Running your own server - viable?

[XGryph]

Hey, just wondering what your thoughts are on hosting your own webserver.

Basically I got a laptop thats rarely used, and I want to proxy to the net via a SMC Barricade router that I plan to order.

Anyway right now, im having hosting difficulties for a gaming clan forum, using PHP4 and MySQL. Just wondering if I can put the laptop to good use, and run it as a webserver?

Ive ran webservers before but only on my main machine, and were not running PHP or MySQL.

Thanks a lot.

Gryph.

[DrZaius]

Hi Gryph,

First off, what are the specs on this machine? It wouldn't have to be super fast for regular HTML pages, but for PHP and MySQL you need more power.

[Xayd]

You could, yes, but how much available bandwidth do you have on the upload side?

Unless you have a tremendous amount that you're not using, paying for webhosting is much more viable. I pay for a site for the exact purpose you're using yours for, 11 bucks a month gets me all I need.

Also, the hardware specs required depend on the forum you run. If you run something as advanced as vBulletin like we have here, fast drives and such might be nice, for something as 'lean and mean' as phpBB, though, you don't need much for speedy forums.

[XGryph]

The laptop is a 600Mhz, 160Mb ram, 6 Gb hardrive. Basically something I picked up very cheap (Ex repair) out of a high street store.

I would want to run Vbulletin as thats what im running now. My upload is a pathetic 16kpbs... but right now we dont even get that from our free host.

I am of looking into web hosting as well, but I figured if I got the right hardware I may as well give it a go if its posible.

Curent OS is WinME, which I would be replacing, the obvous replacent being Win2k. So im figuring running apache would be my only option for a server? Not sure if MS do php and mySQL?

[edit]

I should add this forum is used by about 10 - 15 regulars and not usually by more than 2 or 3 people at once.

Current one is at http://www.clanxenon4um.f2s.com/index.php but we have gone right over our database space already.

[/edit]

[Xayd]

Well, it 'could' be done, and yes you can use IIS with MySQL and PHP, but we all know about IIS's notorious security flaws . Apache is available for Windows and runs fine under NT. Obviously the best choice for that laptop would be Linux, though.

16kbps is gonna be slow if two or three people use it at the same time, but if you keep the forums pretty clean and free of excess images and other 'eye candy', it'd work.

For such little upload bandwidth, vBulletin is gonna be slow regardless, though...

For me, 10-15 bucks a month is a small price to pay for a decent web host. I use http://www.extremepresence.com , and haven't had any problems at all.

[XGryph]

Its more fun running your own though

I was thinking of setting linux on the laptop, but I hewared gettting track pads to work can be a nightmare

Well like I said Im open to any UK hosts... Ill check out your URL too. Clans on a very limited budget though... weve just mangaged to get together the £90 / month for a clan server (rippoff)

So for a host, id probably be paying for one myself

Thanks for feedback!