Personal web server

A personal web server, or personal server in short, allows users to store, selectively share, or publish information on the web or on a home network. Unlike other types of web servers, a personal web server is owned or controlled by an individual, and operated for the individual's needs, instead of by a company. It can be implemented in different ways:

• as an appliance
• as a general-purpose server, such as a Linux server, which may be located at the owner's home or in a data center
• in a shared hosting model, where several users share one physical server by means of virtualization, or virtual hosting.
• as one feature of a computer that is otherwise also used for other purposes.

A personal web server is conceptually the opposite of a web server, or website, operated by third parties, in a SaaS/cloud model.

Advantages

• Privacy: as the personal server is owned by the individual that derives the main benefit from it, they are in control of who else may access information on the server
• Autonomy: the owner of the personal server decides which applications to run on the server, who to allow access to, when to upgrade, etc.
• Hackability: the owner of the personal server can configure and change any aspect of the personal server

Disadvantages

• Administration overhead: the owner of the server is responsible for system administration
• Higher power consumption: the power consumed per user is higher, on average, than in a model where many users use the same server, such as in the SaaS/cloud model.

See also

• Comparison of lightweight web servers
• Comparison of web server software
• Microsoft Personal Web Server

References

External Links

• FileCast a cross platform personal webserver for sharing files.