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perlsyntax

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 10, 2014
296
3
I got a question.What does apple mean there no hosting fees anyhow can i do some networking in my app with out something like google cloud platform?
 
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Are you talking about iCloud storage..?

You can do any networking you want. iOS can do basically every type of network request that a computer can do. HTTP requests, web socket connections, UDP sockets, etc.

A very useful example is making a Node.js server to serve iOS apps. I have a server hosted on Amazon Web Services EC2 that takes HTTP requests from my iOS apps, performs some logic or checks the database, then sends a response. It's a very powerful way of creating a 'cloud' for your app.
 
i talking something like google platform what google use.Would i have to pay for services like that to host?I just worry that i would have to setup my own servers.I know the google cloud platform call some more money then i thought.I was thinking of Amazon web service but not sure how much it cost so i got to do some google.If i right it work with iOS android?
 
What apple means is that for iCloud the developer has no hosting fees. For users, up to a certain number, iCloud is free. Above the limit users pay more for more storage.

There are probably no other free hosting services. Google, AWS, Parse etc. all have fees. Also, the fees can be based on different things like amount of storage, number of cpus, number of requests etc.
 
OK, I'm not an expert on Parse. Many of the web hosts have free access primarily for development purposes. But you're right there's a threshold for storage and accesses per second below which there are no fees.

OP might be able to find other services that are free at a low level of use but have some cost if used enough.
 
I thought Parse was free up to a point.
https://parse.com/plans

Edit: Ok, maybe it's not free, did something change? Didn't Parse used to be free?
I like Parse's model. If you're a good, efficient developer and you keep your requests per second level low you can have a pretty high number of simultaneous users before you enter the paid territory. Unfortunately some apps just innately require a lot of requests so it's not entirely fair, but it's not realistic for Parse to set a special price for every developer for every situation. Overall though, I greatly prefer setting up my own Node.js server to serve my apps so I don't have to worry about such things.
 
I like Parse's model. If you're a good, efficient developer and you keep your requests per second level low you can have a pretty high number of simultaneous users before you enter the paid territory. Unfortunately some apps just innately require a lot of requests so it's not entirely fair, but it's not realistic for Parse to set a special price for every developer for every situation. Overall though, I greatly prefer setting up my own Node.js server to serve my apps so I don't have to worry about such things.
I'm getting fiber optics 100mb in a few days, do you think that would support a home brew server? I'm working on an app and want to keep the costs down. Is there some site that can give some insight into what it takes to set a home brew server up?
 
I'm getting fiber optics 100mb in a few days, do you think that would support a home brew server? I'm working on an app and want to keep the costs down. Is there some site that can give some insight into what it takes to set a home brew server up?

I never found any such site. Who is your ISP and what section of the world do you live in?

I live in the Boston area with Comcast. They never change my IP address, even though I have an ordinary internet plan with them, so I just host various things off of a MacMini.

I looked up what my IP is (just type "What is my IP" into DuckDuckGo and it'll give you the answer - no other websites needed), bought a domain (with 1&1, but any other company should work fine, too), then set the domain records to point at my home IP address.

Then I configured my router give my MacMini a specific address on my local network and to forward inbound traffic on certain ports to my MacMini. The MacMini is hard wired to the router so it responds faster than other computers in my house, which rely on Wifi.

I already owned the domain for email. I got the MacMini (a 2006) from my mom for free - it was just sitting in her basement gathering dust, hadn't been plugged into anything in at least 3 years. I already had internet service and a router, plus a spare Ethernet cable. So this entire set up was completely free as far as I'm concerned.

I run a static website with Apache on port 80. I also have a Postgres database running on it... I forget which port. There's a Twisted server running on it, also forget the port. Have VNC and SSH running so I can remote into it from my other machines (actually have VNC forwarded over the router, so I can access it from anywhere in the world as long as I have Internet.)

Pretty sweet. Pretty easy. Pretty cheap. Lots of fun.
 
Better check your agreement with your ISP, @ArtOfWarfare. Most don't allow you to use their service to host your own servers. So, even though you're able to get away with it, technically, you're probably violating your agreement.
 
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Better check your agreement with your ISP, Art. Most don't allow you to use their service to host your own servers. So, even though you're able to get away with it, technically, you're probably violating your agreement.

I would say it's a very gray area. Everytime you use the Internet, you send and receive some data.

Obviously they see what I'm doing as somehow different and want me to be on a different plan, but I don't think their argument would hold water in court (and I don't think it's a big enough issue for them to care). They have defined maximum amounts of data I can send and receive each month (small print - they advertise it as unlimited with an asterisk). I come in at around 5% of that limit, so I don't think they'll even notice me.

(Does anyone else run services off of their home internet? I tried getting this question added to the Stack Overflow survey, but it was heavily down voted as "not related to programming". I disagree, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.)
 
Basic work around for home servers on a non commercial plan (I am assuming you are a house/residential plan) is find a dynamic dns server pprovider you like. This gets you the internet access that doesn't break when an ISP changes your global IP (this tends to be pseudo static, one ISP I had the same for well over a year...but this a just incase it does change).

Then you port forward the traffic over a port they don't block. Or don't monitor/restrict too well. Often in the past 443 has been a liked one. Think they watch port 80 on the inbound as in theory not much should be trying to reach an internal address on port 80 where the communications were not started by that actual computer in the network. that and its probably an easy way to snag people doing this who don't work out port forwarding.

This how I know people did webservers on their ISP plan. Service/application distribution should work to some extent maybe with some tweaking.
 
I rent a cheap (less than $6/mo) VPS from a cloud provider. It was cheaper than upgrading my home broadband to the next level. The VPS provider is also reported to have better uptime reliability than the local cable company, and I don't have to punch a hole in my home firewall for hackers to poke at.

Be careful with exposing a home server if you are not a security consultant/expert. I periodically back up the public cloud server to one of my firewalled home servers. Then when (not if, these days) my public VPS server gets hacked, I can just wipe it and restore it from the home server. One of my home servers is on a Raspberry Pi, so it uses almost no electricity and takes no space.
 
Basic work around for home servers on a non commercial plan (I am assuming you are a house/residential plan) is find a dynamic dns server pprovider you like. This gets you the internet access that doesn't break when an ISP changes your global IP (this tends to be pseudo static, one ISP I had the same for well over a year...but this a just incase it does change).

Comcast never changed my IP address in the 18 months that I was living in one place. If they ever started changing my IP address on me, I would throw together a ~20 line python script that would periodically use DuckDuckGo's APIs to figure out my IP address, then update my domain records. Apart from 30 minutes of my time, it would be free.
 
I rent a cheap (less than $6/mo) VPS from a cloud provider. It was cheaper than upgrading my home broadband to the next level. The VPS provider is also reported to have better uptime reliability than the local cable company, and I don't have to punch a hole in my home firewall for hackers to poke at.

Be careful with exposing a home server if you are not a security consultant/expert. I periodically back up the public cloud server to one of my firewalled home servers. Then when (not if, these days) my public VPS server gets hacked, I can just wipe it and restore it from the home server. One of my home servers is on a Raspberry Pi, so it uses almost no electricity and takes no space.

That's another issue is the knowledge AWS and others already have that I don't. There's so many things to learn and so little time.

BTW, the service is offered by Consolidated and I'm in Sacramento, CA, so I should be close to some major hubs.

I've heard huge money can be saved once you get up to a certain level of service when compared to AWS. There's probably some companies that offer a service to setup and maintain owned servers under some contract but at some point the price should go down as something like a Raspberry Pi are so cheap that anyone can make a server farm for cheap.
 
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