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Living billboard arrives to announce, drumroll please : sandstorm.io The auto updating server that you can self-host or use as a hosted service, allowing you

Living billboard arrives to announce, drumroll please : sandstorm.io The auto updating server that you can self-host or use as a hosted service, allowing you to install and uninstall lots of applications, both free and proprietary, just by clicking the button. (No, not paid to tell this unless you count the stickers I got. And no, not perfect but still a refreshing change.)

CalRobert 10y ago
Sandstorm is awesome. Of course, it would help if ISP's weren't so keen to make sure nobody actually uses the internet to make computers talk to each other, instead of just having Amazon, FB, and Google's computers talk at you.
- api 10y ago
  ISPs don't do that. That's your NAT/firewall. Has anyone ever actually seen an ISP network that filters local traffic to other ISP endpoints? I'm not even sure why they would do that. DDOS almost always targets big things in the cloud so it would not help there. Here (SoCal) traceroute to a host in the same local neighborhood is three hops.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    There is a highlight point that many internet services are indeed asymmetrical. My Comcast service is 180/20 Mbps, down/up respectively. Even if you get Comcast's new gigabit service, you get 940 down, and 40 up. And many home ISPs prohibit you from serving a website at home, according to their terms of service.
    - jtl999 10y ago
      Comcast has symmetrical 2gbps fiber. The 940/40 is DOCSIS 3.1 The situation with uploads on home connections is better than it was a few years ago though.
  - 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
    It's pretty common to have outbound traffic to port 25 blocked as an anti-spambot measure. Sometimes you can call them and get them to remove the block, other times it's non-negotiable.
    - api 10y ago
      Most cloud servers do this too. Spam has basically destroyed smtp as an open federated protocol anyway. Network reachability is the least of the issues you'll face trying to run your own mail. Lesson: any distributed or federated protocol that is not robust against abuse is doomed.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    > DDOS almost always targets big things in the cloud That isn't true. Those are the ones that you'll hear about in the media but there are plenty of DDOS attacks on smaller sites both for extortion purposes and to force them offline.
    - api 10y ago
      That may be true, but in any case the DDOS usually arises from outside the ISP's network so forbidding local traffic would have little effect.
  - JonnieCache 10y ago
    A lot of ISPs have (probably unenforcable) clauses in their ToS saying your can't run services.
    - api 10y ago
      Its only purpose is to force businesses up to business class. You might see it enforced if you ran a public for profit site from a consumer connection. In any case the encrypted p2p protocols run by dapps (decentralized apps) are opaque, and these don't really qualify as servers because architecturally they are not client-server at all.
    - type0 10y ago
      I can attest to that, my previous ISP had explicitly stated that running web or other file server was not allowed - I'm not exactly sure if TOS was in violation of my consumer rights but the fact is that they could cut me off if I were going to set up a server... I mean even for personal use (it didn't say anything about running a server business)
    - pavs 10y ago
      This. I am an ISP owner and we block popular ports used to run services by default. 99% doesn't care and their computer gets hacked or they get virus/malware and those malware starts running services and spamming the world and our IPs gets blacklisted (which is a huge headache) and now cloudflare's broken shit ip checker will automatically start blocking ips, and customers will start blaming us for it. Occasionally, 1 or 2 customers will ask to have email server port or web server port to be opened, we usually ask them to sign up for a business contract, which clearly states that you can run this kind of services and you are fully responsible for any negative consequences. This is not about money. This is just good housekeeping. When I was in NY, I believe they TimeWarner and Verizon (or was it AT&T?) also used to do the same thing.
      - CalRobert 10y ago
        Thanks for responding with the ISP's point of view. My frustration came from just wanting to run a small Ghost blog on an odroid with, at most, hundreds of visitors per month, and hearing that this required a business contract. Of course, whether I want to do this for business or pleasure doesn't really matter if you're dealing with malware and being blacklisted. At one time ISP's gave you a bit of space on a shared host for free as a courtesy, it would be nice if these days you could get the equivalent of a t2.micro. I know a few people (teenagers I'm related to mostly) who would like to mess around with programming and building web sites but for whom even a tiny cost is a barrier. As it is I throw a few bucks at nearlyfreespeech for them and it's good for a year, but I imagine plenty don't have that option.
  - y4mi 10y ago
    my ISP blacklists some random ports on consumer contracts. you could of course go with non-standard ones, its still another complication that they throw your way.
    - protomyth 10y ago
      I blacklist 25 out except from our mail server. That's just basic common sense given some of the spyware. Users who need to send mail will use encrypted 465 or 587 anyway.
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sriku 10y ago
Wow! Not heard of sandstorm before and seriously impressed!

