Options for hosting servers in my basement?

[Ben Scott]

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 3:48 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen
<rozzin at geekspace.com> wrote:
>     * A fast enough *uplink*

  Define "fast enough".

>     * Something that won't empty my wallet ...

  Specify your budget.  We know $300/month is too high for you.  Is
$200/month good?  $100?  $50?  $10?

  I can say that GNHLUG has received excellent service from G4
Communications in Manchester (http://www.g4.net/).  They offer co-lo,
hosting, and premises feeds.

  At $WORK, we have Comcast "business" service for $64/month.  That
includes one static IP address.  I think it was $5 or $10/month more
for 5.  I forget what speeds they quoted us, but (1) the speed sales
quoted us didn't match the speed on the installer's work order, (2)
neither speed matches what I get from speed test sites, and (3)
there's no SLA so what they quote is pretty worthless anyway.  In
practice, it's fast enough for ~60 users doing business web stuff.
Despite Comcast being one big happy evil company, rates vary wildly by
location, so all you can do is call and ask.  Ask about promotions,
etc.  Make sure you say you're looking for business service.  Their
consumer sales drones are maddeningly useless.

> Or is home server-hosting a completely ridiculous idea
> in our modern world?

  As others have pointed out, it may not be very cost-effective.
Aside from the feed, you also have to consider power, cooling (and its
power), power redundancy (initial and maintenance), physical space,
noise, and the computer hardware.  Depending on what you want to do,
it likely just isn't worth it.

-- Ben