nobody wants to host 100,000 OS9 CD downloads from a DSL or fibre line at home.
Yeah, that's the thing, right?
To be honest, I'm perfectly fine with that, the only real limitation is that the server I was proposing using is literally running AppleShare IP 6, Apple's workgroup file server software from 1998, and my Internet is so slow.
Logistically I'm set up to handle it in basically every way except for speed and possibly that it would make more sense to wait until I migrate from ASIP6 to OS X Server 10.4, or declare this, specifically, a separate use case from vtools and set up, IDK, a linux box running a simple web server and pipe it through my regular reverse proxy.
(By "logistically" I mean I love home-hosting, homelab, home services -- I have 5 public statics, business class, 25 open, reverse DNS set up, etc etc, and the pieces are ultimately going to fall into place for vtools to host VPN connections for old macs and possibly email service, so from my perspective this is just another file share and r/w permissions group.)
Vtools makes some but admittedly less sense at those speeds and right now I'm not in a place to colo a machine to be able to meet this particular need.
Anyway, the question is really whether or not site leadership is fine with it. For the 68kMLA's purposes, vtools living at my house is "basically fine" because the focus is on disk space and tools that, at any speed, we couldn't really provide on the main infrastructure. (I mean, I guess we couldn't, but we aren't going to.)
plus it requires OS 10.9 or higher to access.
Whether or not this matters arguably depends on what the task at hand is. I'm running vtools to make it easier to get software compared to heavy web sites that render poorly on vintage macs. Some of this is changing but it's got some starting momentum so I haven't seen a reason to stop. (In addition to the personal utility, web hosting, file transfer space, potentially vintage email.)
But, for OS install media in particular I tend to find it easier when the access and the file formats are optimized for modern computers, e.g. ISO files ripped with Windows computers burn well on mac/windows/linux versus, say, a DC6 image which is basically useless on anything but a Mac of a particular age, or a Toast image which is also often broken unless you burn or convert it on, again, a Mac of a certain age.
The temptation is strong to suggest getting knezzen involved because in reality Mac Garden is better at this, specifically, (file hosting and software distribution) than 68kMLA is, despite my criticisms therein, which, as I mention, the Mac Garden is working on and improving at.
For example I sadly cannot use 68kmla anymore :-( while I discovered vtools a few weeks ago, and it looks really nice!
What about an own housing solution or a good fibre line that we care together about? Can you tell the traffic and the bandwith that would be needed approximately?
That's a bummer, do you not have a modern computer? We've discussed making a vintage oriented access option for the site but the resources for it have never materialized.
W/re vtools - it basically is what it says on the tin -- a toolbox, not a substitute for the regular forum but please feel free to email me for an account! I'll make an account on it for anybody at no charge with r/w access to the public share and r/o access to the software share. I run a Patreon which adds a personal home directory and a personal web hosting location. Right now, there are no quotas on those services -- mostly because ASIP doesn't have them.
w/re fiber: That would probably work provided you buy business class Internet or use Tricks(TM) to disguise what you're doing. In my case, I'm considering switching to the local cable company and using a pair of firewalls with a VPN to pipe static IPs from a colocation facility to my house, and then I have the actual compute hardware at home where I can use bigger, cheaper minitower servers and do maintenance more easily.
The bummer is that getting any kind of Internet with "decent" (for the sake of discussion we'll set that at 100 megabits) in the US in particular is basically a scenario of "either you've already got it or you might have it in 20 years from today".
On top of that, "small business" internet and static IP addresses (which aren't mandatory but are super helpful) are often really expensive. My DSL service was $175/mo for 40/20, 5 IPs, an unlimited LD phone line, and a small Office 365 instance. I'm now averaging about $195/mo for that but 40/2 and 2 phone lines. (Really long story.) The cableco here has small business internet but that's more like 50/8 for $350/mo, when I looked last, so you're kind of back to either co-locating services or moving them to VPS/cloud tools or just not having them.
My unpopular opinion though is that for someone providing this kind of thing for free, maybe say 20-30 megabits of upload on a home cable line is, in fact, good enough.
Heck, if the traffic is low enough maybe 2 megabits of upload is enough. That's ultimately up for the leadership here to decide.
Maybe DieHard can elaborate a little bit more on the downloads that are more successful in case they raise a flag anywhere in Daddy´s Algorithm.
My read on it was that "Unlimited" had some pretty specific qualifications about the types of files and use cases that can be used. GoDaddy said something, the solution didn't work because it involved using a workgroup collaboration tool, so the files went back where GoDaddy asked them not to, they noticed and then suspended the account for non-compliance.
To be honest, that's pretty cut-and-dry to me. Rules were broken and they need to not be broken again, whether that involves finding a different web host and paying for the data space (and, I'm extremely aware that it's expensive) or coming up with some different tools.
Anyway I'm rambling. Thank you for the warm welcome. I'll be out of your hair once this resolves.
