Web Hosting

[KATO33 0]

Is it possible to host a web site from home?
What would it cost ?
What equipment would be needed?
What software?
or if I need to ask these ??s I probaly need not try to host it on my own??
any feed back would be appreciated?

Blue Skies Black Death

[narcimund 0]

You need a PC with web server software.

You also need a static IP and reliable bandwidth.

You also need the domain name servers with authority over the domain to point to your static IP.

Or you can pay $20/month to have professionals do it. Or less if you go cheap.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[Guest]

Quote

You need a PC with web server software.

You also need a static IP and reliable bandwidth.

You also need the domain name servers with authority over the domain to point to your static IP.

Or you can pay $20/month to have professionals do it. Or less if you go cheap.

There's no reason to do it from home - too much expense and hassle.

You can host with a provider like doteasy.com and have all the convenience without the hassle.

The Seattle Skydivers website is hosted on doteasy. It's $60 for five years, or $12/year.

mh

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[pilotdave 0]

If you have a static IP, it's not very hard. There's plenty of free software to do it. Used to use a server called omni httpd then switched to apache when I needed some more advanced features.

So if you've already got the connection, and the site is small enough not to piss off your internet provider, it won't cost a thing. Of course you'll probably want a domain name. That costs a very small amount. I paid $12/year or so for the one I bought. But everytime some game crashes your computer, down goes your site. If reliability matters to you, leave it to the pros. Then again, I'm finding win XP VERY reliable. I'm not running any servers or anything, but I haven't restarted my computer in over 80 days now. 10 was my record under win98.

Setting up your own server can be a bit of a pain, especially if you need server side stuff like CGI or PHP, but once it's running, it's not a big deal.

Dave

[WFFC 1]

>Is it possible to host a web site from home?
Yes
>What would it cost ?
Whatever your normal ISP bill is
>What equipment would be needed?
Nothing really more than you alreay have - A static IP address is nice, but not necessary. You can host via a dynamic IP, but you'll have to update the IP address each time you reboot the PC.
>What software?
WinXP, Win2k both have 'personal webserver' options that you can host one site. If you've got win2k or win2k3 server, you can host multiple sites. I have a win2k server that I use for demo website designs. They're all very low traffic so I don't notice a bandwidth hit.
>or if I need to ask these ??s I probaly need not try to host it on my own??
It's simple. The best questions when you don't know something is the ones you'd generally term as 'stupid'. But the stupid question not asked is a learning opportunity missed. BTW, free DNS services can be found at ZoneEdit.com

edit to add: More Reading

[champu 1]

for a startup site that may or may not have a lot of traffic it would be a good excersize to set it up and host it on your own machine, chances are you'll learn a thing or two, and perhaps appreciate good hosting companies a bit more

A lot of people tend to throw money at an issue rather than learn anything, I'd always recommend you know what it is you're paying for

[McDuck 0]

Yeah, what narc said. Some web hosting companies will allow you to do something called "hostonce", where you pay for webhosting service through them, then you are allowed to do your own web hosting from there. At least, that's what our company does. PM me if you want contact info.

Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28
"I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC
Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

[narcimund 0]

Here's a summary: it is possible to host a website -- sometimes. If you're the kind of person who enjoys playing with computers and it doesn't really matter if your website is available all the time, then it can be an entertaining and educational challenge.

However, if you aren't a hacker, or the reliability of your website is important, then get a pro to do it.

One more warning: many ISPs don't just block you if your site has large throughput. Many simply block outgoing web packets by default. There are clever and complicated tricks you can use even so, but then you're definitely in the land of hacking.

Another warning: Nobody's even mentioned the responsibilities of email. Email hosting comes with web hosting and if you screw that up, you WILL get broken in to and turned into a spam factory. If that happens, you will get blacklisted and thrown out by your ISP.

By the way, I own a web hosting company.

First Class Citizen Twice Over