after some advice on hosting

[Battaglia]

Hi, has anyone got any guides or help/advice they can offer me regarding hosting sites by building my own servers, getting them online, security etc?

any help would be much appreciated :)


Thanks

[csisupport]

Hi Battaglia,

We are a web hosting service provider. We are recognized as Cybersites India in the market.

Cybersites India is a Microsoft Certified Partner and a Genuine Intel Dealer (GID) with other arrangements with Market Leaders Like ROLTA, Samsung, Wipro, Microtek, AMD and a host of other Companies. Our team of technical experts has a tremendous amount of expertise in Web Hosting, Web Promotion, E-commerce Solutions, Portal Solutions and individual Portal components like Mail & Chat Solutions, Search Engines and more. We have been providing services to Thousands of satisfied clients In India, The Middle East, U.S. and other Countries with solutions ranging from simple corporate presence websites to complex e-commerce solutions and portals. Our Strength is Service and this has resulted in over 95% of all our clientele encouraging us by repeat orders and renewals.

For more details about shared web hosting, dedicated web hosting, server colocation, email solutions, etc. Visit our website http://www.cybersitesindia.com

Regards,
Csisupport
Visit our support section: http://www.cybersitesindia.com/support.htm
Our Website: http://www.cybersitesindia.com

[Battaglia]

Hi thanks but I previously used a company to host my site, Im now looking for information regarding hosting sites by building and hosting from my own servers if anyone can offer me some tips?

[tempano]

Spam posting removed

[Battaglia]

again thanks but im after advice on hosting my own sites on my own servers, can anyone help?

[Battaglia]

anyone at all? :confused: :eek:

[Jack O'Connell]

You will need server software, a permanant IP address and a high speed connection.

If you have all of the above you are in business, however might want to consider the 24/7/365 commitment required.

[Battaglia]

thanks for the info, what kind of ISP speed would I be looking for?

[Jack O'Connell]

Too many variables to answer simply.

The bandwidth needed relates to the content of the site and the number of visitors on at any one time.

Streaming video, for instance, with a dsl conection might allow ony one or two visitors.

Best answer: more is better.

[mint]

Hi,

Around six months ago I came to these forums asking a similar question. The responses recommended buying some hosting. I ignored this advice and decided to setup my own web server anyway.

Server Specs
Processor: Pentium II (333Mhz)
Memory: 128 MB
Operating System: Ubuntu Linux 5.10
Web Server Software: Apache with PHP
Connection down speed: 1 mb/s
Connection up speed: 256 kb/s

I know the site isn't as fast as I'd like, but it gets the job done (http://www.01706.net). I'm currently using the site to sell my house. I don't get much traffic but I'm sure after posting that link my site is going to slow right down. You will notice that no images were used in the design of the site, this was to make the pages load faster. The most graphics intensive page takes around half a minute to load fully. Its not ideal but it suites my needs right now.

Question is, can you live with that sort of speed? Ive not seen your site, but if its more media intensive than mine, you might want to reconsider the paid hosting.

Anyway, you will need a computer. If you have an old piece of kit you don't use anymore, use that. On that computer you will need an operating system. Id be careful if about using a windows computer as a web server. Windows tends to be unsecured and its updates often require a reboot, but if your prepared to maintain such system, then look into some firewall software. Linux is free to download off the Internet and most come with web server software pre-installed. The Learning curve for Linux can be quite steep. However there is usually a helpful forum at hand to help out. Linux tends to be more secure than windows. I have chosen to go with Linux. Ive had my server running Ubuntu 5.10 for five months without much of a problem. I have had a few hacking attempts logged but as far as i can tell, these were all unsuccessful. You could run your website off of your desktop computer if you wanted. You would have to leave it on all day and night.

You will also need some web server software. Apache is the most popular, there are windows and Linux versions. There is web server software built into windows (apparently) but i haven't looked into it.

You will then have to connect the computer to the Internet. The faster the connection the better. Ideally, the connection should have a static IP address, but there are services on the Internet that you can point your domain to, which will then forward to your IP address. I chose not to use such a service since my IP address has only changed once since I started hosting myself.

You will need a domain name as well, I'm assuming you already have one. If not you can buy one from a number of websites on the net. I have set up my domain name to point to my registrars name servers. Then I changed the MX records on that server to point to my IP. If you choose to do this, you will need to watch your IP address and change the MX record whenever your IP address changes. It will take up to a day to take effect.

Well, thats all I can think of right now. If i have missed anything or made any mistakes, then feel free to point them out.

[quickthreads]

As a former system admin for an ISP (who did web hosting), the reasons i *don't * run my own servers are mainly:

1. Security - keeping hackers out is a full time job, and requires people on staff with a good knowledge of network and systems security. If not, sooner or later, someone will hack your site.

2. Backups - you need to maintain all the files you need for your site, and implement a disaster recovery plan if any hardware fails.

3. Uptime - big hosting providers have people on site, or on call 24 / 7 to handle any system outages. If you are sleeping and your server locks up, or web connection goes down, it would likely be down all night. Same for if you ever go out, go to work, vacation, etc.

Anyway, don't mean to be a wet blanket, but these are some things you need to consider, especially if you might host customer sites out of your house.

-Jim

[Battaglia]

Cheers for your insight lads, been very helpful in weighing up the pro's and con's, I wasnt planning on using the server for anything other than hosting small 5 pager sites really.

if anyone has further experiences they can share it would be appreciated

[stacywacy]

I just set up Apache on my computer, but I'm far from being able to host my own site. But, will someone please explain how connection speed factors into this? Also, are you able to host a site from only your IP address? I mean like instead of buying a domain name, you use your IP instead.
.

[mint]

will someone please explain how connection speed factors into this?
Data can be sent two ways through your Internet connection, up and down. Down for viewing web pages and downloading music, and up typically for sending requests for those types of services. As your typical home user would only be using the Internet upstream for sending requests (generally small amounts of data), most if not all ISPs have decided to make the upload speed considerably slower than the download speed. The upload speed is the maximum speed at which you can send web pages to your clients. So if your friend and your self had an Internet connection advertised at 1mb/s but your upload speed is only 255kb/s and your friend tried to go to your site, he would only be able to download the site at 255kb/s. Even slower if you were up/downloading through the same connection or if more than one person was visiting your site at the same time. The maximum speed is always specified by the slowest involved machine.

Also, are you able to host a site from only your IP address? I mean like instead of buying a domain name, you use your IP instead.
Google's IP: http://72.14.207.99
So, yes. You can have people visiting your site directly through your IP address, but domain names are so cheep nowadays that theres little reason not to buy one. You could get a free one from dot tk or something but then you would have to put up with a couple of adverts.