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Comment by pygy_ | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to buy such a server at low purchase and maintenance cost.

The Pandaboard[1] looks like a good fit, but the instructions to install a Linux distro are a bit scary [2]. I guess I could do it, from my Mac, but I'm a bit afraid to mess things up with the low-level disk utilities.

Does someones sells SD cards with a distro pre-installed? Or an equivalent device with an easier setup?

If not, there's probably a market for that...

[1] http://pandaboard.org/

[2] http://omappedia.org/wiki/OMAP_Pandroid_Main#Getting_Started

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Instead of a dedicated server, use a router that can run DD-WRT or Tomato. I use a cheap(35$) refurbished wireless router from Linksys[1] and I am sure there are other models. These will be more energy efficient and easier to maintain than running a dedicated server. Additionally, of course, you can use these as routers for your home network.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-WRT160N-RM-Refurbished-W...

There are lots of dirt-cheap Atom-based Mini-ITX systems out there. A basic motherboard with CPU will cost you about €60, a bit more for a dual-core. You can probably scavenge some DDR2 ram from an upgraded laptop and install the OS on a USB stick. Mini-ITX cases/PSUs tend to be cheap too. If this going to sit in your office or home, you might want to watch out for noise/heat with both motherboard and PSU and pay a bit more for a fanless motherboard & PSU and get a case with a large, slow-rotating fan. All in all you can probably come in under €200 plus a multiple of that for your time for research, assembly and installation. Or just rent a VPS.

Exactly my question. Are there any cheap and reliable(very important in this case) VPS service I can use to do this? Using ssh thru internet as proxy seems to be the best approach. Unfortunately I cannot setup my own ssh server to do this as both power and internet connectivity is not reliable where i live.

You might want to look at http://prgmr.com/xen/ It's run by a Hacker News member, lsc.

He has plans starting at $5/mo but you'll want to take notice of the of the monthly transfer limit. The $5/mo plan is 10GB transfer a month (which will come to 5GB in/5GB out if you're using it as a proxy) so you won't want to tunnel video or downloads through it. If you go for the $8/mo plan though you can get 40GB data transfer.

I've never had an account with him so I'm not sure if there's a way to check how much of your data allowance you've used for the month. Someone else might be able to chime in about a program you could run on the server to notify you when you've reached a transfer threshold.

You can also just put DD-WRT or Tomato on your router and use that.

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