Doing your own hosting?

D

D1sc1pl3 0f Mal1c3

Gawd
Joined
Sep 19, 2004
Messages
521
Somebody told me I could say host my own website, but to do it I'd have to have a computer constantly connected and such. Assuming I have a cable connection, what is required to set up a machine to do this? Is there a link anyone can provide for a tutorial or something, cause I'm sure it's a long and involved set-up.
 
Look up Apache web server. www.apache.org (i think!)

Thats the most common web server software, and has a number of tutorials on the web site.

They do Windows binarys ready to install, but ideally Linux would be a better choice.
 
As above, Apache. I don't think Windows / Linux / etc makes much difference, myself. Go with what you're more comfortable configuring/securing (unless you also want a learning experience in operating systems, which is fine).

You then need to open a hole in your firewall. HTTP normally runs over port 80, though some ISPs block this. Apache and others can be configured to other ports; 8080 is a popular alternative. Note that this is also useful if you don't want random people to stumble across your computer. Port 80 servers are easily found, port 8080 servers less so. They're accessed via browser like http://somelink.com:8080/whatever/page.html.

Optional:
  • Domain name. www.godaddy.com is the consensus pick of W&P.
  • PHP for dynamic web pages
  • MySQL for database
  • An email server (there are several, vary by OS)
 
D1sc1pl3 0f Mal1c3 said:
Somebody told me I could say host my own website, but to do it I'd have to have a computer constantly connected and such. Assuming I have a cable connection, what is required to set up a machine to do this? Is there a link anyone can provide for a tutorial or something, cause I'm sure it's a long and involved set-up.
Click to expand...

Just keep in mind that this is not cost effective whatsoever in any way, shape, or form. The only reason you'd want to do this is for learning. Hell, with the extra electricity one would use in a month powering another computer 24x7, they could buy cheap webhosting. Just bear in mind that this is really only practical for learning experience.

With that said, I second the idea of using Apache. It will run on either Windows or Linux (or other *nix's). Personally, I have an Athlon 1400 w/ 256 Megs of RAM running Debian 'testing' which serves up several domains using Apache. And the system is WAY more powerful than it needs to be. Linux + Apache could serve up several domains on a Pentium 100 if ya had one lying around.
 
There is a lot of start-up work to do web hosting on your own.

Pick your operating system and web server. Linux w/ apache is a plus, but if all you're doing is a basic site with just a few hits a day, Windows 2000, XP Pro.. or a sever distro should do fine. With Windows... you have the option of using IIS (Internet Informations Services) which is typically built into windows, or you can use Apache. Either one works fine, and of course you'll get your list of people that say microsoft sucks.. IIS doesn't work and it can't handle 500,000,000 hits per day.. use Apache. It's your choice so use whatevers comfortable for you.

Both of them are fairly easy to configure, although with IIS you'll be using a Windows GUI interface to configure a lot of things, whereas in Apache, you'll be modifying your .ini file to make any big changes.

I run both Apache and IIS and for basic hosting, they both do fine. The nice thing about IIS is you can host pretty much any type of site whether its based on PHP, ASP, PERL... etc. You can do pretty much all the same with Apache execept for ASP scripted sites.


If you want to host your own domain (i.e. - http://www.domain.com)... you need to make sure you have static IPs from your ISP. You also need to make sure you have a domain registered to you and have the correct DNS entries pointing to your ISP, and the IP pointing to your connection.

If you don't want to set up your own domain... you can always use your static IP for your address. (i.e. - http://10.10.0.10/index.php) This will be cheaper for you and will require less setup and headache on your part.

Also before doing all of this, check to see if your ISP is blocking port 80 by default as this is the port the web typically works off of. If it is, you will have to find a workaround this. Typically you can change your default hosting port through Apache or IIS to port 8080 and the hosting should take right off. However you will have to reflect this change in your address. (i.e. - http://10.10.0.10:8080/index.php)

Hope this helps.
 
Wow o_0. I suppose it helped me realize that this is way more complicated than I had expected. I will have to do much research. I'm just starting to learn how to even make a page with GoLive right now, so this might be overdoing it a bit...
 
sounds like you might just wanna get a hosting provider..... someone like ipaska.com or phpwebhosting.com. (I had an account with PHPWebHosting for a while till I moved my site to my bedroom) ;)
 
The real problem is that your using cable and almost all cable providers give you DHCP'ed IP addresses. Meaning they change from every couple of hours to every few days. With hosting, you MUST have a static IP at all times, otherwise when it changes, no one will be able to access your webserver

Depending on the cable provider, most will not supply static IP's for home users, only businesses which cost more. So you may have to look into getting DSL which is easier to get static IP's for.

And ALOT of cable providers DO NOT let people do hosting on their networks as it is shared bandwith so you may be up a creek without a paddle with that.

If thats to much to deal with, your better off designing the website and have someone else host it for you.
 
Just when i was going to ask nearly the same question, someone beat me to it.

I am looking to host my own web site soon. I currently have cox as an ISP and I'm using 3 of my 5 webspace accounts for my simple forntpage sites. I'm hoping to start a business soon and would like to have it's site served from my own machine.

Can a fairly smart (moderate level user) mke his way through setting up apache with minimum hassle? And, will the Cox business option allow a static IP address?
 
s0ldier93 said:
Just when i was going to ask nearly the same question, someone beat me to it.

I am looking to host my own web site soon. I currently have cox as an ISP and I'm using 3 of my 5 webspace accounts for my simple forntpage sites. I'm hoping to start a business soon and would like to have it's site served from my own machine.

Can a fairly smart (moderate level user) mke his way through setting up apache with minimum hassle? And, will the Cox business option allow a static IP address?
Click to expand...

Never worked with apache so can't comment on it and you should be good for a static IP but your gonna pay more for business cable line for obvious reasons.
 
s0ldier93 said:
I am looking to host my own web site soon. I currently have cox as an ISP and I'm using 3 of my 5 webspace accounts for my simple forntpage sites. I'm hoping to start a business soon and would like to have it's site served from my own machine.

Can a fairly smart (moderate level user) mke his way through setting up apache with minimum hassle? And, will the Cox business option allow a static IP address?
Click to expand...

With Cox you're semi-screwed as far as using your normal home user account to do web hosting on. By default, they block port 80, and you'll have to set port 8080 on your Apache/IIS server to allow others to access your site. They use dynamic IPs standard, but you can opt to get a static IP address which will help out with the basic hosting. Don't tell them you want a static IP address for web hosting, as they will mark this in your customer notes and then more than likely monitor your upload usage to see if you are indeed using your account for web hosting. Say you're using it for gaming or something on that order.

If you decide to go with Cox's business option, you are allowed some leinency. I think by default, you get a static IP address, and they do not block port 80. However, I believe the price of this service jumps up quite a bit from the regular service.

And as for setting up Apache, its actually not too bad. If you've got any questions its very easy to find useful information Apache's documentation on their website. Also, if you can't find what you're looking for very easily in their documentation, Google it or just come on [H] and ask a question in the web programming forum to some Apache guru and they'd probably be happy to help you out.
 
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