Hosting Your Own Sites And Ftp...

[chibineku]

I was reading some pages on the W3C School site and found a little nugget of information that could save me money: IIS. I didn't know that I could turn my computer halfway into a server and host my own sites. I guess I still need to lease the domains from my current hosting company, but I could save money on their hosting fees. However, everywhere I look, I see warnings and cautions about doing it. Security issues, technical difficulties... Is it really that hard and what would I need to know anyway?A separate issue: my free trial of CuteFTP is running out, and I was wondering if it was worth paying for a full version. It's easy to use, does what I need right now, but are there better ones, and if so what makes them better, and are there any that are fully freeware and I'd be a sap for paying for one?Need sleep, eyes bleeding from JS Bible.

[jarrett000]

well as to your first problem, I myself tried it and my computer nearly died. The second I began the hosting process the computer froze and shut itself off without coming back on. it took the repair people 3 weeks to diognose and fix the problem for more than $1000.

[Ingolme]

In order to host sites, you have to have high speed connection and a server that's dedicated for it. If your internet is average speed, your site will load slowly for the people who try to access it.

[jesh]

You also have to have a static IP address for the DNS servers to resolve your domain name to your computer. If you have a dynamic IP address, then you'll have to track down one of the services that creates a static IP for you.For FTP, I've been using a Firefox extension called FireFTP. It meets all of my FTP needs.http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

[boen_robot]

Let us not forget the primary thing that people sometimes forget: The computer that is going to be a server MUST be turned at all times. When it's off, people won't be able to access it. I know, it's obvious, and I'm sorry if it seems like I've offended you, but I have seen too many people overlooking this fact.IIS doesn't run on home versions of Windows. Keep that in mind too. If you want to make sure you have the latest, most stable, most realiable, and most importantly (from my point of view) full feature set OS, get yourself Windows Server 2008 (any version).It includes the latest IIS web server (7), a DNS server (also needed if you're going to host your own sites at your own domain; some domain registers have DNS hosting as well, but not all), and there are more Microsoft made extensions for it, most of which are great (FTP server, URL rewriting, etc.).IIS7 is also included in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. A DNS server however is not available, and I don't know of any 3rd party Windows DNS servers, meaning you'll likely have to use a DNS hosting of some sort.If you're stuck with Windows XP Professional, you'll have to use either the older IIS6 (I personally hate it...) or Apache instead. Make no mistake - Apache is the best Linux server out there, and runs very well on Windows too. It's even more featured than IIS7 in some regards, and certainly far more featured than IIS6. Note that again, a DNS server is not available, so you'll have to use DNS hosting.

[madvideos]

I done this years ago with IIS, never tried Apache, although it IS FREE. I ran my website for about 7 months and never had an issue and it was a lot of fun, I had as I do now, 4 computers, so dedicating one JUST for a webserver was no issue.One of my favorite things about this is space, as I ran a video server where people could download my videos, (I used to film bands) http://www.youtube.com/madvideos101 , now I use youtube.The only benefit of having your own server at home is you'd save a couple dollars. Is 3.99 a month really too much? I rent a 6.99 deluxe package at Godaddy now and that IS the best way to go. And it is worth every penny. If your website will be getting a lot of traffic your best bet is to go with a paid host. But if you want to have fun and see how it goes and learn how to do it I will tell you it is a great learning experience.

[Synook]

Let us not forget the primary thing that people sometimes forget: The computer that is going to be a server MUST be turned at all times. When it's off, people won't be able to access it. I know, it's obvious, and I'm sorry if it seems like I've offended you, but I have seen too many people overlooking this fact.

lol - all around my workplace we have normal workstations that have been turned into servers (don't ask), and they all have big signs over the power buttons saying "Don't turn off. EVER." Yet still we get calls all the time; "such-and-such has gone down, why can't we access such-and-such" - "well, the server's probably been turned off". :)Remember that even if you host the server yourself you're still paying for the internet connection, and the extra bandwidth and data usage necessary would cost a bit too...Also, remember that many ISPs block outbound connections on port 80, the HTTP port, which is required to run a webserver (unless you want people typing in another port all the time).For a good free FTP client I recommend FileZilla.