Dont Pass Up the Built-In Webserver so quickly.....

I found Jalbum during my search for an easy to use Photo Album generator.  I've been impressed ever since.  One feature I found a bit "ignored" in the forums, which by the way is an excellent source of information, is information on the built in Webserver in Jalbum.

You can visit my family album here .  What makes this album unique, well, when you view my album, you are actually connecting to the computer in my home.  No uploading files to a webserver, no paying for monthly hosting fees, no configuration of webpages, actually, Jalbum makes hosting an album so easy, if you can check email you can host your own pictures.

 What about bandwidth you may ask, that you can't host a website with your current bandwidth they say?  I hear that excuse everyday and I dismiss it.  Want proof, okay fine:

Click here to watch a video, or click here to see the photo album.  Both load quickly and the video plays just fine, both are running from my home computer through my high speed internet connection.  So, even if you have Dial-Up, pictures could work just fine. 

Albums can be Gigabytes of data, and if you are using a remote host, you need to "Upload" gigabytes of data to make your album work.  Just because your album might need a terabyte of storage, a user can only access small bits of it at a time.  You can only view so many pictures at once, you can only see one picture at a time.  Thus, a typical user only requests small bits of that terabyte of data at a time.  That small bit doesn't require high bandwidth, and your current Internet Connection is plenty fast. 

By using the built in Webserver, there is no "Uploading".  Albums are available the moment you generate it.  If you run out of hard drive space, just install a new hard drive, or install an external USB hard drive, those are all the rage lately.  Plug in an external USB hard drive, and bam, 200, 300 or even 500 gigabytes of data storage at your disposal, in an instant for little money.  All because you are using the built in webserver, these options are available to you. 

If your curious how I made the video, I used MS PhotoStory to generate the movie, then imported the movie into MS Movie Maker, added music and exported the video as WMV.  Guess what, all those programs are Free, and Jalbum puts everthing together nicely.  What a Deal !!!   If want to learn more about using MS PhotoStory and MS Movie Maker to generate movies of your pictures, drop me an email note here and if I get enough interest, I'll even make a sample tutorial or instruction manual.  It's really quite easy.

 I created a manual on how to use the built in webserver. It walks you through each step, explaining things simply without a bunch of technical jargon. You may download the manual here: JAlbum webserver manual.pdf

 So, is hosting your own album locally on your computer for you?  Honestly that depends.

Reasons for Local Hosting:

• You are not creating an album for a commercial enterprise
• You are not tech savvy and don't want to bother with FTP, HTTP, Cpanel and Webhost Admin tasks
• You want to maintain control of your pictures
• You want the flexibility of allowing friends and family to add to the album easily
• You want the flexibility to add unlimited amount of pictures without additional webhost fees
• You don't want to pay more for monthly web host fees, bandwidth usage and storage and hassle of uploading albums
  

So, if you're tired of trying to configure an FTP connection to a webhost, tired of getting connection issues and just want to get a web album up and running as painless as possible, then look no further than the built in webserver.  It allows you to get up and running fast, but also the expandability to increase functionality the more you learn.

Oh, one last thing.  Here's a question everyone asks and extremely difficult to implement if you choose an external webhost.

I have family all over the world and we want to be able to share our pictures.  How can I let family members add to my album, or how can I add pictures to my album, and I don't want to bother trying to explain FTP, HTTP or anything like that, nor do I want to be maintaining my album as a second life, there's got to be an automated easy solution?

What if I told you, your album can autogenerate itself when pictures are added, removed or deleted.  What if I told you family from around the world can add to that album as simple as using a standard Windows Folder from their computer.  In short, if the person knows what a folder is in Windows, they can add to your album and your album can auto-update itself when pictures are added, removed, or changed.  Now for the real kicker, what if I told you all this was Free.  Well, that's a blog for another day, or if you just can't wait, you can reach me here

 Happy Jalbuming.....

Chris (aka cinoaz in the forums)