DIY WebHosting

[Plasmarobo]

I have a MAJOR problem with my webhost/domain company. I am paying $10 a MONTH for 5gb of webspace, and $2 a year for my domain. I am tired of paying people to do things that I could do for less my self.

Okay, I got that out. My WebHosts have been amazing. I started with 500 mb of space for $10 a month, and they upgraded my free to 5000mb. I liked that alot. Although, my site could fit in a box about the size of 20mb.

I however, have money problems. Beging a high-school student, I have a job at my school. I am a "IT assistant", and I make a whopping $6.75 an hour. About 1/4 of that gets wasted on having fun. The rest finds it's way into my bank. So, background explained, let's crack on, shall we?

Right, what (besides a computer with Linux or (since I have windows...) Windows Server 2003) do I need to make a combination WWW/DNS/DHCP/File/Print/Email/CGI-enabled Server? Let's say I have this so far:

:An Eithernet Cable
:A Westel Router for my Verison DSL (ADSL, I think)
:A single static IP that my router doesn't work without
:My Laptop
:My Mothers sort of crappy computer


And here is an ASCII Illustration of What I want to do.

...........................========
...........................= ISP =
...........................========
...................................|
....................================
....................= The Server I make =
....................================
.....................................|
..........................===========
..........................= My Router = o ) ) ) +Laptop
..........................===========
............................|.......|.........|
...................================
...................= Other computers =
...................================

Sooo, I am asking for some instruction, or a prod in the right direction about how to go about this. I am estimating that I need 2 Static IPs (or 3), 1 (or 2 for the nameserver part) for the server, and 1 to pass through the server to the router.

Here is my alternet setup:


...........................=======
...........................= ISP =
...........................=======
.................................|
........................==========
........................= Router = o ) ) ) ) ) +Laptop
........................==========
............................|..............|
.................========= ===============
.................= Server = = Other computers =
.................========= ===============

On review, the second method seems better, it cuts down on my having to buy and configure a dual eithernet card setup...

So, to recap what I have:
:Cable (eithernet)
:Laptop
:"Other computers"
:Router
:Verison DSL

 

[jonmon6691]

OK, i don't have an awnser to your problem but i am in almost the exact same boat as you are. You can read my post about the apache server. I thot that u might b able to answer a question i have about my setup. i am runnig a server with ubuntu linux on it and apache 2.2. Is the only thing i need to do is set my dsl modem/router (i have verizon's shitty router as well (i hate westell)) to forward port 80 to the local IP address of my server?

 

[Sevoma]

Use the alternate setup. Just forward the ports needed or setup a dmz host for your server on your router.

You really should stick with paid hosting though. When you do it yourself, you pay a lot for electricity, use your bandwidth, don't have good uptime, and have a slow website. < some of that statement is assuming you are on your own cable line

 

[King X13]

10 bucks a month is pretty **** good for web hosting. its going to cost you more then that a month in electric. not to mention your websites bandwidth isnt going to be as good unless you pay more for more bandwidth.

what you make in an hour almost covers you for a month so i dont see how your that much in "debt". plus web hosting has back ups and better systems running your site.

 

[Plasmarobo]

Okay, first,
Jonmon, It took about all I had to get Linux working with my router, let alone forward ports! Sorry, but I am not going to be much help in that situtation

Secondly, how much more in 'lectric are we looking at for th' cost? I mean, I guess that $10 is good, but the email that they give me is crappy to the power of 10. I get about 25 mb. Yahoo gives me about 1 gb. And my "underling" accounts get a horrid 10mb! Augh! I don't want to buy email accounts. Would it be better for me just to grab an email server? (Ps, the ability to say to people that I have my own fricken internet server would be worth about $10 a month to me! Oh! and I can rent out my extra space! 'twould make up for th' extended costs I believe! (sp) )

Anyway, thanks for helping a... well, aparently a "Virgin Techie"... I hate that title now...

 

[Kubel]

I hosted at home over a cable connection for a few years (I hosted a ftp server, http server, imap/pop/smtp server, etc... all on Windows with Apache). Eventually, there's no place like a datacenter. Even if you have a fairly nice broadband connection, hosting at home will probably be slower than what a web host can offer.

With that said, I would say go with the second method (ISP > Router > Server).

If you are having a problem getting your server to work outside your lan even with ports opened, theres a high possibility that your ISP blocks port 80. Many ISPs do this. The solution is to set Apache to something like 8080. But you will have to remember to add the port :8080 to the end of your servers URL to connect, and you will have to open/forward it on your router/firewall.

Good luck.

 

[mBernhardt]

I do my own webhosting for my quick and dirty site. I run a CMS frontpage along with forums, a coppermine photo gallery and a blacknova trader game.

I get maybe 20 hits a day, which is just peachy with me. My ISP is a cable based company that blocks port 80. (and probably 25 as well, and maybe even 20/21, I've never tried to figure that out)

I'll do my best to ASCII illustrate at the bottom.

I've got an older PC with 3 NICs working as a router. (I could do it would 2 NICs, I just like to play with having 2 LANs) It runs m0n0wall and is very reliable. I've even got QoS turned on so whatever useless crap I do gets a lower priority than web traffic.

My server is running Ubuntu 6.whatever with Apache/MySQL/PHP.


And there's some personal use PC's in there as well.


Everything is behind the router. My DNS is handled through no-ip.com. (Yes, I'm so cheap I don't even pay for domain! )

No-ip.com forwards port 80 to port 6080 for me. (no reason for that number, I just like it) My router then points incoming port 6080 to my webserver's port 80. So, I don't even have to reconfigure Apache.

The downside to dynamic DNS (at least with no-ip.com) is when users access my website they don't see whatever random URL I "registered" but instead see the IPort my ISP assigned me. (ie: http://192.168.0.1:6080/)

I do not run mailhosting because I don't want to.

All mail leaving my server at the moment is forwarded through my ISP's smtp server. (There's another thread in the *nix forums about that)


So, it goes:

Cable Modem
||
||
PC Router
||............||
||............||
Switch....Wireless AP
||...........................||
||...........................||
Web Server.........Personal PC's


If you'd like to see the finished product in action, PM me and I'll send a link. (I don't want to get bombarded with hits for some stupid reason)


Why am I doing it this way? 1) I'm cheap right now. But more importantly 2) its a great learning experience. I've tackled some very interesting problems (mostly from my own stupidity) and learned a lot about Linux in the process. I came into this project with a solid understanding of networks which helped a lot.


Hope this helps and feel free to ask if you need any more advice.