Hello everyone. I will (hopefully) soon get my first 'real' (shareware) game ready and I have thought of different ways to get it online. First I thought of a free webhost, but free webhosts are pretty bad with bandwith limitations, small amount of upload space, stupid name (www.geocities.com/mypage) etc. Recently I bought ADSL (and it rocks and my ISP provided me a web-page, but that has also many cons. Then I thought of trying commercial web hosts, but the best ones cost so much and currently I don't have much money to spend on webhost. Then it hit me, with my new ADSL and all, why don't I make web server out of my own computer. I've been searching some info through google (where else and found some really good free web server programs. But after thinking that I'd need a good protection and all and that on the other hand costs some ca$h, I wonder should I start hosting my own web server or should I just buy a commercial webpage? Thank you for your time and forgive me for my bad english, it's not my native language EDIT: I did not know where else to post this so I posted it here... [edited by - JiX on July 8, 2002 8:24:49 AM]

Probably not a good idea.
First of all, its probably agains your ISPs terms of service.
Second, most broadband systems have fast downloads but relatively slow uploads, which would make the site seem slow for users.
Third, if you get any significant ammount of traffic, its going to eat into your bandwidth and your broadband experience isnt going to be so great.
Fourth, running from your own system means you are more susceptable to power outages (you dont have a multi-hour UPS, do you?) or downed network connections (expensive T-1 and faster connections have a tendancy to get fixed VERY quickly, with broadband you could be down for days).
Fifth, by running the server on your machine, you are now responsible for securing it. If you dont secure it and someone get access to your machine, would you want them having access to your personal files or your source code? I wouldn''t
Sixth, there just isnt a good reason to run it from your connection. If your site will be low enough traffic that your broadband connection can handle it, then you could probably qualify for some of the web hosts that only charge like $20 a year.

I completely agree with LordKronos. Check out readyhosting.com or halfpricehosting.com for very good, reliable, and inexpensive hosting.

[edited by - alex mcandrew on July 8, 2002 9:59:43 AM]

$20us a year!?! What host do you do business with? I wanna work with them at that price!

The biggest issue with running your own server is making sure that you have a static IP. Most broadband providers supply you with a dynamic IP. It is pretty much impossible to run a server with an IP that can change at nearly any time. If you pay the extra cost each month and get a business connection, only $15us extra a month for me, then you will get a static IP and a DNS entry. If you are not sure what a DNS entry is - forgot about running a web server. Also, a business line usually has uptime garauntees.

Hope that helps.

God was my co-pilot but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him...
Landsknecht

Cedant.com is the way to go for hosting. They''re a little "pricy" but nothing unheard of. But god damn are they reliable, I''ve never had a server down, they have VOICE tech support if you really want to use it. (Having a phone number is always a GOOD thing on the Internet) and support is very friendly and always willing to help you out. You''ll get replies to your e-mails in under an hour, even at 3 o clock in the morning.

quote: Original post by Landsknecht
$20us a year!?! What host do you do business with? I wanna work with them at that price!

I dont use them because of some of the restrictions, but I dont think their restrictions are any/much worse than what you get hosting over your own broadband connection. My friend is hosting his own personal site there, so thats how I learned about it, but I dont think there TOS would prevent you from running a small commercial site. Just realize you arent getting the same features/support you get from a $30/month host. Anyway, here is what my friend emailed me a few months ago:

"I got a great deal for webspace from http://www.cyberwings.com which is only $7.80/Year with 110MB space, Unlimited Email address with 50MB of space, 2 MySQL databases, and PHP support"

That might work just fine for what Jix needs. Their site seems a little slow today (or maybe its just my connection) but the last time I looked they were pretty speedy, and my friend''s site seems to come up pretty speedy right now (even if it is only a small page, there was no delay)



Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Coming July 2002

Hey, thanks, I see now that it might be too slow to run home web server in my purpouse, so I''ll wait untill I get my sw game finished and then I make another one, just to increase the possibility of someone registering at least one game, before I buy a webpage. Thanks for the link too, I''ll check the cyberwings.com out and see if that is just what I need

I use www.dzones.net it seems to beat all the sites people posted as far as value per price goes. For 13/month I get 250 megs of space, 8 GB bandwidth, 100 subdomains, unlimited pop boxes, 10 FTP accounts, 10 mysql databases, etc.. They even give you a static IP, and domain names are 16/year. Tech support has been great too, they upgraded the plans (my plan went from 150 to 250 megs) and I only had to email them to upgrade my account to reflect the changes at no extra charge. Check out the plans http://www.dzones.net/plans.htm

Hey, Fenix, that looks really great. I''ll go with that one if I don''t find any better, thanks alot!

No problem.