- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I’m just giving advice from my past experience. I’ve dealt in the front-end of the web since 1995 and many companies that came to us for services had the same question…should we host our own site. The clear and obvious question was no for the small to mid-sized business. For a Fortune 500 retailer we worked with, they definitely needed their own solution, but they also spent millions of dollars on their site.
Today it is much easier to do, as you have pointed out. I don’t really understand what you would be gaining by doing it since it probably nets out to be more time-consuming and more expensive than using a shared hosting solution. This industry is really time-consuming outside of the technical issues, so you may want to think about saving yourself some time. Maybe you have some complex technical plans for running your site that a basic shared solution wouldn’t accommodate. That’s certainly your deal, and you sound like you know what you are doing.
For any other newbies that come across this thread who are less technically astute, my advice stands. Go with a professional hosting solution.
Just my quick 2 cents…..I have been hosting at home since 1997. I have total control over my environment, have built many utilities that detect outage, and love the idea of hosting at home. It has worked very well for me.
HOWEVER (notice the caps), I would only recommend this if you are very technically inclined (I am a software guy by trade); otherwise, I would strongly recommend using a hosting company. There are way too many issues that you face hosting yourself, and if you are not equipped with the expertise to handle these situations, you can sink very fast.
I agree hosting from home requires some skill and alot a dedication. My site is not hosted from my residence. But webber286 is right, difficult to implemment and is it really worth it? In the long run it is but does one really want to learn all that goes into it?
I say its a very smart idea if you know what you are doing. Dyayman is correct as well “you can sink very fast” if you do not aquire the skills to operate your own server. So is it a wise move for your average Joe blow I would have to say no. But if you do happen to aquire the skills you will be blown away.
But I can say the advantages are infinate. I was just fortunate that a good friend of mine, a software developer and test engineer for Nokia. He had a nice unit laying around collecting dust, so I snatched it up for a good price. greek39
I agree 100% with Dhayman.
Here is my experience. I have been hosting a site of mine since 2000 on my own server over a cable/dsl line. First off, you need to make sure that you have a static IP address (which many dsl companies will not provide), in order to set up a site simply.
Second, you DO have to worry about power outages AND you DO have to worry about attacks. I am a very technical person. I have dealt with security issues at large corporations for over 10 years now and I understand how to secure a system. HOWEVER (yes, caps) – someone is always smarter and you may not know you’ve been hacked until all your content (or other info) is stolen and your site shut down.
ALSO – What about back ups? Hosted sites have that and you don’t have to worry. On your own server – you will have to manage that yourself.
My advice – use hosted. I still host 1 site of my own on my own server, but it has been a struggle over the years. I host 20+ sites on shared hosting and almost never have problems… But, when I do, I send a simple email to support and let them deal with it
So it seems the only advantage to a home server. Would-be monetary. Looking at it as a business tool
Shared hosting home server
1) reliability 1) it’s free
2) security
3) access to it added feature
4) faster upload
5) timeGuys,
Here are some of the advantages of hosting at home:
– Total control of system, with exception of the Internet pipe coming
into your home.– I have built outage detection tools that give me an immediate indication
when things may be down or awry. If you are with a hosted company,
the level of immediacy may not be there, since you are one of many
customers.– I interface my webserver with back-end databases; namely SQL server
and Access. Try sharing a SQL Server environment on a hosted platform !
First of all, many will not do it. Secondly, for those who do, try and get
them to make a change to a system-like parameter (which effects its
other users) – good luck !– No maximum download or storage thresholds to deal with, although this has
become much less of an issue over the years.I am self-admittedly a control freak, and I have dealt with almost everything under the sun over the last 9 years. Yes, this includes DOS – and some bad one at that. However, over 9 years, I have built a very robust platform, that I am extremely comfortable with. I don’t have a default tolerant server – however, I have a second machine (which I keep up-to-date). Should my primary server go down, I can be back in business in less than 10 minutes.
But again, as others have reiterated, this is not an average task. If you are not technically-inclined, don’t even consider this option, IMO.
It boils down to this a home server is not practical to run a business. The fact is you can download a program and be up and running in a few hours they claim five minutes this is not the case. They are extremely useful for running a family web site, or info that kind of thing. If you can build your own web site you can run a home server. The key is to get all the information available. It can be done on any computer. I guess you could run one or two business web sites if you’re not worried about downtime. All workings of a server cannot be explained in a short article. Information gets confused. Do your research you might find it very enjoyable. And useful. Or you might want to throw it out in the driveway and run over. But get the facts straight and give it a try. Nothing worse than bad info .
thanks
mike P.S static ip not necessary there are downloads that will ping your IP and keep your connection hot (do your research before hand to avoid problems) and only do this if you have the time and the interest. Otherwise you could get pretty frustrating. That was supposed to be( could get pretty frustrated )(damm voice-recognition)
