====Hosting you MQTT Server====

There are several different choices for your MQTT server when setting up [[mqttproxy:start|MQTT proxy]].

===Dedicated Services===

There are many companies who provide inexpensive MQTT hosting, such as HiveMQ. You can quickly get access to a cloud-based server, although a subscription will be required.

Many IoT providers offer MQTT services.

===Cloud Servers===

You can fairly quickly set up your own private MQTT server via a virtual machine through services such as DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, Azure or Google Cloud.

We'd suggest running a Linux VM with //Mosquitto// as your server. See [[https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorial-collections/how-to-install-and-secure-the-mosquitto-mqtt-messaging-broker|this example]] for how it can be done.

===Local Server===

If you are able to open firewall ports, it's also possible to launch your own Mosquitto service on your own PC. 

Install //Mosquitto// on either Windows or Linux, sign in to your router/firewall and forward the port that Mosquitto is listening on (1883 by default). 

You'll then need to make sure the Source machine is connected to your //public// IP address, which you can get from web sites such as [[https://www.whatismyip.com/|www.whatismyip.com]].

Note that in some environments, your IP address will change over time.