Server bites man, news at 11
I felt I should chime in after Mark Pilgrim posted Against full peers on the dangers of running a server on a desktop machine. The fundamental problem is that any server, whether HTTP or otherwise is almost impossible to completely secure. The web server sits on an OS and other applications can typically get access to the file system or maybe even the memory of the server. That means that even if the server itself is "secure" it might be possible to effectively use it as a trojan horse if someone can get the right file in the right place on the machine.
Most Windows machines used to be shipped with bad defaults as far as security is concerned and most people do not take the time or know how to "lock down" their desktops; I say used to because I haven't bought a box with Windows XP on it, so I don't know if the situation has changed. This isn't a problem limited to Windows. If you're technically minded you might be interested in Hacking Exposed. If you want to see what common ports might be exposed on your OS right now, go try Shields UP! (works for any box, not just Windows). Just because you have a firewall, use ZoneAlarm, etc. and know what you're doing you might run into problems with hackers, not running unnecessary server processes that are publically available is a way of limiting your worries.
So why is this local server business fundamentally different than public servers such as radio.weblogs.com? Because none of my other personal data or files are on that public server. I don't even care if it gets hacked. The worst thing that can happen is that someone can impersonate my identity to Userland. However, now that I think about it, since I don't actually know how my local Radio server interacts with the public server, there could be a vulnerability to my local system via the public server when I do an update. I'm not saying there is a problem, just that I don't know how the current system works, so I can't say whether it is entirely safe. A server that you just upload files to say via HTTP or FTP doesn't have a way back onto your local desktop.
4:10:10 PM 
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