Well...I purchased a server. Really, it's just the server software I purchased for my power mac. It is almost identical to using the Leopard operating system, but it has some features specific to a server. More on that in a minute. Initially I just wanted to use it for my local network at home so that I could coordinate backups, and calendars, and create local network wikis for my Husband and I to use. Of course I could use it also for my hosting needs but there were hurdles to doing so. The two main hurdles were power usage/cost, and lack of a public static IP. How should one overcome these hurdles?
The obstacle of a public static IP not on the local network takes a bit of explanation. When you set up a server, it is possible to set it up on a local network with a private address. This would mean that only computers on the local network can access it and use its services. IP address on a local network tend to have addresses that start with 10 such as 10.0.0.1. Sometimes they also start with 172, or 192. The different starting sequences designates a different class. What most internet providers do is provide a dynamic address for your house so that you can access the internet directly (by connecting to whichever box they provide). Some people need to connect more than one computer at a time so they use a router which assigns address to the various computers on the local area network using the IP addresses described previously. With a server you can set the router to use a reservation so that one specific address is reserved for your server and the other computers can receive addresses distributed by the router. Sometimes the router changes the addresses of the different computers depending on how many computers/printers are on the network. It is possible to create a reservation for the computers too, but it usually isn't too important to do that. When a reservation is created for the server or any computer, effectively a static local IP is created. Servers need static IPs to run and provide services. These static IPs can be on a local network or public. So that's what I did initially. I set up my server on a local network using a private IP with a reservation. It works beautifully on the private network.
So why not just use the local network with the server? Well, it works fine, but it won't function as a web server to host my sites. A web server needs a static IP that is public (not on my local area network-LAN). The residential service provided by Optimum Online (my provider in the Bronx) will not sell me a static IP. This of course infuriates me and has sent me looking for another provider. There are local providers outside of the big guys such as Optimum, Time Warner. BWAY is one in the NYU area. The problem is that their service costs about $70 per month. Optimum Online will sell me Business Service (not residential like I have already) for about the same price, the speed is a little faster, and it includes a block of 5 static IPs. I checked my residential bill and I realized that I pay about $45 per month for dynamic residential internet service. The service would ordinarily cost $55 except that I get a discount for buying my phone and cable also from these clowns. Is paying an extra $25 per month for a business plan worth it? I'm still deciding...
As you might recall there is one more hurdle. The cost of running the server in my Mac Pro 24/7 (a server needs to be on-not in sleep mode). A Mac Pro gobbles up energy when it is on compared to other models. When I ran the calculations it would cost and extra $9.50 or so per month to run the Mac Pro 24/7 (based on current rates from the power company which of course are expected to increase). I knew that Mac Minis sipped power so I looked into using one as a server instead of my Mac Pro. There's someone named Edwin Olsen at MIT who has a funny article, and he argues that these things idle at 19 watts, and don't go above 38. This means that for estimation sake it used 25 watts, and I left it on for 365 days. It would cost me $21.90 per year to run the Mini server 24 hours per day. It is possible to purchase a Mac Mini used on eBay (that meets the specs to run the Leopard Server software) for about $300. Now I just need to convince my Husband. Wish me luck.
5/10 Update: I just purchased a used Mac Mini on eBay to use as a server. I haven't received shipment yet, but I'm very excited.
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