Hey guys, I've been making and administrating my own sites for years now. I've been with many different hosts - not only are they expensive, but half of them are just poorly managed. Not to mention finding a reliable host is almost impossible now-a-days. I'm sick of all these hosts. At this point I think it may be beneficial for me to invest in my own server that I can run from home for my own needs. That way I can run my sites at home with ease, and also use it as a testing server for in production sites. What kind of server should I buy that's good for web site hosting? Is there any good ones I should look into that do not cost "an arm and a leg"?
As any other member who knows alot about bandwidth, internet speed and servers - I would not recommend you to set up a home server. First of all it depends on your upload speed, if you recieve a really good upload speed around over 8MB - you could then get away with it but otherwise forget it. Having a home server also means having a good power supply running to your house - What if theres a power cut? What would you do? - You will need a powerful generator to keep the server up if anything like this happens. Along with sufficient cooling, backup services, etc. The list is massive, if you will only be using the server for testing purposes for yourself, then its fine. Although running sites or even other peoples sites on it is a very bad idea. I hope this will help you.
Just to expand on Danny's comments above: Your uplink is the main issue, up and above everything else he has mentioned. Remember if your server provider gives you 8Mb, that's not 8MB, that's 8 megabits = 1 Megabyte [ per second ]. Your ISP will also have a fair use policy, so if you use it for business/commercial use, or exceed a quota (or push too much data over a period of n time units), you can get throttled and/or disconnected. That's just for starters. Servers are pretty loud, too. Jay
I agree with the two previous posters that you should not host a dedicated server at home. I'm curious, what web hosts have you used that have been so poor? There are a lot of quality web hosting companies. Though I do not know what you have been paying in the past, it's possible you may need to raise your budget to get the service levels you are looking for.
Not wise to run from home. Actually, your ISP do not allow you to do that. You may look at getting your own dedicated server from a datacenter and hire a server admin to manage your server for you. so, you can concentrate on your main core work while leave the security & optimization to the management team. -- joseph
You mention that cost is an issue. Going with a local ISP to the home will cost you significantly more for a "business" account. Also, your ISP's connection to the net will likely not be quite as good as one in a top-tier datacenter. Also, what happens if your power goes out? Any decent datacenter will be able to handle that, but will you? Are you prepared to spend money on your own generator that you test weekly and keep a stockpile of fuel on hand for? If you're not ready to do all that, then you probably shouldn't run your site from your home.
So wait a minute...if it's that bad - is that why is there such a monumental amount of reselling on the internet? You seriously don't know who actually manages a server anymore and who is actually just playing reseller. There has to be some sort of way, not all of us can stay agreeable to feeding off others forever..... I'm sure it would be expensive, but it the long run, probably a lot better. I just don't believe too much in paying others to do what you can do just as easily or could learn. I've used a lot of hosts, servage, cirtex, and hostv being the most recent. (they're all retards....)
Then co-locate or lease your server directly from a data-center. You would probably want one within driving distance or at least have an IP KVM. Pick a good provider and you will be able to tell the difference.