YEROC.US
Unquantized

You Got Served

The early days of self-hosting

Between March 28, 2002 and July, 27 2009 all of my web pages were hosted on a personal server connected to the internet via a broadband connection. Some changes in the site, my personal situation, and my desire to eliminate the burden on the broadband connection contributed to the decision to move the site to commercial hosting.

For historical purposes, descriptions of all of the machines I have used will be described here - from production servers to development servers and development desktops.

Machine Overview

  • Genesis - First production server
  • Davin - Development desktop from summer 2002 until Mar. 2003. Production server for Mar/Apr 2003. Static content server until Jan. 2004. Development server until 2006.
  • Teighler - development server in early 2006. Intermittent use in 2007
  • Lars - laptop travel PC from 2003 to 2004 - dev server in summer 2006.
  • Andreas - production server from Mar 2003 until Aug 2009
  • HP Pavilion - has had various names - dev box from Mar 2003 until July 2006. Still in use (2009) as a home computer.
  • Centurion - laptop - development desktop/server since July 2006.

GENESIS Genesis

Genesis means "beginning". This machine was the first used in 2002. Despite its wimpy system specifications, Genesis performed well. With only a few visitors per day, it supported their needs just fine. It ran two different pieces of server software in its lifetime: vqServer and Apache 1.3. Despite the fact that it was running Windows 98, it was rock-solid. It would run for months without needing a reboot.

Genesis
Genesis with Monitor
Genesis' Cable Modem Connection

Genesis ran on port 80 for its first four months, but in June 2002, the internet service provider at the time blocked port 80, 25, 53, 443 so that no one could run a web server, mail server, or DNS server. I switched the ports from 80 to 8400 and continued serving. It ran until February 8th 2003 when it was superseded by DAVEN.

Genesis Specifications:

  • Manufacturer: Biostar (motherboard).
  • OS: Windows 98
  • CPU: One Pentium CPU - 133 MHz
  • RAM: 24 MiB DRAM
  • Storage: 1.0 GiB Quantum Fireball hard drive
  • Removable Media: 6x CD-ROM drive
  • NIC: SMC EtherCard 10 Mb with 10baseT and BNC connections.
  • UPS: None

Genesis has been decommissioned, and the steel case has been recycled. I still have the internal components.

Davin Davin

Davin (or Daven) was the first Linux-based server to be used.

Davin in Service

This machine was actually purchased on June 5th 2000 as a "family computer", when I was in sixth grade. It was used until February 2003 as a desktop workstation running Windows 98 second edition and served as the first desktop environment on which I developed web pages. After being replaced with an HP Pavilion in the "family PC" role, the hard drive was wiped clean and RedHat Linux 8.0 was installed.

Davin was used as the primary web server until April 2003, when Andreas and Davin continued to serve the images and other static files in what would today be called a two-machine "content delivery network" until January 2004.

Davin was then used as a development server/household file server until January 2006. It served as the basis for many experiments throughout its time, including a two-station LTSP (Linux Terminal Server) system. The machine was decomissioned after its power supply unit failed, and has been parted out.

Davin's Specs:

  • Manufacturer: Compaq.
  • OS: Redhat Linux 8.0
  • CPU: One AMD K6 - 533 MHz
  • RAM: 88 MiB SDRAM
  • Storage: One Maxtor 30 GiB 7200 RPM Drive
  • Removable Media: 36x/4x/4x CD-RW Drive
  • NIC: Accton Ethernet Adapter (Whatever it was that Compaq put in it...)
  • UPS: None

TeighlerTeighler

Teighler was a revived Pentium 133 that was designed as a more energy-conservative web development-only server. The box was stripped of everything but a 15 GB, 5400 RPM hard drive, and a network card. It ran Debian GNU/Linux 3.1. When I moved to Wilkes-Barre in 2006, Teighler was converted to the DJC Musikmeister, a rudimentary jukebox system that I used in our college apartment to play music and serve it to my roomates' computers over our apartment's LAN. The Musikmeister had a PHP application that allowed mpg321 to be controlled through a web interface.

Teighler
Teighler (DJC Musikmeister)

Teighler Specifications:

  • Manufacturer: Biostar (motherboard).
  • OS: Debian GNU/Linux 3.1
  • CPU: One Intel Pentium - 133 MHz
  • RAM: 64 MiB DRAM
  • Storage: Seagate 8.4 GiB 5400 RPM, Quantum Fireball 15 GiB 5400 RPM
  • Removable Media: Floppy, CDROM
  • NIC: Netgear 10/100 Mb Ethernet
  • UPS: APC BackUPS ES500

Andreas Andreas

Andreas was the real workhorse, and acted as the main server from March 2003 until July 27, 2009.

Andreas
Andreas (On the Right)

Andreas Specifications:

  • OS: Debian GNU/Linux 4.0
  • CPU: One AMD Athlon XP CPU - 1250 MHz actual, 1800 MHz "equivalent"
  • RAM: 512 MiB Double Data Rate
  • Storage: One Seagate 80 GiB 7200 RPM IDE Drive
  • Removable Media: 36x CD-RW Drive
  • NIC: Silicon Integrated Systems SiS900 10/100 Mb Ethernet
  • UPS: American Power Conversion BackUPS ES500 (500 VA - enough for 30 min. off-grid power).

CREATED/WRITTEN: