On Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 9:28 AM, Gerhard Fiedler wrote: > John Ferrell wrote: > > > Has it come to the point where it is no longer desirable or practical t= o > > host from your own machine? > > There are ways around the Static IP thing so that should not be the > > limiting factor. > > The static IP is not the problem. Most consumer internet provider > service agreements prohibit you from running a server. You usually don't > get in trouble for running a server for personal use with low bandwidth, > but anything public is likely to get you in trouble sooner or later. > Plus, most such connections are asymmetric and have a low upload > bandwidth. > > Typically a commercial provider plan (allowing you to run a server) is > much more expensive than a consumer plan plus hosting costs with a > professional hosting company. Using a hosting company is probably also > 'greener' in most cases. > > Exactly. I looked extensively on running my own server (for example, one of my purposes is for providing web services to students at U of T, and serving large files), but the ONLY inhibiting factor is the cost for a network connection suitable for server use. I live in Toronto, and there's currently no ISP here that provides a decent upload rate for a cost that can justify running your own server. Normal consumer ISPs normally don't provide you with more than a 1Mbit/s upload and that's barely enough for my personal use alone. The fastest I found was Bell that offered a 25Mbit/s download and 10Mbit/s upload at consumer prices (less than $100/month) but with a 125GB/month data limit, and that's not anywhere nearly enough for my purpose. Renting a Canadian Xen VPS costs me $7/month with full control over my system, and guaranteed RAM and CPU time, with a 100Mbit/s upload - that's really hard to beat. Also, take these words seriousyl: Bell/Rogers is a scam, and I want to avoid them at all costs. Shadiest companies ever - never trust them. --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .