Webserver Networking Project

“Featuring the Past, for the Future”

For over seven years, I’ve been working on projects that have challenged my ability to design, code, and implement server applications. These started out very small, but gradually grew in size and complexity as I explored the work of more experienced developers. In this way, I taught myself a majority of what I know about coding, and I still believe that example is one of the best methods of teaching and inspiring. That is the core mission behind this website; new creativity fueled by the revelations of others.

What is it? (TL;DR)

I created the website as a long-term project, to be a platform on which other students can showcase their own work for feedback and audience exposure.

Development on this project has been underway since January 2023.

Main Goals

The website has come a long way. What is now the final product was started nearly a year ago, as a side task picked up in a computer science class. When I began this project, I wasn’t even thinking about a broader impact; I simply wanted a website on which to display a handful of my own projects, in hopes of attracting users and feedback.¹ Nonetheless, the idea got into my head that a portfolio-type website could be useful not only for me, but for all students looking to showcase their hard work. This was the first of several goals I had in mind for this project, to create a platform where students could publish their creations and seek inspiration for future endeavors.

Another personal goal of mine was to push the limits of my existing developer knowledge, exploring an interest in networking and server administration. So I stepped it up a notch, challenging myself to deploy the website in a more complicated server setup than necessary, to reap the benefits of experience and increased performance. It was certainly an endeavor working with the limited computer hardware available to me, but I had a lot of fun applying what I know about programming and computers to an area I’d only briefly touched on in the past. Not only did I discover industry-standard practices for server setup, but I also had to employ outside-the-box thinking to solve several critical issues.

Having completed this project, I feel that I better understand what is involved in careers related to server management and network engineering.

Finally, I wanted to use the website as proof of server capabilities. In its own way, the website’s very existence showcases the abilities of a networked server structure used across the globe to publish all sorts of web platforms. I hope that the site acts as a demonstration of the infrastructure behind my project, and increases public knowledge of the computer systems that play key roles in the day-to-day Internet. Being able to visit websites with just a few taps is something I think we take for granted, but it really is amazing when you think about it; lines of code from a single computer, sent across the world in fractions of seconds. Imagine a world without computers, without network communications. Without servers, like the ones that publish this website, there would be no Internet.

Just something to think about.

Final Note

I’ve chosen to keep the project code closed-source and the public URL private for foreseeable future, though this may change in the future with potential stack migration and content restructuring.

Thanks for reading!
~ Turtle