Link to online web service or set up my own? Clip Notes Problems

Question

I am looking for some kind of hard drive/server kit for hosting my own videos. I want send my clients links to their projects at certain stages, but not through YouTube. I have no idea how to set that up. I saw an ethernet/USB2/what-have-you Buffalo drive that I could supposedly serve from and store my archive files. Is that the way to go or is it better or more cost-effective to go with an online service?
By the way, I could not get Clip Notes to work. In fact, it crashed my computer (or Premiere anyway). I should be able send direct from the timeline, correct? It didn't do that. Instead I had to send it to myself first - save to hard drive, and then email it to whomever. I don't see how it could work anyway. I can't email a 20 MB or bigger PDF file, can I?

Answer 1

Running your own server would probably be much harder than setting up a page through a commercial-grade provider. First and foremost you would need to set up a server-class OS and webserver system (such as Apache running on a Linux kernel). Security becomes a big issue as you almost certainly *will* come under fire by bots looking for servers to infect. So, you'll need to learn Apache, setting up CGI, Perl and other scripts and firewalls to protect your investment. Then you still would need to set up a page with a secure entry shell to allow your clients in without letting others in (to protect NDA protected material and preventing other clients from "peering over your hsoulder" as it were).
Also, if you have internet provided by Comcast or Verizon (or similar end-user broadband), those plans *explicitly* disallow use as a server and they most likely would shut you down if they detected the presence of incoming HTTP routing on port 80, and doubly-so if you are running a commercial website for the benefit of your business. They have specific "enterprise class" broadband packages but they are typically more expensive (often twice as much as "home" packages) as they provide more consistent and reliable speeds and are usually synchronous rather than the typical end-user asynchronous broadband (ie end-user is 2Mbs down and 300Kbs up, where enterprise class would be 4Mbs down *and* up). The benefit being that people visiting your server are getting full speed *from* you as well as *to* you, and also they typically provide more robust mail packages.
Serving your own content from home is typically an expensive and extremely labor-intensive prospect, as you will almost certainly need to learn Linux/Unix as well as apache, and maybe also a robust FTP client and mail server. Serving from Windows XP or Vista is highly discouraged due to enormous security problems and downtime issues. Learning CGI, Perl and so forth is daunting at first and (if you're like me) you probably want to work on graphical content more than laboring over server duties and security details.
Subscribing to an enterprise-class hosting service can provide you with a robust, professional-looking website with almost no knowledge of HTML, CSS, Perl, CGI or other technology, and most provide a wide array of "extras" like secure password-protected content for individual users, CGI bins, mail hosting, extensive arrays of scripts to use (such as blogs, forums, online updating, user statistics, traffic analyses, etc) and many also provide simple tools for setting up your site with easy-to-use templates and so forth. I have used 1-and-1 hosting and they provide excellent service with highly-rated uptime and security as well as a ton of tools and software for site building. Typical packages for decently rated monthly bandwidth can be had for around $10 to $20 a month which is a fantastic value, compared to spending upwards of $100 a month for hosting your own server and the countless hours of set-up and daily maintenance.
Depending on the services you subscribe to with a provider, many probably have compatible systems for allowing you to publish directly to your website via common protocols and tools (using FTP or VPNs (virtual private network allowing for remotely mounted network drives)). You may need to do some research and homework, but the end result would be a very seamless work environment where you can share results with clients quickly and easily, and also allow them to comment, share notes and upload assetts for you to utilize if necessary.
-Mark