Does anyone know of a reasonably priced "pro"-level home Internet plan that I can get in the Lugano area? Specifically, I'm looking for:

- permission to host web/smtp/imap services
- fixed IP
- custom reverse-DNS
- fixed cost regardless of bandwidth usage

I don't actually need that much bandwidth - 512x384 or even 384x256are probably fine. This is just a Linux machine that I host to provide email, personal web pages, and custom domain hosting for a bunch of my friends.

Can anyone suggest a good provider who offers such a plan? (I'm also starting to do some research on my own, will post what I find to this thread.)

I've looked through cablecom's TOS and found nothing against not-for-profit home-hosting and there's nothing stopping you doing what you want to do.

www.dlswebserver.com will even tell you how to do it. I use dyndns.org aliases and www.dnsexit.com for my DNS needs. Works a treat.

exactly - i would go with the cablecom plain vanilla chf 45/mth plan

agreed - go with cablecom for this one. When you say "pro" I take you mean that it won't be "pro" enough to required 99.99% uptime....

You could be in trouble with respect to custom reverse DNS - I suspect it will resolve to whatever the provider has assigned - but you could always ask.

I use www.everydns.org which is a fantastic way not to run your own DNS server (englishforum.ch resolves via this service as well).

The alternative might also be to look for a housing offer with an ISP. Not sure how much this costs but you'll get a higher level of service and won't have to listen to the sound of the machine running all the time!

I just had a look at the link and it's just a picture of a HP SAN. Do you still use it?

I would like to host at home as well as I have around 10 fulltime SQL backend websites and it would just cost too much to professionally host it. I am thinking about using CityCable and as the name suggests it is cable. Never used cable before and there is no mention of an option to have a static IP. Anyone had experiences with hosting from home on a cable connection? Specifically, has anyone used CityCable and managed to successful host at home at all?

Another question, my ISP back home in OZ had the option to have a static IP so I never had a problem with having to update the A record in DNS. If by chance I did have to change the A Record to another IP it would take around 1 to 2 days before that change is updated around the world. So my question is how affective is a Dynamic DNS solution? If the IP changes then surely there is potential for the site to be down for 2 days.

I used dyndns.com and they provided a nice little daemon which would automatically update your entry if your IP address changed. I used Cablecom and had no issues with the setup at all.

Brilliant.. I have a few questions
1: How often does the IP change? Is it only when the router is rebooted?
2: When the IP does change, is there downtime or is dyndns quite quick to update the records
3: Is the package you have just the normal private internet package?

Thanks mate..

You can get a router that has a setting to update your dynamic dns addresses. Mine supports it and allows me to totally forget about it. Dnsexit supports having any domain/host name as dynamic,

I used to host my email/web/everything server at home, first using Dynamic DNS services and later using an ISP with a fixed IP address however since hosting offers are becoming cheaper I've switched to a dedicated server in a proper datacenter, with plenty of bandwidth which allows for a much better experience when serving large email attachments or photo galleries.

Entry level servers can be had from 10 Euro / month (with shared storage using iSCSI) or from 19 Euro/month (with dedicated storage).

At the moment I'm using services from OVH

That's not a bad deal. Are you running your own server, or do they admin it? I know of folks that have gone with VPS (virtual private servers), but they're a pain should you need to do a nuke and pave.

The have an english site here: http://www.ovh.co.uk

I've got my server here in a data center. Mrs. gregv is very happy not to have to hear the cooling fans any longer.

Oh Greg, I'm so disappointed in you.

The obvious solution to noisy fans is to build a separate server room in your house. -3 geek points.

That would assume I have a house....in Switzerland.

That said, I've got two NSLU2s running full time, quietly. I'd have the Atom based system running all the time too, but the power supply fan is still a bit loud.

It was the 1U 4-disk server that was too noisy. Besides, the datacenter is on the same floor as interoute.

Unlike what I read of ISPs in the US and elsewhere, Cablecom doesn't force an IP change at regular intervals. I've had my current IP address with Cablecom since August 2007. Rebooting the router doesn't seem to change it as long as you leave the modem on. In fact I've had several short power cuts where I've ended up with the same IP address afterwards.

You need some software on your system to notify dyndns of any changes, or a router which does that for you. I started out using a package for my Mac which I think I got from the dyndns site. I scrapped that once I'd found out my IP address was stable, and changed the address manually on the dyndns site when I needed to.

In the end I found a better DNS host in the form of sitelutions. This allowed me to point my .ch domain name at my own systems at home, including entries for subdomains, so I could have ftp.mydomain, mail.mydomain and so on.

Yes. The standard CHF 45 per month package. With that you can also get some space for file sharing and a simple website (no CGI or Javascript allowed).

Having said all that, I've now moved my web stuff to a hosting provider. I really don't miss the constant hum of my own server running 24 hours a day. I had also decided that I didn't want to continue running a home server without getting a proper commercial strength firewall, and they ain't cheap.

haha, ok, faith restored.

I'm quite tempted by OVH actually, the RPS packages are very good value (although quite bizarrely cheapest in Germany)

Is there a company that would host my physical server? Had a look around and couldnt find a company that has that option. I guess security would be a problem.

Metanet offers what you're looking for. The site is all in german, but they do speak (and write emails in) english.