This posting is primarily to those few users who use the thuis.us name for web or e-mail hosting, but of course anyone who is interested can read along.
Since 1997 I’ve had a presence on the big old World Wide Web. What started as a hobby of hand typing HTML code to create a simple web page has morphed many times… 6 volunteer webmaster “administrated” websites, a dedicated domain name, web and e-mail services, photo gallery, and a web portal (to name a few changes)… however, one thing has remained; this has never evolved from a simple hobby.
Coming in February 2010 I am anticipating some new and exciting changes to the website. Most of you will not notice much difference (I hope), but for a few of you large changes will occur.
Dedicated home web server- Since 1997 Yahoo (formally Geocities Web Hosting) has provided stellar hosting for our sites, and up to now I’ve been content to allow them to do all the “heavy lifting” when it comes to running our services. But I am no longer content with their service and want more! Although Yahoo’s service is still excellent, I have been a bit disappointed in some of the services they provide. Increased cost (I recently closed two sites cspack225.org and srespto.org, solely due to increased registration costs) and outdated software (some outdated by 4 years) have left me wanting to increase the sites potential but unable to do so. I initially was going to close everything down, but my wife has talked me into doing more. Therefore a home server, where I am not reliant on anyone else, has come into the picture. So coming in early 2010 a new server will, hopefully, be in place which will initially provide the following.
- Dedicated Server running Fedora Linux OS with:
- Apache 2.2.xxx HTTP Server
- MySQL 5.1 (or higher)
- PHP 5.3.xxx (or higher)
- FTP Server
E-Mail – It is still my plan to provide e-mail services to those who desire a thuis.us e-mail address (mostly family). It is my hopes to provide e-mail with webmail, POP3, and IMAP support…However a dedicated e-mail server is, I think, further down the road than first quarter of 2010. In the interim (and maybe permanently depending on service) the plan is to allow Google Apps to provide service for the time being. Google Apps provides all the e-mail services I could want in addition to calendar, document storage, and basic individual website serving (with the thuis.us name), and they do it for FREE. When this transition occurs all Thuis.US users will have to download all current messages and back them up. I am hoping the actual transition to the new service will just entail users to change a few settings in their e-mail software, and the transition will be transparent to end users, but we’ll see.
Thuis.US Sub domains – There are currently 15 sub domains registered to the thuis.us site <name.thuis.us> and although I have plan to continue this service, again, it may have to wait. Current users should back-up their sites using FTP < ftp://ftp.thuis.us > if they wish to save their sites. If you desire to continue a thuis.us site you may do so using the Google Aps feature (once established) until this service is established on my home server. It is my understanding that these sites will not disappear, remaining at http://thuis.us/name, however the sub domain will not continue until sub domains are established on this end.
There will be other changes to be announced later. Check this blog for further details as they become available.
I know this will be a hassle to some, but this change will save me money in the long run (estimated $180 yr just for starters) and will allow me to further my knowledge in my “hobby” and raise the entertainment potential to my web visitors.
Any questions, suggestions or concerns??? Please leave them in the comments section.
