hi im a bit confused about hosting stuff, if i would host a website from my own computer using one of the free programs how would i get a dot com address, do i have to register it or something, thanx in advance

Yeah, you have to register it. A good registar is 000domains: http://000domains.com.

Sorry to say but if you dont even know how to register a domain you are not likely to be able to host your own site on your own home computer. First I wont even recomend using your home computer as a web server. and 2nd how will you do it if you dont even know how to register a domain.

Sorry to sound so uhh...

But here is my help

you will need to register your domain. That will cost you between $8-35 per year. There are different places where you can go like godaddy.com which is only $8.95 per year (or something like that) or try dotster.com which is 14.95 per year. you will have to check and see if the domain you would like is available and then pay for it. After that you will need a host. You can use webhostdir.com to find one or you can ask here and see if anyone recommends one (better choice). Depending on the size of your site and how much traffic you will be getting is how you find the plan for you. Hope this helps...

thanx


wut would the address be if i didnt register it?

that depends on the host. Some give you a subdomain, some don't.

i dont think u understood, sorry i should haveworded it better

if i hosted it from my own computer using one of the free programs like apache, then wut would my address be if i didnt register it

the ip that your ISP will give you. (I think)

yeah
it would be...
http://YOUR-IP
but watch out. You can't do it on some ISP's like @home.


Chris

plus, if you're using a dialup account, your IP will change everytime you connect, so your website address will change accordingly.

If you are using dsl, then no problem there

Originally posted by Anokrome
i dont think u understood, sorry i should haveworded it better

if i hosted it from my own computer using one of the free programs like apache, then wut would my address be if i didnt register it

With DynDNS, http://www.dyndns.org/, you will get an address like http://myname.dyndns.org. DynDNS handles a dynamic IP as well if your ISP don't provide you with a static IP.

If you want your own domain name, register one at for example Enom. Enom includes DNS in their price. Define your domain name as a CNAME pointing to your DynDNS address, and voila, your domain name will work with your own home server. Your DNS entry should look like

@ IN CNAME myname.dyndns.org.
www IN CNAME myname.dyndns.org.


/lennart

Depending on your ISP you can request a static IP address and most of the time they will give it to you. The only reason they wouldn't do it is if you are going to use it for a hacker site, or for porn, or maybe even a gaming server.... either way you will run out of bandwidth if you are trying to use your internet while somone else is looking aroung on your site. There are so many free hosting comapnies out there that don't put banner adds that it is not worth it to really host your self.