Forum Moderators: mack
How much more bandwidth does a webhost have versus a home computer on a broadband connection. Can you buy a server (like Apple's xserve), and just plug it into your broadband connection? Is there a difference in how many visitors can access your site?
Just curious, THX :)
To set this up you need to have all traffic on port 80 pass through your router or modem and be directed to your servers local ip address. If you set this up correctly you should be able to access your server from the outside world.
But I don't advise it. Hosting from home involves a lot more effort than using a web host. If something breaks it's up to you to fix it. You need to do your own backups. Normaly A host would take care of that also.
The most importaint thing to take into account is security. When you do something like this you are in effect letting outside users into your network. You need to make sure everything is nice and tight.
I am not trying to put you off, quite the opposite. Home hosting can be a great learning experience. I have done it for the past year or so and have learned a great deal about server administration and network security.
If you feel up to a challenge and are willing to spend quite a bit of time researching into the issues involving home hosting then you might indeed want to give it a try.
However, please do not jump in before you understand what you are doing. Read up and learn first. Try a test server first, get to know what you are doing before to take the leap into self hosting.
Mack.
[dslwebserver.com...]
In terms of dynamic sites this may not be to much of an issue as long as the server you intend to use is well up to the job. Generaly servers have a lot more in terms of system resources than your average pc.
Going back to what I said before everything is your responsability. If you need good uptime then you will need to be prepared to really work at it. When you use a host and you find your site to be down you can be reasonably assured they are working on it. If on th eother hand you are your own host, you then need to fix it.
I recomend you try setting up a test server. This will enable to to experiment and get to grips with the basics.
Mack.
However, I'm also using a hosting service so I can store all of my larger files (mostly digital music files and utility software.) Generally, anything linked on my site that's larger than 100kb is not on my home server. I also run a POP3/SMTP/IMAP and FTP server.
The PC is a PIII 1GHz system running WinXP Pro SP2, with Apache 2, PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, hMailServer, Squirril Webmail, ActiveState Perl, and AWStats. I'm behind two routers/firewalls (one also acting as a modem) along with the WinXP Firewall.
So far, there's been no problems and access for visitors has been good and quick. That's probably due to my keeping things simple by not offering larger file downloads from the server. (I try to keep web page size to no more than 100kb, too, including the graphics.)
I did the 'home host' thing basically for one reason; for enjoyment. I wanted to learn HOW to do it and have enjoyed setting it up and maintaining the server. My domain isn't a business-related site, so if there's problems from time to time, I'm under no pressure to fix the problem...though I want to keep it running. It's basically a hobby.
I've been using hosting services since 1995 and am fed up with a lot of the so-called "support" I've received over the years. So...I'll see if I can do any better, myself. :)
You might want to check into the specifics more and also read up on the contract you signed with your ISP.
Another thing is that a lot of ISP's will block port 25, so that you can't run your own SMTP mail server. Mine doesn't (which surprises me a little -- thought maybe they'd want to charge a monthly fee to use the port.) But if you do want to run a SMTP mail server, and your ISP blocks the port, you can always relay the outgoing mail to their mail server.
Definitely talk with your ISP before starting up your own server. They can sometimes be a great source of help, too.
Mack.
It's a very good idea setting up a development server using your DSL to learning server administration and everything else that goes with it.
Your much better off just getting a dedicated server from somewhere. You can get a very decent one in the UK for £60 per month and for even less else where in the world. That's with a hard disk size of around 150gb and 150gb of bandwidth.
I worked for an internet company up until about 6 months ago and they had about 2 businesses take advantage of hosting after they had previously tried to host them selves using there 2mb DSL.
So in theory yes DSL hosting works but if you have a little spare cash I would go the whole hog and get a dedicated.
Focus on your business, leave the hosting to the professionals.
Part of my business is a hosting farm with 40+ servers. I see it all, you dont want any part of it. The first time hackers or spammers target your DSL line with a DoS (Denial of Service), it will go down hard, and your site will be offline until you figure out how to stop it.
It's not pretty.
Have a nice day.
Let's assume you host a web site elsewhere that has 50 sites on an OC3 (3 megabits per second) that has an average of 600kps. If you have a lot of graphics, your site will have a burstable rate of almost 2.3kps when needed on that OC3.
Compare this to a CABLE or DSL line with 300kpbs or 700kps upload, a busy web site will use most of the bandwidth and the whole thing will tank under a heavy traffic load. My main site averages about 500kbps during the day, more than CABLE can handle, so it's simply not an option.
Not to mention, most personal cable/DSL plans prohibit running web sites from your home line and I've know a couple of people to get disconnected altogether when they got caught.
