[plug] DIY hosting - worth it?

[Steve Boak]

On Saturday 30 September 2006 21:01, Gavin Chester wrote:
> DIY hosting - is it worth it?
>
> There are a lot of pros and cons to running your own web server at home,
> so I'm hoping that initiating this thread will evoke a lot of opinions
> both ways from those that have actually done it/doing it here in WA :-)
>
> I can think of some pitfalls:  need for dedicated box with UPS, chewing
> power having it 'on' all the time, 
[...]

I know you mentioned money being non-existant for this project, but if you 
want to save on your power bill I recommend one of the VIA EPIA M-Series 
Mini-ITX Mainboards, 
<http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/motherboards.jsp?motherboard_id=81>
coupled with a laptop drive they make a superb silent, low power server 
running on a laptop power supply. I've used this setup for the last four 
years on an ISDN line (128k/128k) 25km from Nannup without a single problem. 
Another advantage is they last for HOURS on a UPS if the power goes off, 
which it does regularly here :-)

I started off with one of these:
http://www.elx.com.au/item/ELS1002
and upgraded to an EN1200 board a couple of months ago as my server has 
somehow morphed into a desktop as well. This page:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article609-page4.html
claims it runs at 17W idle, 24W under load. Linux support for both is 
excellent.

Steve

-- 
Steve Boak, (08) 9756 0662, P.O. Box 240, Nannup, WA 6275
Nannup Telecentre IT support, ph (08) 9756 3022
Engin (VoIP) number (08)64616187 (Local number in Perth)