Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Hosting Websites from Home

[Fluxburn]

So I get that you can register a domain name. Then I guess you can either pay to have your site hosted on a server, or you can just build a server. My question is how do you setup a server?

I really have no idea what todo. I can build a computer from my spare parts and run winxp or win98. I could also install linux and learn how to use that. That is not really the probelm. It is what do I do to the computer to recieve the website I registered?

I have run ftp servers before, but that is a whole different animal.

[namelayer]

Are you talking about personal sites or hosting customers sites? What kind of internet connection do you have? Static or dynamic ip? Answers to these questions should give you better replies.

[Fluxburn]

Well it is a personal site. I have a dynamic ip on this internet connection, which is the one that doesn't change if I remember correctly. I assume a static ip address is better in that it would reduce the amount of hacking to that particular site.

[bobobro]

Also does your ISP TOS allow you to run a server?

[Fluxburn]

I would have to check on that one. I think yahoo sbc does not since I contacted them about a website and they gave me some link to there geocities bs. They give me 10 email addresses but no website?

[namelayer]

Static IP doesnt change and need to have a static to host. Unless you go through a dns service like dyndns.org
If you try to use a dynamic ip your ip will change and your dns will have to propagate each time it changes. Thats what dyndns is good for.

[Professor]

If your intention is to learn how to run a server along with running your personal site, then go for it. But I would not recommend it if you are only looking for a cheap means of hosting your site.

You can find a heap of reliable hosts here for less than $10 a month.

[Carp]

Lett than 5 even....I need a provider earlier that gave 10MB space, 5GB transfer and like 5 MySQL for free. cjhosting maybe? Not sure.

[Fluxburn]

Ok I do have a static ip then. I am mainly interested in hosting myself to learn, but also I would rather host the site myself for now anyways. The site is a personal site and will not have much traffic until awhile, unless my music becomes famous overnight lol.

I also have 2 extra mother boards, cpu's, memory, fans, etc for some extra computers. Not to be a freak, but I like stuff like that for some reason. I currently write music and have all these audio cables everywhere and would love to see some ethernet cables also. The more cables the merrier!

[cywkevin]

Pay 5 bucks to host it somewhere else. You'll save that alone in the cost of leaving the pc on all day.

[Fluxburn]

Dood it is not about saving. I would rather learn for one, and I am a freak. I want a server in my house, period.

[morehost]

This tells it how to do.. http://www.projektfarm.com/en/support/debian_setup/

Its good if you want to learn to setup and run a web server but if you just want cheap hosting then this is not a good idea

[dynamis]

Someone's going to have to supply your two registration DNS entries, at the very least. That's so that you can have something to type in at your registrar, for the primary and secondary DNS server entries.

Say you're hosting a domain named mydomain.com.
You can't put in "ns1.mydomain.com" and "ns2.mydomain.com" as the name servers for mydomain.com, because that's a circular reference. (In overly simplified terms it's like this: the system that tries to figure this out would be asking "where's www.mydomain.com" and the answer would be "ask ns1.mydomain.com" and the question would be "ok so where's ns1.mydomain.com" and the answer would again be "ask ns1.mydomain.com" ... forever ... whereas a correct answer would be "ask ns1.ultradns.net" ...

So your DNS needs to be something else, such as "ns1.ultradns.net" and "ns2.ultradns.net". Which means you would have to pay someone to host that DNS for you ...

After that, you can just set up a Linux box and do all the DNS hosting, WEB hosting, FTP hosting ... all from that one box. There will be a learning curve ...

[namelayer]

Originally posted by Fluxburn
Dood it is not about saving. I would rather learn for one, and I am a freak. I want a server in my house, period.

Your exactly like me. I started out learning with one personal site hosted at home on my biz class adsl. I wanted the server in my house that way if I bork it I restore it and 20 minutes later its back up.

[KingX]

I get what your after. You're a musician that wants to host some band stuff right? And you want to learn hosting with the capability to tweak without any worry right? Anyway, you can install a program in winxp called IIS (internet information services). Keep in mind that you have to be running xp pro, I believe. I don't think that home will allow it's install. Anyway, then you can set up your hosting for your domain. Check online for tutorials for this, because I can't remember. I use linux, with apache. If I were you right now, I'd stick to windows because you are familiar. Move to linux later. But I would use apache instead of IIS. IIS in win xp pro only allows for one domain, where apache allows for unlimited. It's a little more to wrap your head around, but it's a good starting point for when you want to move to any other operating system, whether it be linux, bsd, or even mac os x. Then you can buy a service that does dynamic dns for you. Try www.no-ip.com. They are very helpful and it works quite well. Well I think I covered most of it for now. Let me know if you have any questions.