COMPLETE newbie - plz advise

[lightbulb432]

Hi everyone, my friends are designing a little website and they asked me to learn about a part of website creation so that I can help them out. The friends have the programming and website design skills, and my job is to learn how to put everything together. (We'd like to host it ourselves on its own server as somebody can get a great price on it, so figuring out how to do that would be my task.)

Basically, my problem is though I'm good with computers, I've never hosted a website before. I know nothing about issues involved in
what needs to be done to get a website "live", secure, reliable, etc.

Some issues I could think of off the top of my head are:
- Configuring the server
- Adding more servers once the current one gets full
- Doing automatic backups of server or database content
- TCP/IP or networking issues (are they necessary?)
- FTP??
- Firewalls, Antivirus security
- DNS configuration
- What kinds of maintenance staff would be needed?
- Do I need to learn UNIX?
- Is encryption necessary for a non-payment site? How do I get it?
- Integrating a shopping cart system and payments, if needed
- etc...

I'm not asking for somebody to teach me each of these things, but I'm hoping somebody can point me in the right direction and provide
some advice on getting started in this intriguing field. I was hoping somebody could tell me whether I've covered everything I should be researching in that list above, or whether I've left anything important out?

Also, where could I go about learning about all these issues? Do you recommend any websites, books, or articles that are especially
great for teaching the things I'm hoping to learn? (Remember, I don't need to know in depth about the HTML and ASP programming and
design - my friends will do that, but I do understand it somewhat.)

How can a person like me go from knowing nothing to knowing enough to being THE guy my friends can come to for putting their website
all together?

Thanks for reading this post, I really hope somebody can provide some advice. At this point I'm very lost and confused about where to go, and I'm very intimidated by all this knowledge that I want to learn but I know nothing about! Anything would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

[claire_m]

Firstly, I would suggest that you consider having a web hosting company host your site for you, rather than maintaining it on your own. As you will probably spend more money dealing with the server and the problems that come with hosting your own site than it would cost you to have it hosted. There is also the time you will have to spend configuring and maintaining it, getting a company to host your site will work out cheaper.

But if you feel you still want to host your own site I suggest you research it well and consider it from every angle.

http://www.w3schools.com/hosting/default.asp - This site has a variety beginner tutorials related to hosting, which will give you the basics and answer some of your questions.

Also check out this page http://netmag.co.uk/hosting/hostfromhome.shtml, it provides information on setting up servers and security concerns.

[Ribeyed]

Hi,
the question about hosting yourself would depend on the site you are building. If its a basic site for personal use or a hobby then it wouldn't take must more than a web server and a broadband connection. If its for a small business with a bit of dynamic content then certainly hosting with a company would be the better option. If you are wanting some control over your web server then maybe co-location would be a good option.
In my opinion bandwidth is the deciding factor when deciding hosting sites. How much bandwidth do you need?
In the UK bandwidth especially uploads are very low transfer rates. Even the business no-lease lines have max 2mb download and about 1mb upload. Leased lines start at 2mb upload 2mb download but they cost thousands to lease. If you are planning hosting yourself you need high uploads rates.