CalRobert 10y ago

Sandstorm is awesome. Of course, it would help if ISP's weren't so keen to make sure nobody actually uses the internet to make computers talk to each other, instead of just having Amazon, FB, and Google's computers talk at you.

api 10y ago
ISPs don't do that. That's your NAT/firewall. Has anyone ever actually seen an ISP network that filters local traffic to other ISP endpoints? I'm not even sure why they would do that. DDOS almost always targets big things in the cloud so it would not help there. Here (SoCal) traceroute to a host in the same local neighborhood is three hops.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  There is a highlight point that many internet services are indeed asymmetrical. My Comcast service is 180/20 Mbps, down/up respectively. Even if you get Comcast's new gigabit service, you get 940 down, and 40 up. And many home ISPs prohibit you from serving a website at home, according to their terms of service.
  - jtl999 10y ago
    Comcast has symmetrical 2gbps fiber. The 940/40 is DOCSIS 3.1 The situation with uploads on home connections is better than it was a few years ago though.
- 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
  It's pretty common to have outbound traffic to port 25 blocked as an anti-spambot measure. Sometimes you can call them and get them to remove the block, other times it's non-negotiable.
  - api 10y ago
    Most cloud servers do this too. Spam has basically destroyed smtp as an open federated protocol anyway. Network reachability is the least of the issues you'll face trying to run your own mail. Lesson: any distributed or federated protocol that is not robust against abuse is doomed.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  > DDOS almost always targets big things in the cloud That isn't true. Those are the ones that you'll hear about in the media but there are plenty of DDOS attacks on smaller sites both for extortion purposes and to force them offline.
  - api 10y ago
    That may be true, but in any case the DDOS usually arises from outside the ISP's network so forbidding local traffic would have little effect.
- JonnieCache 10y ago
  A lot of ISPs have (probably unenforcable) clauses in their ToS saying your can't run services.
  - api 10y ago
    Its only purpose is to force businesses up to business class. You might see it enforced if you ran a public for profit site from a consumer connection. In any case the encrypted p2p protocols run by dapps (decentralized apps) are opaque, and these don't really qualify as servers because architecturally they are not client-server at all.
  - type0 10y ago
    I can attest to that, my previous ISP had explicitly stated that running web or other file server was not allowed - I'm not exactly sure if TOS was in violation of my consumer rights but the fact is that they could cut me off if I were going to set up a server... I mean even for personal use (it didn't say anything about running a server business)
  - pavs 10y ago
    This. I am an ISP owner and we block popular ports used to run services by default. 99% doesn't care and their computer gets hacked or they get virus/malware and those malware starts running services and spamming the world and our IPs gets blacklisted (which is a huge headache) and now cloudflare's broken shit ip checker will automatically start blocking ips, and customers will start blaming us for it. Occasionally, 1 or 2 customers will ask to have email server port or web server port to be opened, we usually ask them to sign up for a business contract, which clearly states that you can run this kind of services and you are fully responsible for any negative consequences. This is not about money. This is just good housekeeping. When I was in NY, I believe they TimeWarner and Verizon (or was it AT&T?) also used to do the same thing.
    - CalRobert 10y ago
      Thanks for responding with the ISP's point of view. My frustration came from just wanting to run a small Ghost blog on an odroid with, at most, hundreds of visitors per month, and hearing that this required a business contract. Of course, whether I want to do this for business or pleasure doesn't really matter if you're dealing with malware and being blacklisted. At one time ISP's gave you a bit of space on a shared host for free as a courtesy, it would be nice if these days you could get the equivalent of a t2.micro. I know a few people (teenagers I'm related to mostly) who would like to mess around with programming and building web sites but for whom even a tiny cost is a barrier. As it is I throw a few bucks at nearlyfreespeech for them and it's good for a year, but I imagine plenty don't have that option.
- y4mi 10y ago
  my ISP blacklists some random ports on consumer contracts. you could of course go with non-standard ones, its still another complication that they throw your way.
  - protomyth 10y ago
    I blacklist 25 out except from our mail server. That's just basic common sense given some of the spyware. Users who need to send mail will use encrypted 465 or 587 anyway.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

sriku 10y ago

Wow! Not heard of sandstorm before and seriously impressed!