Making a dedicated sever

[GoldenMerc]

Is it possible + Legal to make a dedicated sever in your home? Plus how much is the average cost to put it all together then run it per month?
Ross

[triston220]

I don't think it's illegal, but the costs are fairly high I think.

[Jack!]

Well, you could a PC, hook it up to the network, and if you need to go on it you have virtual desktop thingy with xp, share all the files on the network. that's what i do for my media server, films and music on it

[GoldenMerc]

Nah i want a proper severr reallyyyy

[Luke]

Shouldn't you complete your 'survalience' system first?

And it ain't gonna happen. If you're wanting to have the same effect as a datacentre dedi, you can't. You can't get a connection fast enough..

[GoldenMerc]

I've connected my cameras to my pc atm and just hosting them on justin.tv untill i have the need.

I know i wont get the same effect but wont i get anything close to it?
Ross

[Luke]

Only locally. If you try to host na internet server, it'll be slow for others AND some ISPs don't allow it..

[GoldenMerc]

Aww that sucks.

[Apolva]

Of course it's legal.

Whether people will want to pay for your services is unlikely (data centres have VERY fast internet connections which you can't match with a domestic ISP).

Still could be useful for things requiring high processing power but low transfer rates (eg. document conversion, 3D rendering, etc.)

Edit - you could use it for your cameras...
I once set up an old P4 machine to take a picture through a camera and upload via FTP to my web host every few seconds, worked very well since all the traffic went to my web host rather than my "server". I used Dorgem to set it up: http://dorgem.sourceforge.net/

[Recursion]

Buy a small m-ITX motherboard with an Atom CPU and built in PSU, put 2GB RAM on it, get an old HDD and leave it ticking away for however long, low power, efficient and would host anything you would need it to... just couldn't sell it on as a hosting server, datacenters have many pipes going in, at very high speeds... not even worth comparing to your home broadband.

[Jordy]

I'm pretty certain the vast majority of ISPs don't allow it and it's against their terms and conditions? Most try to throttle you if you excessively upload stuff as it is, if you're hosting a website it'll drain your upload speeds very quickly. Plus it's very expensive hosting in the UK seeing as electricity is so expensive for a server running 24/7, hence why when you buy most hosting online it comes from Texas where electricity is dirt cheap.

You also don't get the reliability if you have a server in your own house, at data centres they have major backups, people there 24/7 to reboot the servers and give maintenance etc if things go wrong. If things go wrong on your server then it can't be fixed till you get home, it's not really doable at all.