AKSoapy29 Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Hello, I am thinking of starting a webserver, and I was wondering what type of tower I would need, what OS, what specs, what software, and all that stuff. I was thinking of going Linux also. I also have a question; I have a form on my website that is set up to email me an email. It goes to a @gmail.com address, so would I need to install a mailserver also? And how would I get a .com domain? Can that be configured on the tower as well? Or do I need to buy a domain? Sorry if this is a lot of questions, I just would like to know this stuff before I start or buy anything. Here is my website if that helps: http://aksoapy29.comoj.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest So Called Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Sure you can start a web server, but you should understand that it requires a lot of work and a lot of skills, particularly to keep your server from getting hacked. Also, you will have to keep checking this day in and day out. Hackers do not take days off (because it's the Internet and there's always a hacker somewhere who will want to hack you.) Fortunately the software is free. Google "LAMP" (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). All are free for you to download and install them. Yes you'll need a mail demon too, and I'm pretty sure all that kind of stuff is free too. You can get a .COM domain if you have about $12 a year and can find a name you like that isn't already taken. Google "domain registrar" to find places to register at. Don't forget that you will need a good Internet connection for your server, usually better than ordinary people have, and more expensive, sometimes much more expensive. Or... You could get a shared hosting account for about $5-$8 a month, get your own domain ($12 a year) and have somebody else take care of all the server stuff. No hardware cost there either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 Thank you for your reply. I have a 10Meg internet connection. As for buying from someone to host my website, what is bandwidth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest So Called Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I don't know what you'd need for a server. I know my website has a really fast Internet connection because that's part of what I pay for on my shared hosting account. You should understand that some ISPs won't allow you to have your own Internet server at home. They sometimes block port 80 (HTTP) to prevent that. Why do you even want your own server? You can get all the same Internet presence but without the headaches and investment, for only about $100/year. That's cheap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Thank you for your reply. I have a 10Meg internet connection.Symmetric? Guaranteed? Let me guess - no, and no.A server requires better upload speeds than download speeds, and most ISPs don't offer that. "10MBps" usually means "10MBps download/1MBps upload". Plus, the thing you see on offer is usually not the typical speed (the "guaranteed" one), but a theoretical maximum instead.Use a site like speedtest.net (check with both close and distant servers) to see your real speeds.As for buying from someone to host my website, what is bandwidth?You mean monthly traffic? Typically limited, even for paid hosts. But if your site is not under a heavy load, you're likely not to exhaust it. And if it is under a heavy load, you'll need to have a pretty decent hardware, and more than 10MBps upload to handle that load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 (edited) I was thinking about having my own server so that everything would work and it would be easier to edit and change all the files. As for the download/upload speed, I think you are right. I can download a file faster than I can upload a video file of the same size. For bandwidth, do you think 12GB monthly is good? I still don't even know what bandwidth is. I was thinking about going with BeastNode if I do buy a hosting package. I was also thinking about just getting the 2GB storage space, because really, my website is way less than that. I have multiple copies of my website and other crap on a 2GB flash drive that isn't full. It would also save me money, and if I needed to upgrade later, I could. As for a domain, does a hosting company provide that, or do I still have to go and buy that somewhere else? Thanks for all your replies. I just tested it, and I get 9.57Mbps download, and .95Mbps upload... Lame. Edited June 23, 2012 by AKSoapy29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 A monthly traffic a.k.a. bandwidth is the total amount of data the web server gives to all users over a month, regardless of whether they access the server together, or one by one... think of a glass (server) of water (traffic) with people drinking (consuming) from it with straws.How much bandwidth is "enough" depends on the amount of data you expect each user to consume per visit. For example, if you expect the average user to download up to 20kb HTML, 10kb CSS, 10kb JavaScript and 40kb images (i.e. a total of 80kb) on each visit, this means that with 12GB, you can serve up to 157286 visitors per month, or 5073 visitors per day.That last number shrinks quickly as the size of the average traffic per visit grows, but of course, the calculation here assumes a constant amount of data per visit. Different users consume a different amount of traffic, and each user consumes a different amount of traffic per visit, so that's always just an estimate. As for a domain, does a hosting company provide that, or do I still have to go and buy that somewhere else?A lot of hosts do include that. Others require you to buy it separately (though most offer this "separate" service too).Most hosts give you the option of buying a domain from them (often with a discount from the normal price of that provider) OR use a domain you bought elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest So Called Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Soapy, what is your budget? Tell us how much you have to invest in equipment costs for your server, and how much per month for an Internet connection. I think that if you can come up with some realistic numbers for that you'll discover that $5-$8 per month for a shared hosting service is a fantastically good deal. A fast Internet connection suitable for serving a website is going to cost more than the shared hosting account, even not considering equipment costs. It is not unusual for a shared hosting service to include the cost of one domain in your basic shared hosting account. I think it's safe to say that all the large shared hosting services are also domain