My new mac-mini server
Recently I had been toying with the idea of getting my own server because I hate being limited to whatever my shared host allows. I wanted to be able to load whatever software I wanted on it, load up as many websites/domains as I wanted, handle as many ftp accounts as I wanted and install any media streaming software I wanted. Email wasn't really an issue since I think it makes more sense to route it all through a google apps account. I had a bit of experience (just a bit) working with servers since I have a mac-mini setup in my living room running MAMP that has all my movies on it and actually has a domain pointed to it (via zoneedit.com) to present client work.
After a bit of research I came accross macminicolo.net. They simply allow you to send them your mini, or you can buy one off them, and they hook it up to their network allowing you to access it through vpn, vnc, ssh or however else you choose. One might question its speed but I have already put a couple database heavy sites on it, including this website, and they load immediately.
I ended up buying a mini locally here and installing a faster, larger hard drive and loaded up the ram in it, installed all the necessary software and sent it off to them. They are in Las Vegas and there seems to be a fairly good pipeline to the internet down there. I'm very pleased with the server and the speed of my sites, I feel sort of free now because I am not under the yoke of being on the same server as a dozen or so other people; *barf*. So I can do whatever I want with it without having to ask if a specific port is open, or if php has a specific setting activated. I even ended up buying OSX Server. It has a bit of a learning curve for a server newbie like me but I feel pretty comfortable using it now. I didn't have to worry about setting up a mail server or dns info which kept things simple. Setting up an ftp server on it was a bit tricky but I managed to get that working with pureFTPD and I even managed to get a few cron-jobs running on one of my sites.
Anyways, my hat is off to the fella's at macminicolo.net for making my life a bit more easy.
