how many running their own server

and what's the weapon of choice?

[idiotgirl]

After wasting several hours of my life begging and pleading with my host to install mod_rewrite last week, my son took pity on me and built a Linux server over the weekend from one of our spare computers, just for something to do.

And it works. Oh my. My, my, my.

I'm wondering what portion of the WebmasterWorld 'members' are actually running their own servers to host client sites - and what are their machine specs?

Yes, I'm feeling entirely too ambitious.

Kinda reminds me of the recent article, 'How To Tell If Your Son is a Hacker'... Maybe he is

[rcjordan]

If you're connecting from a residential broadband account and plan to run a web server on it, better check their TOS. It's usually a no-no.

[idiotgirl]

I can run from mr. idiotgirl's high-speed at the office.

[Mike_Mackin]

>how many running their own server

running is one thing
housing the server is another

Most people I talk to have a rack in a secure location with redundant high speed lines near a hub.

They RUN them from their home or office or laptop for that matter.

[idiotgirl]

mr. idiotgirl's office has a server room in a large city near Redmond - so I don't think this in itself will be an issue. They already have high speed lines, backup, etc.

I'm just wondering what the typical hardware setup is because it's more of an outside project.

[DaveN]

Me - I work for a local ISP.

2 meg fibre line - (shared)

webserver (NT) dual P3 1ghz
Twim IBM's (10,000rpm)
1gig PC133 ram

DaveN
looking at linux at the moment but it scares the willies out of me;)

[Mike_Mackin]

You can configure them so many ways.

Check this out [originnetworks.com] no connection to them.

[satanclaus]

Quick n Dirty version: All of our servers are at least 1Ghz dual processor intel machines with at least 512MB of memory and various fast SCSI drives for storage. Our ISP has like a 100Mb connection. We run FreeBSD.

[EliteWeb]

i run my own server (:
Debian distro installed.

[idiotgirl]

Since at one current ISP I'm only using a few gig of space plus transfer - I don't know that I need monster processing. Fast speed - yes - but I don't know that I need such a fast processor aka 2 x 1GH. Seems like overkill. Then again, maybe I do. That's why I'm asking.

Since I've only ever worked with Linux boxes - I think Linux Redhat is the safe bet. I also heard about Apache on Novell - but that seems a little exotic.

[Josk]

watch yourself with Redhat...it has a tendency to install as much as it can, until you get into "little hatchling surrounded by crocadiles, tweating away" syndrome.

[nosanity]

Well, I would have to say RH 7.1, stripped down to the basics, keeping all the management tools they have built in and then running Apache/mod_ssl/mod_apc/php4. For any people who decide to run RH, make sure you check out the selinux kernel. A little higher maintinance, but well worth it. Much greater file system security. Also, shut down all services before you put it live. You only need less than 5 minutes for your server to be comprimised.

Well...

noSanity

[littleman]

If you have a smalltime web bud-jet than Linux+apache or *BSD+apache is the way to go. You have amazing free tools at your disposal (like MySQL) and the the configurability of apache allows you to do just about anything you could imagine. Pick the distribution of your flavor.

I am not a fan of Cobalt.

[satanclaus]

If you're already comfortable w/ RH then you probably should stick with it. Its why I stick with FreeBSD.

There is no such thing as overkill in processing power!! ;) Besides Linux gives you a perfectly good excuse to dump more money on multi-processors in that is does a great job at utilizing them.

[nosanity]

Has anybody tried an SMP Linux config using AMD's MP Polomino Core processors?

noSanity

[tilt]

> begging and pleading with my host to install mod_rewrite...
The easiest solution is to find a new host that is more flexible, and it's done. If you host your own server, then *you* have to install mod_rewrite as well as everything else you may need.

> I can run from mr. idiotgirl's high-speed at the office...
I don't know what size office this is, but you may want to run *outside* their firewall to maintain their security and limit your liability.

> I don't know that I need such a fast processor...
If you get a lot of traffic, a fast processor will help. A webserver will typically spawn a new thread for each connection. The greater the number of connections, the more the cpu has to work.

But, to answer your question -- no, I don't run my own server.:)