registrars, probably most of the medium sized companies, and probably even a lot of the smaller ones. Successful shared hosting services have to eke out every dollar of profit, and being a domain registrar costs them virtually nothing. I'm sure at the very least virtually all shared hosts have arrangements with domain registrars. Why do you want your own server? What do you expect to gain out of it? How long do you think it will take you to gain the necessary hardware and software experience to be able to run your own server? I hope you won't take this as unkindly, but IMO your questions are so basic and naive that it appears to me that you're years away from having the capabilities to be able to successfully run your own server. I suggest you could better spend your time and money by getting a shared hosting account, and then you'll have access to big server advantages and benefit from professionals doing all the scut work for you like fixing hardware failures and keeping the software up to date. Be honest. Did you know what LAMP was before I mentioned it? Do you know what Microsoft IIS is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 At this point, it is worth mentioning that there are free hosts out there, which you can use for sites to which you don't expect heavy traffic. Combined with XAMPP at your own machine, they're also the perfect venue for learning what it takes (at minimum...) to run your own server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 Right now I am using a free hosting company called 000webhost, and all I have is a subdomain. I just figured out that BeastNode doesn't offer domains. I don't have a budget really. With all the talking, buying from a hosting company doesn't seem like a bad idea. If I do go with a domain regestar, do you guys recommend anyone? GoDaddy? NameCheap? Anyone else? Also, I know nothing of Linux or hosting really. I am young, really young, but not the youngest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Just not GoDaddy. That's all I can really say.We have a separate topic with a list of hosts, usually (with the exception of those in my posts...) coming from people who have actually tried, and are happy with the services. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 What's wrong with GoDaddy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 24, 2012 Author Share Posted June 24, 2012 (edited) I figured out how much it would cost me if I were to buy hosting. Domain would be $10.69 a year from NameCheap.Hosting would be $2.95 a month from BeastNode.Overall, it would be $46.09 a year, or about $3.84 a month. I can work with that. What I get: 2GB Storage12GB Bandwidth a MonthFree SetupUnlimited FeaturescPanel That's the same for all of their hosting packages, the only difference is the memory and the bandwidth. I would say this is pretty good, would anyone agree/disagree? EDIT: Haha I think I mow the lawn more than 10 times in a year, so consider it paid off? Edited June 24, 2012 by AKSoapy29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest So Called Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 It's hard to beat "unlimited features." I'm reluctant to recommend my own provider. They've been great most of the time, adequate almost forever, annoying a few times and extremely pissed me off on a few occasions. I've been with them over a decade. You should google "top shared hosting providers" or "top shared hosting services" and do your own research. I think my numbers are on that you can get a good service for $5-$8 a month, $60-$100 per year. Even better, once you have your site working and profitable, you can migrate it to your own server if the finances justify it. Storage is BS. I forget how much I have but it's like 100x-10000x more than I need. If your website gets advanced you'll be more interested in database (MySQL) capacity. With my minimum account I can have 10 MySQL servers, each with (IIRC) 1000 MB storage. Modern website design your database storage is going to be your limiting factor, not your static (HTML, PHP) storage. (I have not taken image storage into my analysis. My websites are not image heavy. YMMV) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 24, 2012 Author Share Posted June 24, 2012 How is Storage BS? I think 2GB is reasonable, considering my website on my flash drive (Same one that is http://aksoapy29.comoj.com) is ~2.5MB. I actually plan to make it smaller through the use of PHP Include and such, for the headers and styling and stuff. But, my website will grow tiny bits at a time with all of the pages and edits I will add later. Really, how much storage do you need for a website like mine? Link is http://aksoapy29.comoj.com if you want to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest So Called Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 (edited) If your website goes anywhere you will store your content in a database (e.g. MySQL). The days of huge static websites are gone. I doubt if I've ever used more than 3%-5% of my storage allowance. Note that my comments do not apply to image heavy sites. My own site is content heavy and image light. Edited June 24, 2012 by So Called Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 24, 2012 Author Share Posted June 24, 2012 (edited) Right from BeastNode its self. Would this be a good package that would fit my needs? - 2 GB storage space - 12 GB monthly bandwidth - Single domain hosting - Unlimited Email, FTP, MySQL Databases, and Subdomains - Add your own URL-style IP redirects so you don't have to enter an IP to join your game server! And who do you use for hosting? Edited June 24, 2012 by AKSoapy29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birbal Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 some of hosts includes database storage and file system storage together. textual files does not cost much as multimedia file does. how much space needs solely upon the purpose of the site. for textual file 2 gb quite enough. if your site tend to extend fast like as in are active forums you probably will need more spaces. as for small sites it is not a bad start. you can always upgrade when your site grows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKSoapy29 Posted June 24, 2012 Author Share Posted June 24, 2012 When you say multimedia, do you mean like video? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birbal Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 yes. videos images songs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justsomeguy Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Hostgator might be worth looking into also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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