Hi to all,

Our office currently is connected the LAn with ADSL modem and my boss would like to
buy a new computer to do the web hosting ourself.

I would like to know what kind of hardware configuration I need if I want to host the web site of my 6 web page / web site clients?

Do I need web server (2X, 1 for the primary and the other one for back up) ?

Also Do I need 2X for Email Server as well ?

LAstly, my ADSL modem had been shared internally with 6 Win2k workstations and 1 Win 2k server already. May I know do I need a T-1 or T3 line to do the web hosting ??


Please advise.

From my personal experience, it is much more cost-effective for your company to find out an experienced web host to do that job... Keep in mind that web hosting rarely is a set and forget job... you actually have to admin the server, monitor the services, make sure everything is upgraded, safe, etc.

I know of one company around my place that thought as you did... and finally they transfered all their stuff to some other ISP because they figured it costed them twice as what the ISP asked, and they were slower and down much more often.

Of course, if you already are experienced in web hosting, this should be no problem...

You need:
1 computer connected to a fast line, it will be mainly upload, so if you use yours as download, it should be ok. Web server and mailserver, dns server, etc can all co-existate on the same box, in fact, most server releases of the Linux OS already comes built that way (but they are far from optimized)

Your line speed really is up to you... will you transfer around 10, 100, 200 k / sec? for 200 you need a T1 (±1500kbps)..

Anyhow, my primary advice still hold... you should co-locate or use virtual hosting instead of throwing your money out the windows :)

Hi gomcse,

Take a look at this article written by Duster. It may help to answer some of your questions:

http://www.resellerinfo.com/hostsite.html

gomcse,

As Felix pointed out, it would be easier to go with dedicated hosting our co-location. Most companies can get you hosted for as little as about $100/mo for your own dedicated machine! This would save you from having to be on call all the time to make sure it is up and running, and maintaining it. Several dedciated hosts out there have software built into the server which will allow you to maintain it.

But if you insist on hosting the server yourself, yes, you can definitely do it. You really don't need anything special. Just a PC (preferably with a flavor of Unix on it, Win2K would do though) with an ethernet card. Setup PC so it has access to the net and start running programs depending on your OS. E.g. Apache if on unix, or IIS if on NT.

Hope this helps you out! :)