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**Sasq** · 30 August 2006, 15:33

move mail/web server to a dedicated host - I offer good prices.
file server, set it to spin the drives down when not in use.
convert the smoothwall to run of a big CF card instead of a hard disk, save power.

**Tjalfe** · 30 August 2006, 16:26

would a stand alone router work for you, instead of using a PC for it?..should be a fair savings.. how about combing email/web server with the file server?.. then turn off your PC when you are not around

**LvR** · 30 August 2006, 20:05

I have just realised that my home network is consuming around 4 amps

Personal interest only ......................... how did you come to the realization?

If its by simply adding together all the max ratings of all the supplies I reckon you are out by miles. 4A in the UK (220V yes?) means a KW ................... I have a similar setup here (P4 950 and another P4 840) running off 2 UPSs with the UPS monitoring software telling me that in total on the 2 machines I don't even consume 400W for the 2 machines combined (about 1.5 A) .

Sure its a lot, but I don't think its nearly as bad as the wife wold have you believe.

I would get a multimeter and actually measure the real consumption before you start spending lots of energy and money on new/different hw.

**Nowhere** · 30 August 2006, 20:24

Put everything on one computer using Xen virtualisation or something like that?

(BTW, the above is a sort of guess/wondering - obviously it is recommended that firewall/router should be separate; does this solution count as separate enough?)

**lowlifecat** · 30 August 2006, 21:29

lvr>

4a*220v=880watts

average comp uses around 200-250watts under full load. considerably less if you are not gaming/videoediting/encoding. lets just stick to an average of 225watts. 4pcs*225w=900watts, should be considerably less in your case.

add monitors, peripherals, modems etc.. you should be averaging around 4a, maybe a little less.

paddy>

SMOOTHWALL ROUTER PC, EMAIL/WEB SERVER and FILE SERVER can all reside on 1 machine.

a residential gateway can be used instead of the router PC and your email/web server can be hosted elsewhere.

**LvR** · 30 August 2006, 22:47

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

lvr>

4a*220v=880watts

average comp uses around 200-250watts under full load. considerably less if you are not gaming/videoediting/encoding. lets just stick to an average of 225watts. 4pcs*225w=900watts, should be considerably less in your case.

add monitors, peripherals, modems etc.. you should be averaging around 4a, maybe a little less.

Well - we all have our individual ways of doing things I guess.

still:

That "bin the lot" comment makes me think old stuff basically - therefore nowhere near the modern PC 200-250W max range even ............

Monitors in power-saving when not in use - yes? .............. therefore only the personal machine is the issue and that is not to be considered part of the network IMO.

Example

My ADSL modem +router chews currently 32mA (measured)
My P4 950 machine chews 634mA (measured)

Still say "LAN on demand" even with all the stuff listed there and with no monitors required to run is not even going to be close to 4A .................... lets see what Paddy say ito real hw specs.

**lowlifecat** · 30 August 2006, 22:50

Originally posted by LvR

Well - we all have our individual ways of doing things I guess.

still:

That "bin the lot" comment makes me think old stuff basically - therefore nowhere near the modern PC 200-250W max range even ............

Monitors in power-saving when not in use - yes? .............. therefore only the personal machine is the issue and that is not to be considered part of the network IMO.

Example

My ADSL modem +router chews currently 32mA (measured)
My P4 950 machine chews 634mA (measured)

Still say "LAN on demand" even with all the stuff listed there and with no monitors required to run is not even going to be close to 4A .................... lets see what Paddy say ito real hw specs.

agreed, i was being generous with the numbers.

**Paddy** · 31 August 2006, 02:01

Cheers guys! The power consumption is accurate. I have directly measured it, not tried to work it out.

However, the fileserver probably wasn't thrashing away when I performed this test so my figure of 4A may be an under estimate.

I am keen to see how I can build a combined smoothwall, file, web and mail server. Anyone got links?

As for HW specs

I have a Quad P3 500 (Compaq ProLiant 6500) which acts as my web and mail server
A 1GHz standard desktop machine for the file server
A P3 500 for smoothwall

One ADSL modem
One ethernet switch
One hub
One 8 port Compaq KVM

Everything else is powered on demand and therefore not tested. I have an old 15inch Compaq 151FS monitor which is powered off as I use remote desktop for everything.

@Sasq: I have got remote access to pop3 accounts, but I enjoyed having IMAP access to some of them. I can break it down to ~15users with less than 100emails sent per day. I'm curious to what you would charge?

**Paddy** · 31 August 2006, 02:04

In an ideal world, I'd figure out how to do as much of this as possible with one machine. The problem is that I don't think that any sinlge machine is good enough. My PC could certainly do it, buy it is connected only by WiFi which makes it innapropriate for streaming video.

**TransformX** · 31 August 2006, 02:52

I guess the Compaq ProLiant 6500 draws most of the current. The question is whether a current homebred PC, even though never as robust as the Proliant, could do all his work better, faster and using (much) less current?

**Paddy** · 31 August 2006, 03:11

After a healthy debate with my wife

we have decided the following.
1) look into remote hosting for web/mail. If this is a viable option great. If not, then I will have to revert back to using POP3 email with my ISP. That would be a pain, but workable.

2) I will move the RAID array from the fileserver to my primary PC. If we want to stream video from it, then I'll have to run a lump of cat5 to the next room. Not very elegant but it will work.

3) With the servers retired, the smoothwall box is going to be redundant as I can control everything else reasonably well with my routers.

It is a shame to do all this after getting the network up and running, but that's life.
I have managed to make a compromise with my wife. Out with the old and in with the new

**Technoid** · 31 August 2006, 08:41

electricy in uk must be expensive

**Tjalfe** · 31 August 2006, 09:20

Originally posted by Technoid

electricy in uk must be expensive

even here it will easily run you $20CDN / month to keep a PC on 24/7.. we officially pay $0.058 / KW/h but with taxes and other bs. it is closer to $0.13 KW/h

**Taz** · 31 August 2006, 10:11

Originally posted by Technoid

electricy in uk must be expensive

Everything in the UK is expensive

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Reduce network power consumption.

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