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- Where do I put my server?
Where do I put my server?
I've written a server that I want running 24/7 but I don't want to keep my computer on at all times and get a giant electric bill. Are there virtual machines or something out there I can use? I know next to nothing about cross-platform programming and can't even guarantee my server will work on a different version of Windows than mine.
Chances are your program will run on any modern version of Windows. You can check out server hosting plans. I've heard that *nix-based servers are cheaper than Windows Servers.
The main question is what type of server is it, web, file, proxy etc ?
If its a web based sever you can use wordpress to host and create a website.
But you will have to use their tools not yours.
If its a file server you better off hosting it yourself because you have 100%
control. You can make back the cost of electricity bills by including a small
fee for parts of the service, the chances of a company allowing you to
have full control over their server for free is next to none.
You will still have to pay either way.
You can use a (NAAS) but this is for a whole virtual network
instead of a single server, you may be able to get server
from one of these companies, but you will have to pay.
Service models are not limited to these in the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_as_a_service
If its a web based sever you can use wordpress to host and create a website.
But you will have to use their tools not yours.
If its a file server you better off hosting it yourself because you have 100%
control. You can make back the cost of electricity bills by including a small
fee for parts of the service, the chances of a company allowing you to
have full control over their server for free is next to none.
You will still have to pay either way.
You can use a (NAAS) but this is for a whole virtual network
instead of a single server, you may be able to get server
from one of these companies, but you will have to pay.
Service models are not limited to these in the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_as_a_service
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If you don't want your system to draw a lot of power then build it so that it doesn't draw a lot of power, what is the problem here? I just threw together a mini-iTX solution that draws 60 Watts, that's what the old incandescent light bulbs used to draw and it only took me 5 minutes. It would be around $450 before shipping and tax and it would include Windows 7 so that you can roll back the license in case you need to.
The reason to rent a server is that tier 2 and tier 3 ISP's don't offer guaranteed up-time for home users like tier 1's do for business accounts. So at any given time your server could become unreachable through no fault of your own and there would be nothing you could do about it. Renting a server puts you on the hosting companies infrastructure and gives you better assurance against downtime for what works out to be less overhead. If none of that matters or makes sense to you then don't bother renting.
The reason to rent a server is that tier 2 and tier 3 ISP's don't offer guaranteed up-time for home users like tier 1's do for business accounts. So at any given time your server could become unreachable through no fault of your own and there would be nothing you could do about it. Renting a server puts you on the hosting companies infrastructure and gives you better assurance against downtime for what works out to be less overhead. If none of that matters or makes sense to you then don't bother renting.
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Here's a better definition of my "server". It's actually a client (written in C++, ofc) that connects to my email provider's IMAP server and frequently checks for new messages. When a message is found, its contents are dissected for the sender address, among other things. The program then connects to my email provider's SMTP server and sends an appropriate response back to the sender address.
I don't know much about this kind of thing so bear with me :P. I guess I'm looking for a service that will allow me to upload an executable and run it; the program itself handles all of the networking. I figured I would have to use a virtual machine with cloud computing or something. I've paid for a year of web hosting with ipage, if that can be of use somehow?
I don't know much about this kind of thing so bear with me :P. I guess I'm looking for a service that will allow me to upload an executable and run it; the program itself handles all of the networking. I figured I would have to use a virtual machine with cloud computing or something. I've paid for a year of web hosting with ipage, if that can be of use somehow?
| The program then connects to my email provider's SMTP server and sends an appropriate response back to the sender address. |
For my own benefit, do you use a library for this? I've been stuck on the encryption protocols for ESMTP for a little while now. Just sending mail is easy but I can't find an Email service provider that doesn't require authentication for obvious reasons.
Why do you think you would need a VM or a cloud server for this? I've already said that you shouldn't bother renting server space but since you already have I guess it's too late now.
Have you written the service yet? If you haven't then you jumped the gun on renting the server.
Can't you just configure your email server to send a custom vacation-type reply to the sender?
| For my own benefit, do you use a library for this? I've been stuck on the encryption protocols for ESMTP for a little while now. Just sending mail is easy but I can't find an Email service provider that doesn't require authentication for obvious reasons. |
Yep. It was extremely tedious at first compiling the library files..tons of linker errors. I used OpenSSL, though. You'll still need to authenticate, as you can imagine, connecting via SSL or TLS.
Not sure if I understand what you're asking, as you can send email via SMTP on port 25 without authentication, even through telnet (ex: telnet mx2.hotmail.com 25). Checking email was the hard part for me because you need login credentials and an encrypted connection. My program uses SMTP over port 465 (SSL) for sending mail, and it requires authentication as well.
| Why do you think you would need a VM or a cloud server for this? I've already said that you shouldn't bother renting server space but since you already have I guess it's too late now. Have you written the service yet? If you haven't then you jumped the gun on renting the server. |
I created a website for my service; needed to do that regardless.
| Can't you just configure your email server to send a custom vacation-type reply to the sender? |
Negative. The program doesn't simply send a generic reply to the sender, there's a bit more to it than that.
Thanks for your responses, btw.
| Not sure if I understand what you're asking, as you can send email via SMTP on port 25 without authentication, even through telnet (ex: telnet mx2.hotmail.com 25). |
This is good to know, all of my testing has been against Hotmail's new mail server: smtp.outlook.com which was giving me some problems when I tried to do this before. IIRC the error I was getting back was indicating that the commands I sent were in the wrong order which I assumed to mean that it wanted me to negotiate an encryption scheme before I sent the logon credentials. I guess it's time to revisit this. Maybe I can put up another article that makes up for the stupid mistakes I made in the first one.
I think the problem here is that you are being too vague with the description of your project. What you've described so far sounds like nothing more then an Email client like Thunderbird or Outlook, neither of which require a website to do the things you are talking about. I still don't understand why you think you would need a VM especially now that your service is being hosted on a website.
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buy some embedded device and run it as a server. If you dont like low level programming you can always buy something which can run OS, for example raspberry PI, beagle board, cubie board, intel Galileo and hundreds more. Such devices use very little power compared to PC and can run linux or wince.
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