Webspace...why not Myspace?

[MatrixmaN]

I'm a tad confused. Excuse me if my understanding here is kinda stupid.

Now....When I wanna make and host a web page how do I make the site run ON the internet FROM my computer?

So when I'm online, my site is online.

What if I dont want to have somebody host my files for $6 a month for 250mb and I have a domain name reserved already?

What makes these web servers (aside from the 24/7) so much different than my laptop or PC? Eh? I'd run my site offa my comp or laptop. I have all the programs I should need but I'm confused as to how to use "myself" as a server....It has to be possible, I mean..for all the stuff a computer can do I should be able to use myself to host my own webpage.

Any explanation is peachy, thanks.

Windows has a webserver software that you can install free from the add remove component area in the control panel

you can read about it here

But there are alot of holes in IIS


alot of people reccomend:

http://httpd.apache.org/

[Ummdumb]

THe os you run is also a concern. I had an apachee web server running off a windows 98 machine. It worked for the first two days good but then it as with any windows 98 machine the longer you run it the worse off it gets.

Other draw backs are lag when there are too many people on you're site. Also some isp's limit the amount of bandwidth you get per month. In addition some isps it is against the ula to run a server.

I use www.no-ip.com for my dynamic ip issues. They will give you a sub domain and monitoring software for free. I wouldnt recomend that if you own your own ip because they charge a bit to use it.

[crouse]

If you are using windows............

Download THIS http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/iso/gnuwin2.2.iso
It is 701 mb .......... but it has the easiest install of Apache and it also has A TON of other free windows software........ most ported from Linux. Tons of cool stuff, but the apache server installs like a breeze from here.

Find out more here : http://gnuwin.org/index.html
and here http://apache.org

HTH's

[M_Six]

There are two major drawbacks to hosting your own site. One you can control, one you can't.

First, running your own site opens security holes. If you keep your system patched and use a decent firewall, you should be ok.

Second, your upload speed is probably pretty slow. So if your site has lots of pics or other large files, or gets hit by a few dozen people close together, it's going to load real slow.

If you're planning on running your website off your primary PC or laptop, you're really risking things. A webserver should be a stand-alone machine and not host anything except your webpage and email server.

[lost-and-found]

also, many ISPs prohibit you from running a personal web server....usually it says in their user agreement which you signed when you joined them. Check out your ISP's rules regarding the matter.