Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

Would it be possible to host a website on my old pc that supports Wake On Lan feature so that i don't have to leave it on 24/7,
so it's just in standby an when somebody goes to access my site it wakes up and works normaly? then say after 20mins of being idle i set it so it goes back into standby.

the pc would only take a few seconds to be up and running from sleep, would the browser just timeout or could this work fine?

(i'd be using apache if that makes any dfference).

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

There's no reason you couldn't do that setup, but (AFAIK) you couldn't use the web access as the WOL trigger without some intermediary. The WOL is triggered by a specifically designed packet (known as a magic packet) sent to the network card that includes the MAC of that card. The other complication is that the majority of home routers aren't particularly WOL friendly - it all boils down to what port forwarding options they use and how they deal with the ARP table I think.

If the site is to be used by a very select number of people you could give them the MAC details so they can wake the PC up themselves if it's not running, but that's about it I think.

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

oh i get you i think, So i could possibly have it set up so my domain name goes to a free hosting site where i can just have a simple page saying "enter here" or somthing like that, and that enter here link actualy sends a magic packet to my pc waking it up and directing the user to my home site...if that all makes sense? (and hoping my router is friendly enough).

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

Hmm - I'm not sure if there is anything like the service you describe but there (partularly for free) are plenty of people on here that know more about those things.

What might be an option is if the hosting site does a forwarding but falls back to a custom 404 page unavailable message giving people details on how to wake the PC up when it can't. There are plenty of free WOL packet generators available on the internet.

Out of curiosity, how would you track the 20 minutes inactivity prior to shutdown?

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

Yh that could be an option, i surpose the easiest thing to do (other than paying for web hosting) would be to just leavethe machine on, but its not going to see loads of visitors, at least not a one time anyway, so im concerned how much electricity it might use.

i was just going to use the power options in windows, i.e when pc is idle for however long goes to sleep/low power mode. (or find some other program to do it).

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

I leave my server on, it doesnt take too much power, but if you ran more than just a website on it itd be more worth it.

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

ahh, i see Callumpy, just been on it, nicely done. how much do you think it costs you in electric a month?

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

If it's just a web server for personal sites you'd be best off getting a hosting account with a company such as http://www.hostforweb.com/packages/index.php and paying £3/month for web hosting and £5 for 2 years for a .co.uk domain name, would work out a lot cheaper than leaving a PC switched on all the time

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

How about trying to get a low consumption PSU for your server? I'm presuming the spec isn't all that high if its running Apache alone?

I haven't really looked it up so unsure of pricing etc but I'm sure this would help. TBH I don't think the electricity would be a great cost, I leave my PCs/Laptop on all day and our leccy bill isn't really any more than it would be without (maybe a fiver here and there). The biggest drain would be your monitor, so either, disconnect it, or switch it off (at the mains) unless its needed. Also, you don't have to put the PC into sleep if idle, just get it to turn the HDD off, and it will spin back up when its in use (it will save power and heat (so the noise will be less too)

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

What I'm more worried about is the time it'll take for a full wake-up including HDD spin-up, surely most web browsers will have timed out by then,,

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

Cheers :) also im not sure how much leccy its taken but i know it hasnt been alot more than without the server or my dad would be moaning and shouting about it being on.

---------- Post added at 15:51 ---------- Previous post was at 15:50 ----------

And thats what i was thinking :p: it would be better to leave it on.

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

It would be expensive, but he could replace the hard drive with an SSD... :D No need to spin up, quiet, low power consumption and fast.

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

Now that's an idea for my server ;) How much are the drives these days?

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

The cheapest ebuyer have is 80 gig and about £280.. http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=2&cat=4&subcat=2309

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

Not cheap then lol.

Omg, £577.49 for a 160GB

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

yeah is a bit expensive ay lol, would be cheaper to keep on replacing the hard drive if it failed, every few yrs or however long it lasts being on 24/7.

Hoping that this will be the year the price of SSD's as it/if it comes alot more popular comes down alot in price, a bit like mobile m2 cards, used to cost triple the price! (great technology for a tiny bit of plastic)

The first thing was working out if i should have my own or use a hosting site, but i felt with my own i'd have as much storage as i wanted, even though its not really going to take up much i guess, host more than 1 site, an also use it for remote file access and for streaming video to my PS3 on my network.
I guess theres no harm in trying it out an see how it goes.

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

another thing...would it be safe on the PSU to leave it on all the time, a named brand something like this? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152509#

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

lol, i use the PSU that came with my cheapy case, hasnt blown up yet :)

Also yes, you can have more than one site, you could get a email server and stuff too.

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

Bit overkill for a webserver isn't it? A cheapo one would be just as good as the load on it would be comparitively light. The one in the link would be useful for a mid-range gaming rig kind of machine.

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

For a webserver you don't need anything special... Up until very recently I was using a P3-800 with 512Mb to hosts a few sites (including a forum and a shop) and email..

Just upgraded to a £25 P4-2Ghz/1.5Gb machine that also does the job just as well..

Re: Home Server & Wake On Lan (wol) - Apache
 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135101#

Thats what i have.