EDIS is offering it's free raspberry pi colocation service again

[8086]

http://www.edis.at/en/server/colocation/austria/raspberrypi/

I signed up over a year ago, when it was just starting, and it's been pretty good.

Send your rpi to Austria, then they will put it in their datacentre, and you can access it as you would a dedicated server.

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in buy/sell/wanted, but considering it's a free service, it's here. Feel free to move it.

[Prime73]

what's the reason to use a Pi as a server? it's a fairly slow board and can't compete with real dedicated servers? I think it makes much more sense just to use it on your own Internet connection for a small hobby project, etc rather than sending it to a datacenter.

[8086]

Personally, I just like the fact that my rpi is in a datacentre in Austria, and I can SSH into it whenever I want. It's free, so it's definitely worth it.

It's main purpose is accumulating uptime 

Of course it can't compete with proper server hardware, but it's the novelty more than the practicality that draws people, I guess.

[BurtyB]

Beware they have some funny electrons over there - the SD card I sent with my RPI to EDIS back in 2012 was dead when it arrived in Austria (not Australia) but worked again (and still does) after arriving back home 5 months later in the UK.

[XOIIO]

Beware they have some funny electrons over there - the SD card I sent with my RPI to EDIS back in 2012 was dead when it arrived in Austria (not Australia) but worked again (and still does) after arriving back home 5 months later in the UK.

Did you forget to turn it upside down when shipping?

[Zbig]

But... WHY? You send it somewhere so you no longer have a piece of cheap, moderately capable hardware to tinker with (the sole point of RPi) and you get terribly low performing "server" in return. Any VPS for few bucks a month will be running circles around your RPi "server". The feeling of novelty will wear off after a week. Well, to each their own, I guess, but just... no

[Richard Crowley]

How would you even know that YOUR RasPi was online?  With an old discarded PC, they could emulate dozens of RasPies and resell your board and you would never know the difference.   

[BurtyB]

How would you even know that YOUR RasPi was online?  With an old discarded PC, they could emulate dozens of RasPies and resell your board and you would never know the difference.   

You could go to the effort of cloning the MAC address, firmware version etc. and emulate an ARM CPU, storage, etc. but it would cost a lot more in power and hardware than actually doing RPi colo IMHO.

[Legit-Design]

Didn't see any mention on their site, but do they allow any hardware mods? As long as it remains close to stock size and mods are durable to be handled in normal way shouldn't be a problem?

what's the reason to use a Pi as a server? it's a fairly slow board and can't compete with real dedicated servers? I think it makes much more sense just to use it on your own Internet connection for a small hobby project, etc rather than sending it to a datacenter.

You have unlimited fast bandwidth with that service? People in the world are still limited by ADSL/2/+ uploads. Most severe limitation would be the raspberry pi speed itself. Shared usb storage - ethernet bandwidth is not desirable for server applications. Run something like a dedicated low power 24/7 mumble (open source team speak) server. It's easy to setup a server and run it for 5 minutes, but try running it on a home connection for 5 months or 5 years. Also if you are worried your isp is monitoring/shaping your internet usage, make it your own VPN and your ISP or anyone listening won't have any idea about anything. Fast reliable internet enables all kinds of uses.

This is not a good offer if one sends away their only raspberry pi they could barely afford.

[retrolefty]

So it is Austria not Australia after all?