Host server

Can I use my spare computer.

[Tinks]

Whats the pro's and cons of hosting my personal website from a second home computer, using it as a personal server.Using a firewall of course.Can it be done?

[Alternative Future]

Might have some cost's attached to it!

But the pro's are you have *total* control over your server environment.

-gs

[EliteWeb]

Hey Tinks,
There are some serious downfalls to hosting your site from your own computers. Let me try to explain but please if your motivated enough don't let all this discourage you from doing so.

First off if you're going to host from your home ISP connection it probably is against their TOS to run servers from your connection. Some ISPs block access to different ports. Secondly you will need your ISP to help point DNS stuff to you aknowledging your going to be doing something fun ;)

Secondly if your computer goes offline its down. No fingers to point at people -- if its for personal sites then sure there isn't much loss if you don't put much value on the site. Most hosting facilities have tens of thousands of dollars worth of hardware keeping servers online, backed up with power and cooled properly, something a low monthly rate can justify ;)

If you want to learn from more of a sys admin point of view go for it, put up the servers figure out what you need to make the sites accessable and security of the server (requires more than a firewall, needs manpower to apply fixes, upgrades and updates.)

My first servers were home run until the ISP enforced the no hosting rules, they were only accessable via IP address also, which changed since I wasnt on a static IP address.

[Jock Philips]

What sort of money would you require to get the system up and running and what sort of manpower would you require to maintain the system how big would the server have to be and last is it legal.