Hosting A Webserver At Home: Feasible ?

[Crushdepth]

If I subscribe to one of these 24/7 ADSL deals Is it possible / practical / legit to host my own webserver from home ? I suspect True etc may take a dim view with their regular plans, but are there any dedicated 'host your own server' plans available ? Any other issues out there ? Like getting hold of a permanent IP ?

I'd like to start learning the server side of things and the only way I can really do it is to set up something that I can tinker with as I go.

Thanks.

[Khun Jean]

I am a (web) developer and use the following setup to develop and test my projects.

2 computers with a Windows 2003 advanced server partition, a Redhat Linux partition and an OpenBSD partition. With a bootloader i choose which partition i want to boot from.

On the windows partition i have IIS, .NET framework and SQL Server.

The Linux partition has Apache and mySql

The OpenBSD partition has some firewall/loadbalancing software i am testing.

1 Computer i use for writing and testing software. I use Visual Studio and some stuff for drawing. Have a few browsers to test different "user" setups.

These 3 computers are connected with a router/switch/firewall.

I don't need a internet connection to be able to write and test and learn.

If you go the Microsoft path you should buy the MSDN CD's. All documentation and samples. Not the most easy to start with but it is a good reference.

If you have a reasonable fast computer with more than 256Mb internal memory you can have all 3 computers(functions) in 1.

But i prefer it this way. I am able to switch server environment (window/linux/OpenBSD) and can reconfigure, format or whatever i want with it.

The servers don't have to be fast for normal website development.

I use 2 old computers (300 Mhz celeron with 256 Mb, 4-6 Gb harddisk) that perform good enough. You can buy stuff like this for around 3000 Baht in Zeer Rangsit. A monitor/keyboard/mouse switch so you don't have to clutter your desk with 3 monitors, keyboards.

And if you are ready to publish you will find a lot of hosting parties that can host your site very cheap.

[Darknight]

vmware or virtual pc will get you started with different os's on 1 system. they don't need to be on the internet to test things unless you want to test connection speed.

[Firefoxx]

If you're just tinkering and not expecting to do serious hosting, then yes, True's connection is good enough. Remember that True's service is limited to continuous 24 hours, after which you'll have to reconnect with a nearly guaranteed different IP. A work around is to use no-ip's free service to route a name to a dynamic IP. There are no regulations (AFAIK) prohibiting use of your computer as a host.

For real host your own server lines with dedicated IPs, you go the "corporate" route, which is several times the price. Not worth it for simply tinkering.

[kenk3z]

In many cases (here in the USA) the ISP's have a profit motive for preventing you from hosting anything (publicly viewable) unless you pay for their "business" level plan.

This means they will give you a static, public, IP address with DNS registration, and open up whatever ports you need in their firewall (or put you outside their firewall).

As someone mentioned that's several times more expensive.

In other cases the ISP is less restrictive, knowing they will lose customers to competitors, so they allow some traffic in through their firewall. However, you still typically get a "dynamic" IP address that can change.

I'm finding that ISPs are being more generous with web hosting than E-Mail servers, for example. E-Mail being the primary mode of virus propagation, they are tending to block anything going out except from their own server. To mention just one example - not necessarily your case.

Depending on what restrictions you face there, you may find it more cost efficient to do a domain registration with combined hosting package. I'm paying something like $3.50 USD a month for my domain, 10-MB of web pages, 5 E-Mail addresses, etc. So, they keep the servers maintained, backed up, and on a fast Internet connection for me. The benefit of the E-Mail inclusion with the domain package is that I don't have to change my personal E-Mail address when I change ISPs. And its available when I travel via web interface.

kenk3z

[george]

A PC connected to whatever Thai ISP will not make your web customers happy. Hosting in Singapore, Europe or the US is recommendable.

Have a look here: http://www.webwebhost.com

[grrr]

It would be impossible with TT&T Hi-Net ADSL due to the way they have configured their network. I'm also a web developer, and when I used Windows I ran FreeBSD in a vmware virtual machine as my testing host. Now that I run Linux I can do all my testing natively, but still use vmware with a Windows guest for a few things.

A few years ago in the US I had a very good cable internet connection and had a public webserver (running FreeBSD). It was incredible how many people tried to break into it...

[benthai98]

with the cost of professional hosting now a days it's not really necessary to set up your own host server. It is fun however..

u-host.net offers $2.99 linux hosting. Pretty affordable.

