Tech Corner

[jaylach]

Well I went and done did it. As of January my last two web sites will be off-line. Since it is pretty much now that you have to pay for search engine listing there isn't enough traffic to justify the cost increase my hosting wants to impose. This year I paid $175.00mfor the year. Now they want $350.00 which isn't going to happen.

Now, in the future, I MAY put them back up but don't know. Years ago I set up a server with everything except DNS. When I end up doing a new build it would leave my current second desktop with nothing to do. Even though old the system would probably do fine as a web server. Right now, as I'm stuck with Spectrum, it just would not be practical as Spectrum throttles my up speed to 5 Mb/sec. If my building ever gets wired for Blue Peak my up speed would be fiber optic at 1 Gb/sec which would be doable. I would use Apache, mySQL and PHP which all work under Windows just fine and are free. The only aspect I haven't done is a DNS as I set up the server to be able to locally test when I was re-writing my computer help forums templates. If nothing else it may be a fun and learning project.

 

[MattW]

A double price increase is ridiculous. Hopefully you can find a good alternative

 

[jaylach]

A double price increase is ridiculous. Hopefully you can find a good alternative

To be fair the $175.00 last year was a promotional thing but, at the time, I was told there would be something similar this year which, obviously, didn't happen.

If they ever get my building wired the resulting 1 Gb/sec up speed would be OK for running my own server using my current second desktop. I was thinking I'd need a DNS but not really true. Setting it up to be Internet facing on port 443 and using a dynamic DNS service to point my domain to my ISP provided IP address should work fine. I doubt that the NIC in the second system would be able to fully handle the 1 Gb/sec but adapters are cheap enough.

 

[anewbie]

Well I went and done did it. As of January my last two web sites will be off-line. Since it is pretty much now that you have to pay for search engine listing there isn't enough traffic to justify the cost increase my hosting wants to impose. This year I paid $175.00mfor the year. Now they want $350.00 which isn't going to happen.

Now, in the future, I MAY put them back up but don't know. Years ago I set up a server with everything except DNS. When I end up doing a new build it would leave my current second desktop with nothing to do. Even though old the system would probably do fine as a web server. Right now, as I'm stuck with Spectrum, it just would not be practical as Spectrum throttles my up speed to 5 Mb/sec. If my building ever gets wired for Blue Peak my up speed would be fiber optic at 1 Gb/sec which would be doable. I would use Apache, mySQL and PHP which all work under Windows just fine and are free. The only aspect I haven't done is a DNS as I set up the server to be able to locally test when I was re-writing my computer help forums templates. If nothing else it may be a fun and learning project.

Depending on your location it sounds cheaper to just get a static ip and setup your 'websever' in your home. You can use a old celeron machine with linux and apache. Whatever i would never pay for 'search engine listing' as that is a scam of the worse kind. Whoever invented that crap should be fed to the pigs.

 

[jaylach]

Depending on your location it sounds cheaper to just get a static ip and setup your 'websever' in your home. You can use a old celeron machine with linux and apache. Whatever i would never pay for 'search engine listing' as that is a scam of the worse kind. Whoever invented that crap should be fed to the pigs.

I already have a system that would become the server. Can't remember the exact model but it is running an FX series AMD CPU.

Won't do anything unless Blue Peak gets in the building with 1 Gb/sec up speed. As long as I'm stuck with Spectrum my up speed is throttled down to 5 Mb/sec.

 

[anewbie]

I already have a system that would become the server. Can't remember the exact model but it is running an FX series AMD CPU.

Won't do anything unless Blue Peak gets in the building with 1 Gb/sec up speed. As long as I'm stuck with Spectrum my up speed is throttled down to 5 Mb/sec.

You don't need 1 Gb/sec up or down; but 100 Mb would be nice and more than adequate. You can throttle the machine so it doesn't suck all your bw and dos your other usage. Anyway 5 Mb/sec is pretty bad not much better than some of the better modems.

 

[jaylach]

You don't need 1 Gb/sec up or down; but 100 Mb would be nice and more than adequate. You can throttle the machine so it doesn't suck all your bw and dos your other usage. Anyway 5 Mb/sec is pretty bad not much better than some of the better modems.

Won't do it at 5 Mb/sec. As to the 1 Gb/sec up/down that is the lowest fiber package from Blue Peak. It isn't so much what is needed but what is available.

