Fred's Random Thoughts Frederic Jean's Weblog

Coralizing Content

I'm a geek. I admit it freely and proudly. I even used to have all the t-shirts.

I also run my own e-mail and web server at home? Why? Mostly because I want to be able to control my mail, filter it as I want it. I also want the ability to serve my own content from home.

The problem here is that I only have a tiny upstream pipe. As a result, it's easy to go ahead and clog it with people looking at my picture gallery. I would rather be able to use it to be able to send e-mails out or to work from home.

A way to reduce the amount of information going through my small upload pipe would be to cache it. Well, I don't have infrastructure on the other side of the pipe, and there's no way that I can afford to pay Akamai to act as my cache.

Well, there's an open and free Content Distribution Network (CDN) out there called Coral. This is essentially a vastly distributed cache system that doesn't require the installation of any software or configuration of any proxy servers to be used. I gave it a try by "coralizing" my picture gallery. What a difference it makes! Pictures show up so much faster!

Maybe I'll be able to reclaim my broaband connection now.

-- Fred

PS: Yes, I know that there are hundreds of options for picture galleries, web based emails and other services out there. I wanted to do it myself though and get just a bit of experience in the process. What can I say. I'm a geek!