How many of you host your own site?

[firefly2442]

I was just curious as to how many people actually host their websites off computers they own or ones that they can access locally rather than paying or having someone host the site for you. :)

[Mardi_Gras]

I occasionally run an FTP and/or HTTP server off my office machine, but it is more for fun than for saving money...for $30 to Pair (or, your hostname here) every month I get far more speed, functionality and security than I could ever hope to provide myself, and for zero time investment (not counting writing the check :))...

If you want to host your own HTTP server, by all means do - just don't think you are saving yourself any money. That is not a good reason for hosting your own...

[msr986]

I use a dedicated server with a lease to own setup.

This produces all the advantages of owning your own machine, plus all of the advantages of a co-location facility.

I considered a local machine, but if your connection goes down, or power goes off, what do you do?

[txbakers]

I host my own HTTP, FTP and mail servers. I currently run about 15 different web sites, some clients are in Europe (I'm in texas USA).

I like the convenience of having it at my fingertips. The learning experience has been great - no one to blame but yourself, and no one with quite the same incentive to fix it.

I have remote access from my laptop for when I travel, and if I'm without the laptop I can always download the demo remote access client in a pinch. The only thing I can't control is if the power goes down. The machine won't restart itself.

There are more responsibilities for sure, especially since I'm running a small data center as well, but the education and convenience has been fabulous.

I'd recommend it.

[dingman]

If you can manage a datacenter with enough connectivity and sufficient reliability that you are comfortable with it, then yes, go ahead and host yourself. Your admin has the most motivation to get things fixed that you could ask for, and will tweak the configuration to suit, completely. Of course, that means that the onus is on you to keep the server up and running, as well. I think the trade-off is more than worth it. I might do colocation some day to get into a data center that's better than I can afford to set up for myself, but being your own admin is deffinitely nice.

[carfac]

I, too, host my own server, a dedicated server at my ISP. Took me a long time to learn to do it right, but now I just love it. I don't want certian 'bots on my pages- BAM- they are history!

I am curious, and would like to add this question to this thread... WHAT do you host your server on? I have a P-III 633 with 2 IDE drives (OS and Web Pages seperate). Should I think about upgrading? I have a couple semi-popular sites... I would be curious if people thought they were too slow or something (though I will NOT post the URL's here!). My main sites are MySQL backed Databases, that run mod_perl cgi scripting. (The MySQL is my ISP's... I just host the CGI parts!)

dave

[andreasfriedrich]

>>mod_perl cgi scripting

Certainly not Dave ;). The advantage of mod_perl [perl.apache.org] is that it is a server module which uses Apache´s API to interface with it instead of the Common Gateway Interface. So no cgi scripting ;).

Andreas

[dingman]

I use a PI-166, 128mb EDO RAM, and a pair of 20gb Seagate IDE drives configured as a RAID-1 (mirroring) array, using a 3ware Escalade hardware raid controller. Backup is onto another 20gb stand-alone IDE drive, and a third smaller one contains gobs of swap, just in case.

Software is Apache with PHP4 and SSL modules, PostgreSQL database, Exim MTA. I host 4 distinct web sites, two of which run a very database-intensive community system I wrote. The others are not a significant source of traffic. OS is Debian 3.0 + all security updates.

[firefly2442]

I would think that it would be easier and cheaper to host your own website. I guess it depends what kind of site it is and what kind of bandwidth you need to run it.

[msr986]

> easier and cheaper to host your own website

What kind of a connection do you plan use? How much does that connection cost?

[firefly2442]

Well, right now I'm forced to use a dialup connection. It's about $20 dollars a month. The site doesn't get many hits and I hope to switch to a broadband connection in about 5 or 6 months. It's mostly just a site about my interests but I plan to expand the site once I get some more bandwidth. :)

[txbakers]

You can't host a website on a dialup connection. Dialup connections are based on DHCP (non-static) IP addresses. If you register a domain name, and point that name to an IP address, the IP address has to be there every time.

You will need to get a static IP address from your ISP, and the cheapest way to do that for now is through cable and DSL. Cable will give you great downloads, but atrocious upload speeds. To host a webserver you will need fast upload speeds.

DSL can give you fast uploads.

[firefly2442]

I'm setup with a DNS redirect service so it works out alright. I wish I could get broadband but it's not offered where I live. :(