I am currently running a win 2003 web server for holding temp sites during the design process. This is open to the world via my ip address for clients to view. After feeling very paraniod about securily I feel I have it locked down ( firewall reporting the blocks of code red for eg ) and am keeping track of all logs.

So I am now thinking I would like to host our own website for real using a masked domain redirect to my ip address.

But :

I am not sure if my adsl 1mb will cope ( the site is at the moment only getting 10 hits per day ) but this I hope will rise in the next year. Would a 2 mb con be more suitable?

Is a domain redirect the best way or only way to have my domain pointing to my ip?

If I where to then decide to host other clients sites is it possible to redirect many domains to my server and what sort of conection would I need to cope with 1000 visitors per day.

And help to a complete novice would be great.

sounds like a lot of hassle and (security) work , to avoid paying someone to host your sites.

{edit} after looking at your webpage link, it seems you offer hosting.
why not set up an account just for client previews (password protect their pages) ?

We have been using hosting companies like that for years now, and it is working ok.

Untill you need multi mySLQ databases, Multi access databases, ASP, php, etc etc etc... all running from the same server.

If we host our own we are not restricted in anyway at all.

It also interests me.

I find it scary that people are hosting their sites at home... Maybe sooner or later everyone will host themselves at home... Of course it is too difficult and has too many disadvantages today but maybe in 5 years people will have a self configuring self updating server on their cell phones... You never know.

Reseller Account is the answer.

You just need a host that can support all the databases you needed. There are quite a lot here in WHT.

Originally posted by Fingers68
We have been using hosting companies like that for years now, and it is working ok.

Untill you need multi mySLQ databases, Multi access databases, ASP, php, etc etc etc... all running from the same server.

If we host our own we are not restricted in anyway at all.

It also interests me.

This is a very suprizing responce!

I dont see anything scary in hosting a web server?

You have to start somewhere, running your own server from your own office for your own website seems a good place to start to me?

But I might be missing something.

I would really like some help however with my original post:

I am not sure if my adsl 1mb will cope ( the site is at the moment only getting 10 hits per day ) but this I hope will rise in the next year. Would a 2 mb con be more suitable?

Is a domain redirect the best way or only way to have my domain name pointing to my ip address?

If I where to then decide to host other clients sites is it possible to redirect many domains to my server and what sort of conection would I need to cope with 1000 visitors per day.

your 1 MB DSL is probably not 1 MB upload, you are probably capped at something like 256K or 512K upload speed. I dont know too many people who would be willing to pay to have their site hosted on home DSL. You also would have to disclose that if the customer asked (they'd probably be able to figure it out on their own by the speed) you'd have to disclose that or you'd be advertising falsly

Also worth checking with your ISP if they allow you to do this, I would hazard a guess that you are paying "Home" connection fees and not business rates.
Alot of ISP's do not allow hosting on their business connections without prior agreement as well.

Good point Deefer, alot of ISP's simply do not allow this.

My suggestion would be spend a little bit of money and get a reseller account somewhere and keep your home server as a hobby (dont use it to host client's sites) to host and test some of your own pages, code, etc.

Originally posted by Deefer
Also worth checking with your ISP if they allow you to do this, I would hazard a guess that you are paying "Home" connection fees and not business rates.
Alot of ISP's do not allow hosting on their business connections without prior agreement as well.

Especially if it is not allowed and they suspend your connection you will have to explain that to your customers...

I am not familiar with what ADSL is in your country but are you sure that 1 MB doesn't mean 1 MBit/s which would be 125 KB/s ?? That would definitely be too slow.

1MB ADSL is plenty to host one site that gets light traffic and isn't a mission critical site for a business. Any more than that, and you will notice bigtime lag, especially if you are surfing the net, chatting or playing a game over the same connection.

I agree with the others that a nice Reseller account is what you are looking for. You can get them anywhere from $10/mo to $50/mo depending on what features and who you go with.

www.httpme.com is a pretty big reseller host on this board, you might want to check them out.

Thanks for the advice on that chaps

Food for thought.

I am one that is looking at self-hosting for a project in the works. But I know it will not be easy -- simply the sheer size of hardware requirements makes self-hosting the answer (at least until we know if the project will continue long term). Then I will move to colo. (Folks here have really helped me understand enough to know I need to farm this out).

Pay someone else to worry about uptime, maintaining a connection, etc. One or two failures and your business can really take a hit.

My primary site is with a company that costs more than many other hosts. But the service and support is excellent -- well worth it to me. Something happens, or I need something, and I simply make a phone call.

Get a host.