Building a Web Server and Website

MayonnaiseBandit

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5
Location
Colorado, USA
I am gathering the hardware to create my own server to attach to the internet, I would like to host my own website on it with sensitive content, which is why I am making my own server.

My plan is to create a website which is similar to Netflix or YouTube by layout/design only with my own content, behind a login wall to limit access. I will be focusing on making the site mobile friendly although I suspect the most use will be on full size computers, from what I have gathered it is easier to make a mobile site that translates to desktop than the other way around. The video player I have not picked out yet, but I am sure there are tons of free players to choose from.

How much upstream would be required to keep, say, 5 users pulling less than HD video simultaneously without lagging? An article I read said 5-8Mbps should be sufficient, I have 5 currently. I don't think I'll every have more than 5 people watching at a time, so if this is enough for now, great. If not, I am connected to fiber internet, I just pay for 40mbps/5mbps at the moment, I can always upgrade.

Most of what I will be doing will be copy/paste from free sources online as I am not super savvy with that sort of thing but can at least make a collage for lack of a better term, of pieces gathered online. I would like to research and study a little bit to become better, it wouldn't hurt.

What programming languages should I be looking into to do the following?
-Make mobile/desktop friendly site
-Make login wall
-Make flash player system
-Create some sort of way to filter/view videos to find the video you want easier
-Create rating system (5-star)
-Create comments section for each video

I can essentially steal the entire layout of any porn site (no my sensitive content is not porn :( )

Has anyone had any experience with this sort of project? (The server aspect or the website style)
Any good advice, timesavers, things to look out for?

Any info, input, or discussion of any type is welcome
This is my first post, thanks for reading

-Joe Dub
 
I'd suggest just using Plex.tv to host your own content. It's a free media server, supports transcoding of media (music, videos, and pictures), supports mobile (has mobile apps even), and is already on tons of platforms (Windows, Linux, OSX, Android...).
 
Yep. You only have to pay if you want a few "extra" features, like trailers before your content, early builds, and a few other "neat" features that aren't necessary. Only thing you actually have to buy is the mobile app (which is like $5). But yeah...from your list:

-Make mobile/desktop friendly site - Plex does this and has dedicated apps
-Make login wall - Already there, and you can allow friends to view your content if you invite them via email and they create a login
-Make flash player system - Even better, it's not Flash based, it's HTML5 video
-Create some sort of way to filter/view videos to find the video you want easier - has categories & search
-Create rating system (5-star) - has this as well
-Create comments section for each video - doesn't have this is all
 
Yeah, I was really really pleased with they way it auto organized a lot of my stuff. It took previously mislabeled videos and fixed it all to be uniform with the rest of the lot.

I couldn't get it to work outside of my wifi network though, I was assuming this was because I don't pay for the premium "Flux Pass", but I'm going to look into it, I hadn't even realized that you can make accounts and allow them to view your content, I was testing it with a friend last night having them use my login info. This service really is something else!

Edit:The comments for videos can just be solved with a group chat on my cell phone, that part I was not overly concerned about.
 
You'll have to forward the port that plex uses for the IP that's hosting your Plex server. Using it outside of your local network doesn't require the premium Plex Pass. Should just have to forward the port (default is 32400 I believe), and it should work fine.
 
Logins and Mobile functions both are covered in most standard web-hosting sites with a ''builder'' option, if you really wanna do it from scratch then you need to know at least HTML & CSS. Javascript is optional but you should know at least the basics for reference sake at least. CSS can make things much more pretty and leads to the knowledge of adding 'depth' to your portals and such, as well as more tidied up navigation panels.
 
Yep. You only have to pay if you want a few "extra" features, like trailers before your content, early builds, and a few other "neat" features that aren't necessary. Only thing you actually have to buy is the mobile app (which is like $5). But yeah...from your list:

-Make mobile/desktop friendly site - Plex does this and has dedicated apps
-Make login wall - Already there, and you can allow friends to view your content if you invite them via email and they create a login
-Make flash player system - Even better, it's not Flash based, it's HTML5 video
-Create some sort of way to filter/view videos to find the video you want easier - has categories & search
-Create rating system (5-star) - has this as well
-Create comments section for each video - doesn't have this is all

you are slightly wrong, it works like that but to host a TON of shows to acess anywhere, you must own a server (like i do) running a plex host program to host the shows/Movies
 
you are slightly wrong, it works like that but to host a TON of shows to acess anywhere, you must own a server (like i do) running a plex host program to host the shows/Movies
I don't see how I was wrong - see above post. You can run it on any desktop computer pretty much; I have it running fine on an old machine with an Intel e8400 and 6GB of RAM.

You'll have to forward the port that plex uses for the IP that's hosting your Plex server. Using it outside of your local network doesn't require the premium Plex Pass. Should just have to forward the port (default is 32400 I believe), and it should work fine.
 
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