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On Wed, 27 Aug 2014, Richard Brown wrote:
I am a bit frustrated by Diaspora and the lack of a data centre in Cornwall. I would love to set up and run my own Diaspora network.
Lack of a data centre is not an issue. There are many DCs around the country. The key thing is that the further you are from London, the more it costs to backhaul data to London (and lets face it, London is still the 'hub') - but on the other side, the further you are from London, the less it costs to rent/buy the space. Running costs for electricity would be about the same unless you can come up with some innovative way to keep it cool... (The DC I use is in Sheffield)
Then there's running Diaspora - if you want it to actually work, you have to make people come to it - "if you build it, they will come" DOES NOT WORK here. The reason is that there are dozens of others, all (now) with big money behind them - that money coming from selling advertising and customer data - so you'll make your own pretty little corner, but all you'll achieve is what would effectively become your own private little corner... (which is what you appear to want - so that's good - for you)
We tried this with the LUG - and it failed. I setup a wiki, some other collaborative thing which I've now forgotten (not Diaspora, but something similar) and a Wordpress. About 4 people bothered to make the effort - once - then it more or less died a death. (This was all under the opendevon.org.uk name)
If you want a server then *BUY* a VPS in a datacentre. Cheapest right now is probably OVC in France - http://www.ovh.co.uk/
I have a whole load of family members who would not use Facebook if I had a Diaspora network set up. I have a Diaspora account but am unable to use it because no one else uses Diaspora. When I suggest using Diaspora on a different server most family members ask why is that different to Facebook. I explain about data ownership etc but they point out that there data is now on someone else's server and the problem could persist.I wish I could install and run my own server.
A £2.03 a month will get you a virtual server that's more than capable, so stop bleating on about needing a server/local DC/etc. and go and do it!
Also - use portfast.co.uk for DNS - another tenner or so a year for a domain. Really, it's so bloody cheap these days to have your own server and domain name, etc. there simply isn't any excuse not to! Even a dedicated server from OVH starts at £30 a month.
(I use the cheapest of cheap VPSs at OVH to host some DNS and it's not let me down in the past 2-3 years and they've also bumped up the spec. too - I now have a dual-core AMD 2.8GHz VPS with 2GB of RAM and 26G of disk space - of which I use a tiny fraction and it's costing me something like £25 a year)
Want something closer to home? http://bytemark.co.uk/ starts at £15 a month (+VAT) for a VPS, £69 + VAT for a dedicated.
But if you really want to host your own server - then expect to pay costs starting from about £85 a month. (+VAT) Not many DC's like you hosting your own server these days though - it's not that cost effective.
And if you do host at home (perfectly feasible even with a 1Mb/sec upload speed for something very low volume), then factor in the cost of electricity and a UPS to keep it going.
Gordon
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