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Hardware: old laptop from ~2012 and some external hard drives (~25W total). Occasionally used for things like yahoo answers archiving, fishnet (distributed lic

by lucb1e 4y ago

Hardware: old laptop from ~2012 and some external hard drives (~25W total). Occasionally used for things like yahoo answers archiving, fishnet (distributed lichess game analysis), random big computations or downloads, and other things I want to run overnight but don't need a big desktop PC for. Services it more permanently hosts: - email for me and friends - websites of friends - game server (Factorio, OpenArena, custom games I made, etc.) - SSH -D functioning as a VPN when paypal or some such is being a bitch again - [web] blog - [web] grocery list (custom. It syncs between devices, stores recipes, frequently bought items, etc.) - [web] link shortener / pastebin / file sharing in one - [web] a data explorer for some game (with associated scraper running every few hours) - [web] a series tracker to note which episode file we're at because apple tv is garbage (for many reasons) and doesn't remember this - [web] browser-based latency test thingy, both as plain HTTPS and websocket (they're remarkably similar with HTTPS connection reuse, the main difference being that websocket breaks when your connection is down for 0.1s or your IP changes, so I use websocket more as canary and the HTTPS version for actual latency testing) - [web] proxies for certain sites, like to speed up the openstreetmap wiki by caching or to remove the 5MB unnecessary javascript from a news website - data scraper that emails me when the local river does something that interests me (like get close to flooding or drying up or a sudden large change) - other data scrapers - Telegram bot - IRC bouncer - Gitea - Restic backup server And a ton of web things I'm forgetting, including little .php scripts not worth mentioning that I occasionally use to do this or that. I'm really amazed what I can do with some hardware that would otherwise be thrown away or disappear into an old drawer never to be used again. I could probably host twice as many things and it would still work (CPU and network are basically idle the whole time, only RAM would be getting tight then... I could upgrade to 16 GB DDR3 which is cheap nowadays).

loudmax 4y ago
I also recommend using an old laptop as a server. Benefits include the built-in battery backup, built-in KVM, and relatively low power consumption. The other major benefit is that if you're the kind of person who's apt to set up a home server, you probably already have at least one these lying around.
- icybox 4y ago
  There's just one slightly opaque pitfall, not all laptops have a BIOS setting where you can specify what to do on power-loss and power-resume. So the laptop "server" stays off and you need to intervene manually. I've had better luck with thin clients ...
  - lucb1e 4y ago
    Never had power out for long enough that the laptop didn't survive. Automatic shutdown of optional services at 80% battery level might also mean that it survives 2-3x as long, if this sort of thing is likely to hit where you live. Or buy a tiny UPS. (One of the major advantages of laptops not manufactured in the last 3 years: replacing the battery to make it good as new takes 15 seconds. Click out, click in. They don't make 'em like that anymore :( ) If the battery were to run out: on 355 of the 365 days per year, there will be someone home who can push the button within a few hours. And if it's one of the 10 other days: email will retry for 24 hours and everything else is somewhat optional for me. I can call someone to get there within a day, or change the DNS records and turn on a VPS to temporarily buffer the incoming SMTP. I considered my contingency options but never got close to needing it.

by lucb1e 4y ago

loudmax 4y ago

I also recommend using an old laptop as a server. Benefits include the built-in battery backup, built-in KVM, and relatively low power consumption. The other major benefit is that if you're the kind of person who's apt to set up a home server, you probably already have at least one these lying around.

icybox 4y ago
There's just one slightly opaque pitfall, not all laptops have a BIOS setting where you can specify what to do on power-loss and power-resume. So the laptop "server" stays off and you need to intervene manually. I've had better luck with thin clients ...
- lucb1e 4y ago
  Never had power out for long enough that the laptop didn't survive. Automatic shutdown of optional services at 80% battery level might also mean that it survives 2-3x as long, if this sort of thing is likely to hit where you live. Or buy a tiny UPS. (One of the major advantages of laptops not manufactured in the last 3 years: replacing the battery to make it good as new takes 15 seconds. Click out, click in. They don't make 'em like that anymore :( ) If the battery were to run out: on 355 of the 365 days per year, there will be someone home who can push the button within a few hours. And if it's one of the 10 other days: email will retry for 24 hours and everything else is somewhat optional for me. I can call someone to get there within a day, or change the DNS records and turn on a VPS to temporarily buffer the incoming SMTP. I considered my contingency options but never got close to needing it.