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Gil
Posts: 7533
From: North Carolina, USA
Status: offline
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RE: Hy-pathetic-ally speaking... - 3/25/2003 13:07:46
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How tough is it to host my own website?
How well do you know Unix?
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What kind of machine would you recommend? Would an old Pentium box do the job?
Depends on what type of sites - Lot of databases? Perl? etc.
For plain vanilla web sites a PIII 850+ w/ 512 RAM should be OK
* See note below
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How much HD space?
LOL - Big enough for your sites and logs. Depends.
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Will I be able to serve pages through my existing cable modem/broadband connection?
* Add on to above:
Not really; 1. Your provider probably doesn' t allow it.
2. Anything less than 1.54MB (T1) is not going handle it. See DNS issue below
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How do I go about setting up my DNS?
1. Learn BIND
2. You' ll need two servers - one can be the same as the web server, but they must be on different machines.
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Or IP addy?
You' ll have to purchase a block of IPs from your upstream provider
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What version of Apache is easiest/best (the newest release isn' t always the best... or is it?
I' d go w/ 2.0.44
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Gil Harvey, 1947-2004
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Doug G
Posts: 1189
Joined: 12/29/2001
From: SoCal
Status: offline
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RE: Hy-pathetic-ally speaking... - 3/25/2003 13:26:39
It would be very helpful in learning your linux to get a website up on the box. But for actual hosting of websites, unless you are committed to doing your own hosting and keeping up with all you need to keep up with, I' d leave customer sites where they are for quite a while.
IP address - easiest and best is if you have a fixed IP address, more than one if you want customers to have their own IP.
DNS - if you have a DHCP IP address, there are services that will do " dynamic DNS" to keep your domain name pointed at your ever-changing IP address. zoneedit.com is one such provider. You can run your own DNS servers if you want but that' s another complete adventure :) Even with a fixed IP, zoneedit.com will let you manage the DNS for your computer.
Cable/broadband - some providers, particularly cable internet providers, do not allow you to host your own web and block port 80. Check before you jump.
Email - yet another adventure, but if you close your outside host you' ll probably need to provide email for your clients. Suffice it to say this isn' t the easiest thing to do either.
Security - Even though this isn' t on your list, keeping your site secure is something you need to keep up with. There are hacks of linux as well as Windows. You don' t want to get " rooted" :) Linux hackers are more sophisticated than windows hackers IMHO, and can break in your machine, install keystroke monitors and other such nasties, and leave you no trace. You should have intrusion detection software like Tripwire installed and up to date before you put your server on the net. Also you should have all relevant security patches for any exposed services up to date. There have been recent problems with sendmail, ssh, and apache a few months back.
Spend enough time to get your firewall configured properly so only services in use are exposed to the internet.
As far as hardware, you can get by with suprisingly low hardware, but of course it will depend on traffic to your server.
I don' t want to discourage you from hosting, but spend enough time to get comfortable with what goes on before you put some customer on the air and have problems.
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Doug G
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bobby
Posts: 11394
Joined: 8/15/1969
From: Seattle WA USA
Status: offline
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RE: Hy-pathetic-ally speaking... - 3/25/2003 13:29:35
Thanks for the response Gil -
quote:
How well do you know Unix? Not well, yet 
quote:
Depends on what type of sites - Lot of databases? Perl? etc.
For plain vanilla web sites a PIII 850+ w/ 512 RAM should be OK
There are two db' s currently, probably will be three... I want to be able to run ASP (until I learn PHP... that' s on the agenda as well...)
Probably won' t run Perl, but you never know... it' s good to be prepared
Does the chip type matter? Would a Duron 1.0GHz do the trick?
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LOL - Big enough for your sites and logs. Depends. Okay, but I won' t need umpteen GB of extra for something funky? That' s cool... just enough for the programs, websites, and back-ups (of course)...
Can backups be accomplished via an external HD, DVD-R(+R) or CD-R (if space allows...)
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Not really; 1. Your provider probably doesn' t allow it.
2. Anything less than 1.54MB (T1) is not going handle it.
Bummer, I was afraid of that... the expense of a T1 alone may put the kybosh on this idea [:j]
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1. Learn BIND
2. You' ll need two servers - one can be the same as the web server, but they must be on different machines.
Uh oh... now we' re getting into shark infested waters... two servers, not that big of a deal I suppose... but what the heck is BIND? (you can consider that a rhetorical question for now...)
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You' ll have to purchase a block of IPs from your upstream provider Interesting... will have to investigate that further...
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2.0.44 Thanks!
So, from what you' re telling me I' m probably far better off just leaving it in the hands of someone who is already equipped... and knows what they' re doing...
Hmmm... looks like the fun factor and experience might not be worth the expense. Especially since I pay < $4 per month for hosting now... maybe I should just intern with my host for a couple months [:p]
Oh well, I' ve got most of the tools (toys) and can pursue this later if I decide to spend the $$... or right after that winning Lotto ticket 
Thanks again Gil...
I know who to go to if/when I decide to do this
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If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
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Doug G
Posts: 1189
Joined: 12/29/2001
From: SoCal
Status: offline
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RE: Hy-pathetic-ally speaking... - 3/25/2003 20:07:55
Don' t quit, just set up your server " for fun" initially on a local network (being careful not to expose the test server to the Internet). It' s nice to have a good idea how all that stuff works :)
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Doug G
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