using a leased line or colocating your server in a data centre. it's not that expensive and it's so much easier. less hassle = more time to work and earn money.

[red_bull]

This is something I have often wondered about. I belive broadband (downstream) is between 8-10 times faster that a standard dial up, although upstream it is sometimes a little as 2-3 times faster than a dial up line. I agree that the cost of a leased line is way above what I can afford to pay for a conection. What I would be interested in, is perhaps coming to an agreement with other like minded people who would be willing to share the connection and the cost. (this is not an advert eekng peopel who are interested) just a suggestion of what Mack could perhaps do. Contact other people and explain what you are interested in and see if they would be interested in perhaps working with you. Long shot but possible I suppose.

[Receptional]

Hosting from home Simply can't be worth it.

Do the maths - ADSL costs a phone line and £19 per month (Virgin, according to .net mag)

Virtual hosting costs what - from £5 per month? Let's assume you get a good virtual hosting package - one that does skimp - that £19 per month buys you most things including bandwidth. I read somewhere that webmasterworld is still running on a virtual. So start virtual if you can, moving to co-located in the future.

Dixon.

[Dreamquick]

I think you might also find that broadband providers who currently turn a blind eye to servers being run on their connections could potentially stop people on non-business contracts from running servers quite easily if/when they wanted to.

Non-business connections aren't really designed to serve up content, rather they are designed to consume it.

Once the service providers decide their customers running servers are costing them too much then they will use one of those little clauses written into the contract you agreed to and *blam* there goes your ability to host a server accessible to the outside world.

- Tony

[jetboy_70]

With NTL in the UK (and likely with Blueyonder), if they need to reset your cable box remotely, your supposedly fixed IP could well be changed in the process. Not a big deal usually, but a potential site killer if you're hosting.

[dingman]

Another consideration on hosting from home over a broadband connection is reliability. I do it with a pair of domains that are operated at a loss as a hobby, and although my IPs are really fixed and my service agreement says I can run servers if I like (it's a "business" package), it is down far too often for anything commercial. Maybe UK broadband providers provide a higher level of service than Ameritech does here in IN, US, but unless you know that ahead of time, I'd be careful. My twenty-odd total users don't get to complain because they don't pay a dime, and I have enough bandwidth to support them all at the levels they use, but customers would probably complain.