Thread: Hosting my own server...?

first it would be ideal for you to have a fast connection (good upload most importantly) and your server will be up 24/7, so not a good idea to use your own PC, you should have a seperate machine that sits there most of the time handling people who visit your sites. Make sure you know what you're doing too....or you'll have your clients down your back asking what happened to their sites when traffic gets busy.

You also need to check with your ISP to see if they allow such high traffic going through your connection. Most charge you more just because you're usuing your connection commercially, and not for personal use.

As for domain names (<yournamehere>.com) you need to register them. There's no getting them for free. Shop around, you can usually find a good price for them sometimes if you register a whole bunch and for a longer period of time too.


here's a very highlevel explaination of what you need
http://www.digits.com/articles/web-h...web-server.htm

but here's a little more detail
http://www.tizag.com/webhost/host_yourself.php

Unless you got thousonds of dollars to spend on a T1 or T3 connection good luck your best be toule be serverbeach and get a server there for about 100 bucks a month

Actually, depending on what type of traffic you're looking to get, you don't necessarily need to spend US$ 100/mo. for decent hosting. For low traffic, you can find webhosts for much, much less. The main difference is that, at serverbeach (and other places), you're looking to get a dedicated server, just for you. That is where the high price comes from. However, by finding a webhost ( http://www.1and1.com ), you can get good hosting for much less, something that is likely much more suitable for your needs. I believe you may be able to get everything you need for even around US$ 5/mo.

As far as registering your own domain, that depends on what you're looking to buy. If you want something that no one has (for example, if you want to register aridiculouslystupidandlongdomainname.com, which, hopefully, no one owns), you can get it for free and only pay US$ 6/year (at 1and1.com ) to keep it. However, if you want something that someone already owns, you first need to buy it from them, and depending on who owns the particular domain name you want, you may get it cheap, not so cheap, or never (can't buy what's not being sold). Chances are, though, that you'll probably be able to find something that no one has.

I would advise you against running a server out of your own home because, first, you'll want a dedicated machine, especially for webhosting (uptime is essential). Also, many ISPs limit your bandwidth, or your upload simply may not be (and please excuse the pun) up to the job.

Thanks for the replies guys.

After reading how difficult and money-demanding hosting your own web server is, I have decided to just pay for one which is much more cheaper and easier.