I just registered a domain at godaddy.com, I am trying to host the site my self. I am looking for some software that will enable my windows platform computer to act as the host and how to set it up. Any advice would be much help. Thank you.
For windows vista go into control panel --> programs --> turn on/off features --> check the internet information services box. (you may need to restart your computer) run FTP and place your files in there. Just make sure that under your domain point to the IP of your newly configured host. Your web site is now available
Using yourself as a host, you need to understand the following: 1.) Be prepared to deal with DoS attacks. 2.) Be prepared to have your account or entire computer compromised if you are not using update to date software. Apache/ISS/Other 3.) Be prepared for lack of reliability of service from your ISP. If your ISP goes down you go down. 4.) Be prepared to not be able to handle a lot of traffic. If your using a residential high speed internet connection, it's not going to be enough for a medium amount of users. Yes, you download speed might be fast, but your upload speed which is what your doing when people send requests to your computer works mostly on upload speed. Upload speed is typically 1/3 of your download speed on most residential cable connections and about 1/2 or 3/4 for DSL. If most of these things are not a concern for what your doing, then there is no problem doing this on your own computer. If anything it will be learning experience. You will need to log into godaddy and forward DNS requests to your IP address. Unless, you are familiar with setting up DNS (BIND).
I think it would be best to save yourself the headache, and spend $5 a month for web hosting (feel free to contact me if you need a provider).
Thanks for the advice. I am kind of familiar with dos attacks. It is easy to make a BAT file I made a simple one my self. Denial of service attacks can be pesky but I am working on preventing those though a filter some how. I have the site established; now I have to design it. Once I think I am starting to get more traffic I will buy a host. The upload speed will not be a problem until there is a large amount of traffic. Sense there will be nothing to download. It is quite a good learning experience. HTML is much different then trying to set up a web server. That is one reason I set it up my self. There are so many things to learn and taking the short path may have been the better plan but there was less to learn.
There are plenty of free hosts out there that offer plenty of space and features... check out rack111.com i help around there... its pretty nice plus if you host it yourself you will not have near as fast of an internet connection and users probably won't like that.
Get a web hosting account. For just $4.95 / month, you get Unlimited Space, Bandwidth and domains at LunarPages.com.
By a license agreement, you can not have more than 5 clients connected to an XP system. Try a distro of linux, It is more work, but you will be legit. Also be warned about dynamic vs static IPs, and then your service agreement with your ISP, most do not allow you to run servers on a residential line, but you can also invest in their small business internet access, you get your static ip and allowed to host. Your upstream will be enhanced as well with some services. One more thing, Invest in a good modem. Make sure it gives lots of power up to make sure you can get push as many MBs as you can up.