Hosting Web Site on Virtual PC -- Bad to do?

Website Host on Virtual PC

[tmaslach]

I am looking on hosting a small web site with some family photos on it. I am afraid to simply use my desktop, as there is some important information I would not like to have taken by someone hacking into my system. Given that, I was considering using Windows XP -- I have an extra copy -- run under a Virtual Machine with Apache. Is this a bad idea? I'm not sure how many people here are knowledgeable about Virtualization technologies, but if a person is able to hack into the Virtual Machine, is it easy, hard, or impossible to jump to the host machine?

Thanks for any help!

Tom

[Otaku]

I doubt you need to host it on your home computer at all. There are just so many hosters that can host your family photos for free... for example Flickr (usin' it myself) or Photobucket.

If you want not only photos but something else, Google dies provide such a service. It's called Google Page Creator.

[bakedbeans12]

Well... you could host it yourself, but keep in mind it'll be running of your internet connection... which means it'll be slow and anytime someone wants to download stuff that's coming right out of you month bandwidth.

If it's just for family and friends consider getting a free site and like tripod or something. Sure it's ad based, but it's free and more reliable and cheap than running it yourself.

[dbdev]

Welcome to WW!

XP/Apache/Virtual Machine ... for family photos?

Yes it's a bad idea.

For less than $5/month you can get all up and running without risking your home pc.

Just search G for discount web hosting.

Or, like Otaku said use a free photo storage site if it's only family photos in question.

[Thinking]

Microsoft will host it for free one of my members has his church's sites hosted with them and seems to be happy. You might check on that it's a lot safer and easier. It might just be for businesses but maybe you can use it, go here [smallbusiness.officelive.com...] for more info.

[rocknbil]

Welcome aboard tmaslach . . .

but keep in mind it'll be running of your internet connection

An addendum to this - most ISP's explicitly disallow any web hosting or other "services" behind an Internet connection. With a small project like a family site, it would probably squeeze by, but as said there are so many tasks you'd have to put into place and maintain, it's not really worth it. Lots of free services out there - you could set up a mySpace page, even.