So my brother and his band have come out with a 7 song album. They have a Myspace site and they have 2 of their songs available to stream over the net (Andy's Safety Club if you're interested). My dad saw that they have over 150 plays. They have printed about 100 CDs with jackets. My dad thought that if we had a small server (hosted at our house) that would maximize their music sales instead of being tied strictly to the CD format. What kind of specs would I need if I wanted this server to host a pay-to-download site?
Basically this server is just going to host a pay-to-download type of shop. Maybe a bio page or something. I've not hammered out the whole idea.
Not that this question needs an immediate answer but one other concern would be site security. Not necessarily physical security since I'm pretty much the only really computer proficient person at my house and my neighborhood (if you can call it that; rural area of living) is pretty safe. No b&e's that I'm aware of. Just some software tips.
Oh yes, the max we're probably going to spend would be $500, but considering that this computer is just going to be RAM, CPU, PSU, Case, and Motherboard I figure I'd get a really good deal. And another plaything.
Brother's band website.
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bad_brain
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well, the most important factor is of course the internet connection bandwidth....if it is planned to host only 1 website (or at least not many websites with databases) a basic CPU is enough, the cheapest AMD X2 you can find for example would already more than enough. more important than the CPU is the RAM, so make sure to have a decent amount and to use good RAM modules with decent timings (Corsair XMS2 800MHz ones with 4-4-4-12 timings are my recommendation...cheap, fast and stable).
as mainboard I would recommend the one I have, a GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H , it's not the cheapest but very reliable, it has a g-card onboard and a real great passive chipset cooling....perfect for a server imo.
- CPU 60 euro
- mainboard 130 euro
- RAM 30 euro
- PSU 60 euro (400W is already enough)
- case 50 euro
- SATA2 HDD 60 euro
...should be about 530 USD, but if you look around a little for cheap offers you can definitely stay under your 500 USD budget. of course you can build a server box for maybe even half the money, but with my recommendations you would have a nice high performance one that is very reliable, it also can be easily upgraded with a Phenom CPU...or turned into a great gaming box by adding a discrete g-card.
as mainboard I would recommend the one I have, a GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H , it's not the cheapest but very reliable, it has a g-card onboard and a real great passive chipset cooling....perfect for a server imo.
- CPU 60 euro
- mainboard 130 euro
- RAM 30 euro
- PSU 60 euro (400W is already enough)
- case 50 euro
- SATA2 HDD 60 euro
...should be about 530 USD, but if you look around a little for cheap offers you can definitely stay under your 500 USD budget. of course you can build a server box for maybe even half the money, but with my recommendations you would have a nice high performance one that is very reliable, it also can be easily upgraded with a Phenom CPU...or turned into a great gaming box by adding a discrete g-card.
Last edited by bad_brain on 19 Mar 2009, 11:42, edited 1 time in total.
well if you build this box and expect traffic, this is going to be a dedicated server - not your desktop PC.
For $500 you might want to just use a Service Provider - they have access to faster internet connections - more than what a local ISP will give you. The Service Provider can also be chose based on ability to handle your money transactions - another service you'll need to setup if you are running this from your house, hence another box to dial out and check CC# - without interupting traffic on your web-host server.
If you only get 150 hits in a month, you might think thats not heavy traffic - but you got no scalability if traffic does increase.
What you are trying to do is not going to be cheap to do on your own. Service Providers have the best connection and server setup because they have customers share the cost of the more expensive hardware and software bundles and the T1 connection.
DNR
For $500 you might want to just use a Service Provider - they have access to faster internet connections - more than what a local ISP will give you. The Service Provider can also be chose based on ability to handle your money transactions - another service you'll need to setup if you are running this from your house, hence another box to dial out and check CC# - without interupting traffic on your web-host server.
If you only get 150 hits in a month, you might think thats not heavy traffic - but you got no scalability if traffic does increase.
What you are trying to do is not going to be cheap to do on your own. Service Providers have the best connection and server setup because they have customers share the cost of the more expensive hardware and software bundles and the T1 connection.
DNR
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He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in Darkness, and Light dwells with him.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in Darkness, and Light dwells with him.
Internet Radio Station
I'm not trying to answer the question directly, the advice here already seems sufficient, however it sparked memory of an article a few months back that I read which might pertain to creating an internet radio station.
Needed:
PC
Squeeze Center Software
DYNDNS Updater
Music
1) Install Squeeze Center. Squeeze Center is an open source streaming software, that IMO kicks arse because it works with programs other then itself like itunes (ick) winamp or windows media player. Install it on a rig that will run all the time, incidentally you probably don't want to use your gaming rig for this unless you like inflated power bills.
2) Configure Squeeze center. By default Squeeze Center is set to accept connections from other PCs password free, so we're gonna change it. Open Firefox and connect to 127.0.0.1:9000 then click settings in the lower right corner of the interface. Goto the Advanced tab, and then the Security tab. Enable a user name and password. Next configure your allowed IP addresses if needed.
3) Configure your router. Configuring your router to use port forwarding for the ports that Squeeze Center uses (TCP 9000) to the IP address of the streaming PC (unless you can port forward by PC name, then thaat's work)
4) Set up DYNDNS. Set up a free DYNDNS account at XXX.dyndns.com (where XXX=www) this account will give you a dynamic IP address for your streaming PC.
5) Install DYNDNS updater. Downloaded form the same site.
One thing of note, it is not legal where I live to stream to anyone but myself, however you can buy a license for the purpose from XXX.ascap.com/weblicense/ not tha tyou need me to tell you how to run your shop or anything.
NOTE: very little of this is my own, and while I didn't copy it verbatim, the essence remains the same.
Needed:
PC
Squeeze Center Software
DYNDNS Updater
Music
1) Install Squeeze Center. Squeeze Center is an open source streaming software, that IMO kicks arse because it works with programs other then itself like itunes (ick) winamp or windows media player. Install it on a rig that will run all the time, incidentally you probably don't want to use your gaming rig for this unless you like inflated power bills.
2) Configure Squeeze center. By default Squeeze Center is set to accept connections from other PCs password free, so we're gonna change it. Open Firefox and connect to 127.0.0.1:9000 then click settings in the lower right corner of the interface. Goto the Advanced tab, and then the Security tab. Enable a user name and password. Next configure your allowed IP addresses if needed.
3) Configure your router. Configuring your router to use port forwarding for the ports that Squeeze Center uses (TCP 9000) to the IP address of the streaming PC (unless you can port forward by PC name, then thaat's work)
4) Set up DYNDNS. Set up a free DYNDNS account at XXX.dyndns.com (where XXX=www) this account will give you a dynamic IP address for your streaming PC.
5) Install DYNDNS updater. Downloaded form the same site.
One thing of note, it is not legal where I live to stream to anyone but myself, however you can buy a license for the purpose from XXX.ascap.com/weblicense/ not tha tyou need me to tell you how to run your shop or anything.
NOTE: very little of this is my own, and while I didn't copy it verbatim, the essence remains the same.