I wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this, but.

I have free webhosting service, but I don't like the ads and everything on the page, so I want to run my own server. I don't think a dedicated server would be worth it because I only get about 10-20 visitors a month, and the content I have is only text, so I think the bandwidth I have at home will do. So I've decided to run my website from home on my own internet connection (FiOS).

I have a domain, so what do I need to do to set up a website? I need like Apache or whatever? How can I make my own custom DNS nameservers for free?

You know there exist webhosting services without ads at all, for example the one I chose at 50webs.com, no ads at all. But if you want, you can run your own server, for HTTP you will probably want to run apache (see here). For DNS, here are a few: http://www.freedns.com/

You'll need apache. And if your website is somewhat advanced you might also need PHP and MySql. As far as I know you don't need "custom DNS nameservers" (what are you going to do with them?), but you need IP address, preferably static, which should be associated with some name (don't know details, because I've been using DynDNS every time I needed this). Running DNS server for this isn't required.

However, I wouldn't recommend running any kind of server on home machine.
Keeping computer running all the time is annoying (this thing hums, can't be turned off, etc.). And I think that people providing websites will have more bandwidth and better configured servers. So if you care about visitors, there are several free webhosting services which don't insert ads into your site. Just search for them.

Doesn't your ISP provide a certain amount of web space by default?

First of all, do you have a static IP address?

You will need one to have your own webserver.

I would suggest a dedicated server running Linux.

You will need Apache, PHP and MySQL.

I would suggest Ubuntu Server as the easiest to set up and maintain.

You may wish to check our Google's new websites which are part of Google Apps. They are free, free of ads and very easy and convenient.

AND----Check with your ISP to see if they allow you to run a server (of any kind). Many do not.

Setup Apache and whatever other tools you need, make sure to redirect to port 80 of your webserver in any firewall if needed, sign up for a dynamic DNS service, watch your logs.

Comcast started to throttle me to dial up speed ( 8 meg package )due to my bandwidth usage for the 5.5+ Gig's of maps for celestia i was hosting
an archive copy from " The Wayback Machine "
http://web.archive.org/web/200602081...age.no-ip.com/

This is incorrect information.
You don't need static address to run webserver.
In my area many people run small (and cr@ppy) pages within local network - to monitor CounterStrike servers, etc. They ALL use dynamic IPs with DynDNS. And they all work (although bandwidth is very limited, but this is another story).

To run website you need any "external" IP address, otherwise it will be a problem. For example, if you are within a huge LAN which covers district or two, and connection goes trough several gateways, you can forget about running website visible from "outside" (unless router has port forwarded to your machine).

It really depends. Domestic web servers can be very convenient some times, and since they don't usually need much cpu power, the energy consumption can be cut down in many ways.

For example, if you use a dedicated machine as a server, you can:

• use an older pci graphics card, instead of an accelerated one
• use cpufreq, or simply configure the bios to run at a lower speed, this will have many good secondary effects: less heat, less noise, less electrical consumption, and a longer life for your hardware
• you don't need a monitor attached to that machine, less power needed, less heat as well

Not really, you can use dyndns to get a domain name even if you don't have an static ip address. You can use ddclient to synchronize it automatically, so you don't have to go visiting dyndns each time that your ip changes.





Besides that, for a home server I advise to your lighttpd, which is much lighter than apache, and still supports mysql and php if you need them. This will require less machine resources to run, which in turn might allow you to run your web server on an old and cheap machine. I definitely advise against ubuntu for such kind of hardware, it's not what I call a light distro, and you don't need Xorg installed just to serve web pages. Of course, the thing is different if the server is going to be your one and only box, where you also work... So, it all depends on your needs.

Thanks for all the helpful replies.

This will be a separate box I keep in the room, specifically to be used as a server (with no X). I don't mind the noise/power consumption as I even leave my workstation computer on 24/7 and it doesn't bother me.

Lighttpd sounds like a good idea, although I was initally leaning towards Apache just because it seems like the most popular. I guess I'll install Gentoo on this box as well.

I haven't done this before, so I'll just have to experiment with this stuff, and learn more about networking.

Thanks, and I will try out the suggestions you guys have said.

i was using " no-ip.com " ( and had no problems with them - free account) to map my mostly static ip .It would be the same for 6 months then change 4,5,6,7 times in one or two days