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Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

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Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#451

Post by 3np »

dominikstr wrote: post #372
jjacobson93 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just use a script on a cron that runs every 15 minutes and updates my DNS provider. And for let’s encrypt, I use the DNS verification method so you don’t have to even expose HTTP(S) ports if you don’t need to

I wrote a small go app[0] which is invoked every 15 minutes and updates the DNS through the cloudflare API. Its very specific for my use case and ISP but works well. [0] https://gitlab.com/dominikstraessle/homelab-dns

Cool! There's also certbot[0] and lego[1] which can do ACME-DNS with a range of providers beside CF. You could also do tls-alpn, which allows you to do do the challenger encrypted on another port. Sounds like DNS works fine for you, but it's primarily worth considering for those issuing certs for non-public names that shouldn't be broadcasted via public DNS.

[0]: https://github.com/certbot/certbot

[1]: https://github.com/go-acme/lego

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#452

Post by morphle »

messo wrote: post #219

Hosting a personal blog on old / cheap hardware at home and accepting some downtime now and then should be a trade-of worth making for most. An interconnected web of documents served from personal computers residing under a desk or in a basement – it is a beautiful thing. We nerds often seem to fall into the trap of over-engineering things, like, spending a lot of time building personal stuff that can scale into the…

I have hosted all my websites on a server at home since 1993 until 2021. I never had any downtime or problems. I ran a ISP and datacenter from my home for a decade as well. Nowadays I have a $2 per month VPS to forward a static IP at 1 Gbps to both my home servers and a failover server at a friends home. Works fine up to 600 Mbps sustained web traffic. Its been cheaper than colocation of dedicated servers and much cheaper than hosting in the cloud.

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#453

Post by tayo42 »

busymom0 wrote: post #345
deepspace wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for pointing out this blog post. I used NFS for many years but moved away a while ago for opportunistic reasons. However, after reading that post, I will make every effort to go back to them. "Freedom of speech" does not include hate speech or racist speech or any speech advocating against a group of people in my worldview, and I therefore agree 100% with NFS's stance. All freedoms have limits, agreed to by…

Politically incorrect things get labelled "racist" now a days. I, as a brown immigrant, get to criticize my home country all I want. I can call my home country corrupt, filthy, polluted, no regards for women rights, gay rights, caste system, rapes etc and be totally okay as long as the other person knows I am brown. But suddenly if a white person or someone with the wrong "political affilitation" says the same things…

This is a straw man, legitimate criticism isn't racist and no one says it is.

If your idea of criticism is something like using a slur or stereotypes to make an argument then it is not politically correct.

What's the criticism you want to give but feel like you can't?

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#454

Post by podiki »

Question for these recommendations: what type of visitor stats or analytics do they provide by default? If you are using a static site without embedding some analytics, what can they show you (e.g. just overall bandwidth, number of unique visitors, etc.)? I know Netlify just has on their free tier bandwidth per month, last I checked.

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#455

Post by polm23 »

zck wrote: post #28

I use https://nearlyfreespeech.net for my static site. It isn't free -- it is pretty cheap -- but it has a lot going for it. It requires no custom tooling -- I upload via rsync. This makes it trivial to migrate to a new provider if necessary. I develop my site locally, then rsync it up. I have a custom domain pointed at the site, and also a custom .htaccess, so I have a good amount of control over the site. I do thin…

I've been using NFSN for over ten years. Most of my sites with them are static, and it's great that when I'm on the front page of HN I never have to worry about anything, it's just business as usual.

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#456

Post by polm23 »

DarrenDev wrote: post #426
zck wrote: post #28

I use https://nearlyfreespeech.net for my static site. It isn't free -- it is pretty cheap -- but it has a lot going for it. It requires no custom tooling -- I upload via rsync. This makes it trivial to migrate to a new provider if necessary. I develop my site locally, then rsync it up. I have a custom domain pointed at the site, and also a custom .htaccess, so I have a good amount of control over the site. I do thin…

I've used NFSN for hosting almost-zero traffic static sites for years. But, if it's the cheapest host you're after they're not it. The pay as you go model they use can mislead you into assuming they cost pennies because you pay small amounts each time, but with a half a dozen sites hosted you can expect to get hit by top up warnings a few times a year. I've just double checked my email receipts, and I had to top up $…

Is saving $10 over a year worth the time it took you to do the math on that?

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#457

Post by polm23 »

Ciantic wrote: post #425
zck wrote: post #28

I use https://nearlyfreespeech.net for my static site. It isn't free -- it is pretty cheap -- but it has a lot going for it. It requires no custom tooling -- I upload via rsync. This makes it trivial to migrate to a new provider if necessary. I develop my site locally, then rsync it up. I have a custom domain pointed at the site, and also a custom .htaccess, so I have a good amount of control over the site. I do thin…

From NFS site: > Currently we are not tracking (and hence not billing for) extra bandwidth usage. This is subject to change at any time. What do you do if your small static site gets suddenly HN audience? Do you then pay thousands for the bandwidth? For simple static sites, I always look at the egress rates and bandwidth caps. For example if you have Wasabi+Cloudflare, then you know the pricing before hand. Wasabi do…

Having been on the HN frontpage several times with my small static site, it doesn't even show up in my monthly billing reports. The main fluctuation is for when I renew domains.

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#458

Post by newscracker »

pronoiac wrote: post #323
zck wrote: post #28

I use https://nearlyfreespeech.net for my static site. It isn't free -- it is pretty cheap -- but it has a lot going for it. It requires no custom tooling -- I upload via rsync. This makes it trivial to migrate to a new provider if necessary. I develop my site locally, then rsync it up. I have a custom domain pointed at the site, and also a custom .htaccess, so I have a good amount of control over the site. I do thin…

I'm pretty fond of them, but their service charges for support gradually add up if you have many sites there. I'm moving some items to a $5 VPS.

Have you looked at using the per-alias document root feature? Depending on your needs, you could host multiple domains and "sites" on one NSFN site using this feature. This makes all of them share certain things and doesn't allow the amount of resilience that separate NSFN sites would allow, but it's an easy way to reduce your costs if your needs aren't very demanding.

Re: Ask HN: Cheapest/easiest way to host a static site?

#459

Post by dusted »

ask your isp for a static ip address, attach a rasperry pi to your home network, forward port 80 and, if you're fancy, port 443 to the IP of said raspberry pi. Install a webserver (like lighttpd) buy a domain name with DNS hosting, add an A record for your domain to point to previously mentioned static IP.

Was next to free in 1999, still is.

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