Self Hosting

[robertcvn]

OK, I am deciding whether to host Canvas myself, or use the free teacher version here..

If I self host for latency reasons, can I still use Arc?  Pricing seems to be hidden, which to me is a big red flag that it is $$$.  The canvas itself does not need to be low latency but voice chat DOES.

Is anybody running their own instance of BigBlueButton?  Can I use the free online Canvas with my server running BigBlueButton?

[gdavies · Accepted solution]

Hey Robert, I can speak to the Arc questions. You are still able to use Arc with a self hosted instance of Canvas, and I can provide pricing for you if you message me at gentry@instructure.com. 

You should also be able to have very low latency using hosted Canvas, are you using free for teachers outside of the United States by chance?

[mhammed_hassani]

hey Gentry . is it a chance to use fft outside US ? is there a difference in latency ?

my regards

[gdavies]

Unfortunately FFT is only hosted in the US for now, but paid accounts that are hosted on closer regions will definitely see some latency improvements. 

[robertcvn]

This is what I sent via email to Gentry so others can follow along, and add their own ideas.

Gentry Davies wrote:

Hey Robert, I can speak to the Arc questions. You are still able to use Arc with a self hosted instance of Canvas, and I can provide pricing for you if you message me at gentry@instructure.com. 

You should also be able to have very low latency using hosted Canvas, are you using free for teachers outside of the United States by chance?

Currently, I am not "Using" Canvas. I set up a trial account, and am busy clicking around the UI checking things out.

It seems like a good fit for what I want, which is:
1) Audio/Video intro to a discussion class
2) a short quiz
3) discussion of #1 with a focus on plurals, articles (a,and, the..) and correct pronunciation of English. Simple present tense, and simple present continuous, as this is about 70% of English usage. This is the "Basic" class. Then an Intermediate class, with more tenses, and harder vocab.

BUT:
1) I am in Vietnam, we have 3 connections to the rest of the internet, two undersea cables which were cut, and an overland one through China..
2) the cables were fixed, but not the routing. I put some money into Vultr, cheap VPS's etc. and was happy with Pings to Tokyo at about 90 ms. But that changed last Wednesday to 250ms pings. Crappy for voice.. No Good. Singapore, 220 ms. Sydney for the win at 155 ms. San Francisco is 200 and steady. Tokyo routes via Singapore, according to Tracert, and Tokyo routes through Singapore. I am not making this up...
3) So, I need to host at least the BigBlueButton part of things. Maybe I can get the cloud version of Canvas setup to do this.
4) or host it all, but then I need an Arc license.

I want to start with 4 classes of 5 students, meeting twice each week. Cost to the students is $5 per hour lesson. Money is tight here, and I am in the poorest province (Thanh Hoa), the beach city for Hanoi people. I get FTTH 80 mbit symmetrical for about $15 per month through Viettel. I could get a multi-wan router and also get Vinaphone 50 mbit for about $12. These are the top two here, and cover about 50% of internet subscribers. A static IP addess is $2/month.. Then I could self-host BigBlueButton locally.

I can live well here with AC/ internet, large room, eat out all meals, beer out most nights, visas, etc, for $500/month. Gross income on the above setup is about $800/month. Not a huge budget for extras.. Need some cash for servers etc. I could teach more, but I must do server admin, create lessons, do marketing, etc. I only need to create the lessons once, then re-use them, giving more free time later. But for now, start small, and build it.

This got a bit long, but gives an idea of my situation.

Let me know what you think is the best way for me to proceed.

Thanks in advance!

[robertcvn]

OOPS!  Tokyo routes via Singapore, according to Tracert, and Tokyo routes through Singapore. 

Should be:

Tokyo routes via Singapore, according to Tracert, and Singapore routes via Tokyo. 

[robertcvn]

I have not been super happy with my ISP of late, checking the options after I saw another provider string a fiber line.  Two boxes on the pole, one VNPT, which I have, and also FPT.  Top 4 providers of FTTH here are in a brutal price war, prepay and save a bunch.  People switch every few months due to the competition..  The providers will refund your prepay to the other ISP.

So, with the knowledge that FPT has service from a pole 100 steps away, I checked their site and the deals page.

Tin tức khuyến mãi lắp mạng FPT .  36 mbit for 176k VND at about 23k/USD or a bit less than $8 per month.  CHEAP.

I think self hosting is the way to go, for at least BigBlueButton..  Maybe put the STUN/TURN server up on a public VPS with a  static IP and call it done..

[gdavies]

Got it, yeah that makes sense! Apologies for the slow response.

Free For Teachers is hosted out of the US, and we have regional hosting options for paid institutions which will help with some of the latency. 

Hope that helps!