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I used to think that home servers could be the best solution, but I see more and more obstacles in the way of adoption. First, even if you can create a plug and

I used to think that home servers could be the best solution, but I see more and more obstacles in the way of adoption. First, even if you can create a plug and play home server box, it will still need some configuration to make it available from the internet, which while very obvious to anyone a bit techie can be difficult to even explain in layman's terms. Secondly, it is not clear if there is an acceptable solution to security issues. In such a system that by design will be accessible from the internet, this a major problem. Auto updates could be part of the answer, but it seems that human intervention would still be needed from time to time and that imply an effort of the user to keep informed and aware of such operations. Or an entity could offer a remote administration service but that would displace entirely control of the system and create a single point of failure. At that point you might as well have that entity administer a single server used for a moderate number of people. If this entity is a non-profit where governance is shared between all members it could very well be an ideal solution. In France the "association loi 1901" legal structure is a good fit and is known and understood by the vast majority of the population.

ZenoArrow 10y ago
> "First, even if you can create a plug and play home server box, it will still need some configuration to make it available from the internet" Will it? The device I had in mind would plug directly into a router, occupying two LAN ports for connectivity, and one USB port for power (USB ports are increasingly common on routers these days, even the free ones ISPs give out). In addition, IPv6 removes the need for NAT and port forwarding. The device could even come with a default DNS name setup, so it could be literally plug and play. > "Secondly, it is not clear if there is an acceptable solution to security issues." You build the security into the device, e.g. firewalls and process isolation. You could also design the device so that flashing new firmware required a physical button on the device to be pressed to enable this feature for a short period of time, limiting the window of opportunity for the device to be infected with malware. > "Auto updates could be part of the answer, but it seems that human intervention would still be needed from time to time and that imply an effort of the user to keep informed and aware of such operations." Information about security updates could be done via email or SMS, which are both easy enough for mass market users. You would enter these details at the point of purchasing the device, so you'd have nothing extra to setup once you had it. If you had to update your contact details, this would be easy enough to set via the home server GUI.

ZenoArrow 10y ago

> "First, even if you can create a plug and play home server box, it will still need some configuration to make it available from the internet" Will it? The device I had in mind would plug directly into a router, occupying two LAN ports for connectivity, and one USB port for power (USB ports are increasingly common on routers these days, even the free ones ISPs give out). In addition, IPv6 removes the need for NAT and port forwarding. The device could even come with a default DNS name setup, so it could be literally plug and play. > "Secondly, it is not clear if there is an acceptable solution to security issues." You build the security into the device, e.g. firewalls and process isolation. You could also design the device so that flashing new firmware required a physical button on the device to be pressed to enable this feature for a short period of time, limiting the window of opportunity for the device to be infected with malware. > "Auto updates could be part of the answer, but it seems that human intervention would still be needed from time to time and that imply an effort of the user to keep informed and aware of such operations." Information about security updates could be done via email or SMS, which are both easy enough for mass market users. You would enter these details at the point of purchasing the device, so you'd have nothing extra to setup once you had it. If you had to update your contact details, this would be easy enough to set via the home server GUI.