Why Get a Webserver (for casuals)

I’ve always enjoyed subscribing to a webhosting server. My first taste of webhosting was during uni days (the days of various experiments for me). I’m not a professional programmer but a lot of useful things can be done with a webserver if you’re planning to own one.

This article is obviously for the non-power-user (or power users who are yet to discover their powers).

Imagine a digital space that you own and are able to create something in. One slice of that space for example, is cloud storage (OneDrive, Google Storage, Dropbox and so on). Another slice is an email client (Gmail, Outlook), for example. These two are the most common ones that most people need and use.

You may or may not need to learn some coding to make some of these things work but here’s a list of my use-cases (* indicates coding needed):

• * Webhosting – I host 2 websites (and domains). 1 personal website (this blog) and a shared website with my fiancée (you’ll see why later).
• Email – Naturally, when you own a domain (singaubulit.com) + a webhosting service, you can setup a custom email address too (e.g. custom@singaubulit.com).
• * WordPress – I’m just so used to WordPress. If you come from the 2000s blogging scene you’ll understand why. It’s in PHP and it has many extensions to work with. The reason I blog is to practice my coding, not so much for diary-keeping. This blog you’re on right now uses a custom layout I made to my liking for example. I constantly design WP templates to keep in touch with PHP over the years. I need a project to make sense of the learning experience, thus the existence of this website.
• Softaculous – A suite of web apps you can install and run online. Some webhosts use Fantastico. Based on these categories listed in my Softaculous, let your imaginations run-wild for a bit for the kind of apps you can have: Blogs, Portals/CMS, Forums, Image Galleries, Wikis, Social Networking, Ad Management, Calendars, Mails, Polls & Analytics, Project Management, E-Commerce, ERP, Customer Support, Frameworks, Educational, DB Tools, Music, RSS, File Management, Others. Of course, the ones provided in Softaculous are not always satisfying (customisations, power-users) but here’s the thing (next)…
• * Custom Apps – Generally any web apps that you can launch from the server for example PHP, Python, Rubies and so on. In my situation, I run my Telegram bots via my webserver (to keep it active or live always). Which leads me to these various apps…
• Nextcloud – One of my fave thing about webhosting. I use other free/paid cloud services but I also setup my own cloud to keep specific files I need to stay synced everywhere. This is incredibly useful since I use these OSes concurrently: Windows, Chrome OS, Android, iOS.
• URL Shortener – You know those url shortener services like bit.ly? Yeah, you can install your own, it’s called YOURLS. If you’re copying a very long URL from elsewhere and need to share that link in a shorter format to reduce typo/broken link problems, that’s when you use a shortener. Or, for some reasons you need to have analytics of your shared links, YOURLS can provide that too (i.e. N of clicks, click sources, etc). I use this for some links that I make accessible to my students (did anyone open? how often? did you do my assignment? 😌)
• Canva – Now this is not installing Canva itself but here’s a power-move you can do with your own webserver + designing something on Canva. You can point your website designed in Canva to your own domain. Earlier, I mentioned that I have a shared domain with my fiancée which I utilise for our future wedding website. Since I’m bad at designing (something beautiful) and fully rely on Canva, this is the perfect route for me. Why bother using a custom domain? So you can manage the micro-things in your website i.e. adding custom codes/scripts which Canva obviously doesn’t allow.

This website and all the other stuff from earlier are hosted on the shared domain too. Imagine that shared domain being your digital home with your spouse. How does that work? For example www.youandyourspouse.com is your digital home address similar to your physical home address. In that ‘house’ you own/share/use many things together for example: a cloud storage, email clients, an image gallery (photoalbum), movie collection (to watch online), a pastebin (to share walls of text i.e. codes) and a secret e-card/easter egg for her (because I’m old skool and not romantic in real life).

Other Potentials

Basically, a webserver can hold web apps that you can build and run to your liking. Depending on how much you care to have a custom experience with your gadgets, the possibilities are endless.

A more pro-move is to build your own webserver which is an entirely different topic to write about. This more hardcore option will be able to utilise a website such as https://selfh.st/apps/ to install this huge collection of apps to have a truly customised digital experience with your computers. I’m not doing this because:

1. I’m not good at all kinds of coding.
2. No time. I really don’t.
3. I’m lazy. My brain capacity is invested in something else at this point.

My To-do List (with my web server)

• Make a web app for my Android phone

Future Updates

If I’m adding more stuff to the webserver I’ll update this article. Right now, I just want to sleep.