Server Questions

[pc_noob]

Good evening,

There are a few questions regardig servers that I never had a chance to find out. That is; How do the dedicated servers differ from reseller ones? If I were to purchase a server that I can host my site on for my home, would I be able to do that over just any connection? Would I be able to run a server over 56k? Can you guys clear me up on this a little, I'm very confused. Thanks!

[Xayd]

Depends on what you want to host.

If it's just hosting a website you're working on locally before you go live with it or something, yes you can do that no problem. The best server software is usually free.

If it's something like hosting your own email or a site for others to use, not really, since the upload speed from a 56k modem is only 2.8k/second. Your upload speed would be the user's download speed. Needless to say someone on DSL wouldn't be very impressed with your website if he could only load it at half-dialup speed ;).

There's also the problem of a static IP address. All http://www.pcmech.com does is resolve to a public static IP address that is this site's true address. Without a static IP address your server would only be accessible by the public until you got disconnected and your IP address changed (since most dialup providers use dynamically assigned IP addresses, i.e. you're given one from a pool that they have each time you connect, and it'll be different every time).

[mairving]

The biggest problem to running your server at home is always the connection. You may have a cable or DSL connection but most ISP's don't allow you to run a web server. Generally you really don't need to purchase a dedicated server unless you have some extreme needs or have quite a lot (1GB or over) of data.

[Hot Rod]

You definitely don't want to use a dial up and like mairving said, most ISP's won't allow you to have a server on your connection.

I would find a good hosting company to host it. You won't have the server maintenance hassle but you'll still have control over your Web site. There are a lot of inexpensive quality hosts around nowadays.

[PJB3589]

I'm currently building a server for use for hosting online games. But I was also considering hosting web sites on it. Would I be able to do this with an ADSL connection? And is what was said in this thread only apply to 56K or does it apply to all connections?

[glc]

Read your DSL provider's terms of service before you decide to run any servers.