Looking to buy..../ Need server help

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 6:32 pm

Hey all. Recently i have discovered that you can turn an old Personal Computer into a server. What i want to do, is take the movies ive made, and host them myself. So, not only i was wondering how and if i ever got a PC to hook it up, (if u could explain it it would be great)...But was wondering if anyone had an old celeron or an old pentium or pentium 2 for sale?

Raptor, you'll probably help me with this, but i need to know, how to turn a old pentium computer into a server, to which people can connect from the internet to get the files.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 9:05 pm

One of the biggest problems you may find with an old Pentium server is that it will not be able to keep up with popular bandwith. Also, you have to know what you are doing and have a security systems set up. Simply placing your computer up on the web welcomes hackers and viruses, especially with Windows. Plus to set up a powerful enough and efficient server setup takes some time and knowledge. This is why people trust other hosts to run their websites.

The computer stays on all the time and uses it's IP address as the way of locating a site or file. When you have a domain name, it simply ties the www. whatever it is .com with that IP of the computer. That is basically what a server is.

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:33 am

Pretty simple, in some respects.. tough in others... many ISPs prohibit running a server.. you will need a static IP, and usually your upstream bandwidth is nowhere near what your down stream is... ADSL is usually only 128 kb upstream, which is what would be available to send files to your visitors. You will need a router that will allow you forward port 80 requests to your server, (port forwarding in the router config) and you will need to be running NT4, 2k or XP to have the IIS HTTP server....

One of the biggest problems you may find with an old Pentium server is that it will not be able to keep up with popular bandwith

Not lkikel;y to be a problem, I run a couple of high volume web servers on Celeron 800s and My mail server runs on a P-II 350MHz box running 2k, and processes about 15,000 emails per day, also run a couple of web servers on P-III 500 MHZ boxes. Serving files is a super light operation, drive speed is much more crucial than proc speed.

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:43 am

Ok heres my other thing. I have to work off external IP addresses, comcast is crackin down on how many things go off that s***. Currently i run a Hub not a router, so no other Ip addresses are there. I have 2 in use (this computer and downstairs comp)...But got 1 left. Would that work?

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 4:20 am

Yeah, but you should definitely be running a router instead of the hub, as much to firewall the server as anything else. I can all but guarantee that within two hours of brining the server up unfirewalled or at least unsecured... it will be compromised. Also make certain that comcast allows servers. Many cable based providers do not allow any servers since it can cause a hellacious upstream load, which is usually the weak point of cable broadband,\. Remember they want to provide good downstream service, for we browsing. If you could efficiently run a server on a cable connection, why would people be paying big bucks for a T-1 ( we pay $400 per month for our line at work we got it that cheap because we are a school and it is not being used commercially). Understand I probably spend 10 to 15 hourse per weeek strictly on security at work. If you simple leave the machine sit and don't keep after it, it will be compromised... and then you get hate mail, your IP blacklisted... all kinds of fun stuff...

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 1:24 pm

Wow maybe i should just pay for hosting eh? hehehe

El Brenty · Post by **El Brenty** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:06 pm

Can't you set up an old 486 as a switch instead of a router?