[Khutan]

True's service is limited to continuous 24 hours, after which you'll have to reconnect with a nearly guaranteed different IP. A work around is to use no-ip's free service to route a name to a dynamic IP.

You can trick it, sometimes....

You log on and check your IP Address.

Change your setting to static and put in that IP Adress

Then try to reset your connection at a low use time

You will probably not have a problem and get the same IP Address

[Darknight]

True's service is limited to continuous 24 hours, after which you'll have to reconnect with a nearly guaranteed different IP. A work around is to use no-ip's free service to route a name to a dynamic IP.

You can trick it, sometimes....

You log on and check your IP Address.

Change your setting to static and put in that IP Adress

Then try to reset your connection at a low use time

You will probably not have a problem and get the same IP Address

i'm sure they are thanking you for their ip conflicts on their network

[Phil Conners]

Honestly, don't bother. It is too much hassle, you tie up the precious bandwidth in Thailand, your own hardware, getting the no-ip thingy working ... come on, you can rent webhosting with lots of seriously fast bandwidth from around 3000bt/year - even less if you're not serious about your uptime (cheapo servers are often run by college kids who have many other priorities in life).

Anyway, shop around. There is many sites like http://findmyhosting.com where you can put in different criteria and they offer you a list of suitable webhosting companies.

[Crushdepth]

Thanks, All for your comments.

It sounds like the main barrier is actually the current policies of the carriers who have vested interests in preventing people from running their own webservers from home. For what its worth I think they'll come around eventually - they're just pipes dammit, if I pay for bandwidth my view is I should be able to use it for any legit purpose :-)

I use commercial hosting at the moment for a small play site, but it can be a bit frustrating when you need something unusual installed or when something goes wrong. There's not much money in webhosting so commercial providers understandably don't want to spend much time talking to you. I have a local webserver set up on my PC at home for testing but like someone said, it would be so much more fun if it were connected to the net :-)

[kabal1234]

Bottom line is you can do what your asking easily. I use True's unlimited package to host my personal website. Yeah and your right, you can install what you want and tinker away. I use dyndns.org to get my domain name and it's on 24/7. If you don't need much bandwidth for the site then no problem. I think it's a great solution.

[MrMBA]

Hi, all

I am just registered to the forum and spotted the question. Yes, it is feabible. In fact, I am developing my own web serve as well with Gentoo LINUX + Apache2+ PHP+ MySql+ Typo3 CMS. I am so glad that www.thaivisa.com's main site uses Typo3 too.

If you time, please come and visit www.thaiwiz.com

[bkk_mike]

Assuming your router supports it - there's a thing called dynamic DNS, where your router will update the dynamic DNS host with your IP address each time it changes, and the dynamic DNS server (i.e. dyndns.org) will link your domain name to the IP address that the router sent.

This should work on one of the home packages, you CAN run a webserver, but I would only recommend it as a "play" site where you don't need 100% up-time. Your bandwidth is very limited (even the fastest home DSL is only 512Kbit uplink), and there's always the small downtime whenever your IP address changes. Additionally anyone who's cacheing IP addresses (to speed up their web connection), will fail to reconnect when your IP address changes.

This should work. (Maybe other people are already doing this)- but it's definitely only suitable for a low traffic personal site. (i.e. something like a family site which allows people to update information - low bandwidth, and the people involved will probably be willing to wait for the slow connection, and won't complain about having to reconnect when the connection's dropped).

The downside is you are probably opening your network up for external attacks, so make sure all software is fully up-to-date with patches and security settings are all at their highest level.

If you're thinking of running a commercial site, a hosting service is probably a better bet, until you get into the realms of running your own server farms and having multiple T1 links. Either one where you're leasing bandwidth on their computers (which generally limits what things you can do in terms of types of scripting), or a place where you have computers in their server room (which generally costs more, but you can run whatever you want on the machine.)

[kabal1234]

Assuming your router supports it - there's a thing called dynamic DNS, where your router will update the dynamic DNS host with your IP address each time it changes, and the dynamic DNS server (i.e. dyndns.org) will link your domain name to the IP address that the router sent.

Dynamic DNS e.g. dyndns.org will work with ANY router, you just need to install a client application that detects an IP change and updates the server. Some routers do have this capability built in though.

[md3v]

You can use www.dyndns.org ...

Very few ISP's/packages here in LOS provide static IP's.