 

[jaylach]

Here is an Apache install question.... As I'd be using an older system as the server why would I install Apache, PHP and mySQL under a base OS when Apache can be installed on it's own in most cases. While installing within a base OS tends to make configuration easier it is often not necessary. Would not installing Apache clean without a base OS allow more system resources to be available to the server?

Also please keep in mind that this is all speculation and not a high priority to make happen. I already have all my photos from the photo gallery and my animated GIF gallery is already running locally.

 

[seangee]

Here is an Apache install question.... As I'd be using an older system as the server why would I install Apache, PHP and mySQL under a base OS when Apache can be installed on it's own in most cases. While installing within a base OS tends to make configuration easier it is often not necessary. Would not installing Apache clean without a base OS allow more system resources to be available to the server?

Also please keep in mind that this is all speculation and not a high priority to make happen. I already have all my photos from the photo gallery and my animated GIF gallery is already running locally.

For that use system perfomance is probably never going to be the bottleneck these days. I am all for easy manintenance and portability.
Have you considered Docker container(s)?

 

[jaylach]

For that use system perfomance is probably never going to be the bottleneck these days. I am all for easy manintenance and portability.
Have you considered Docker container(s)?

If I end up doing the server the system would have no other purpose so I'm not interested in containers or VMs. I just don't see the real need.

On another note I have to laugh at myself for being dumb. If you ever use a web hosting outfit never use email addresses associated with the hosting for anything else but site reasons. Just finished changing some emails to my @hotmail.com account that used to go through an email through my hosting. Actually there were not many that matter so it was simple.

 

[seangee]

If I end up doing the server the system would have no other purpose so I'm not interested in containers or VMs. I just don't see the real need.

Haha. I manage a couple of Drupal sites. Upgrade processes have improved but every now and then one screws everything up (Drupal itself or Apache / PHP versions). That allows me to quickly and easily test with zero downtime. And if I ever need to change hosts I can just re-deploy the container and restore the DB.

 

[jaylach]

Haha. I manage a couple of Drupal sites. Upgrade processes have improved but every now and then one screws everything up (Drupal itself or Apache / PHP versions). That allows me to quickly and easily test with zero downtime. And if I ever need to change hosts I can just re-deploy the container and restore the DB.

That is why I do clones...

I've never used Drupal but have used Joomla and another that I can't remember. Since I can't find it I assume it is gone. Ahhh, looked in my local HTML folder and found it. It was XOOPS which I actually liked more than Joomla. Once I did a direct search for XOOPS I found it.

XOOPS Project by XOOPS

 

[jaylach]

While I doubt that I'll set up my own web server especially not until I'm able to get Blue Peak but I was doing updates and sort of wonder...

I have a micro computer attached to my 43 inch display on a different HDMI port than my main. Considering that I'd be running Apache in a VM on this tiny thing as I'd want to keep the Windows 11 install available. My concern would be heat under constant use but it does actually have a fan.

The system is like a 2 inch cube with a Celeron 4-core CPU. Also has a SATA M.2 1 GB drive for system and a 1 GB micro SD card for data. What are the possibilities of such a system working decently as a web server? Don't know what up/down speeds I'd get on the thing as the NIC ability is strictly wireless.

 

[jaylach]

Anyone know of a good free photo stitcher for making panoramas? I REALLY like Canon's free one but I need the install CD that originally had it to install. I can download the current installer but can't seem to find the CD that has it which is needed as the current download is actually an upgrade. It is probably here somewhere but...

 

[jaylach]

One of my banks just added a new two part authentication method. It is a voice phone call with a code that I like as it is MUCH quicker than the code being sent via email. Since they insist on two part I like the addition.

Still, since I only use a land line phone, it is pretty useless if I'm out with one of my laptops/tablets as I won't have the phone to get the code. Also, if a visitor got into the bank, the phone would give them the code. However, if someone got hold of my log in which would be pretty unlikely, they would not be able to complete a log in as the phone call would come to me, not them.

Bottom line is that, if I have to have two part, I like it.

BTW, one of my mobile systems is a Microsoft Surface 3 mostly used as an e-Book reader. Ya, I know, an expensive reader but I got it several years ago refurbished for, if I remember right, about $230.00 USD. I'm just not sure whether a 10 inch system would be called a tablet or a laptop. While I almost use it as a tablet for reading it DOES have a magnetically attached keyboard which may make it a small laptop. Of course, officially, it is considered a 2in1 but is it a 2in1 tablet or a 2in1 laptop? Of course it doesn't matter but I'm mostly rambling and just curious as to what it would be considered by others.