questios from a beginner

[iamchickenlover]

questions from a beginner

My family has a farm and we are expanding and we want to have a website. we are not going to get a lot of visits on our site but we should get some. I have never run server or made a website, is there any books you would recommend? also we have an old computer with a p4 and 512 mb of ram and 200 gigs of storage would this work as a server? what type of software do you need to host something? on a server is it better to use windows of some kind or Linux? on last question for now, is it possible to host from home we have 1.5 mb dsl and will it slow us way down if we do and will our isp let us?
just realized i put this in the wrong spot, oops.

 

[root]

if you're only running a small site then your home connection should be fine.

for small servers there isn't a lot of difference between windows and Linux.
yes, Linux does scale better, but if you're only expecting a few hundred visitors then you'll never notice the difference.

you should go with whatever you're comfortable with, both windows and Linux servers have OS exploits, and IIS and Apache have server exploits as well.
if you're not to hot on Linux it may be easier to use a windows box as windows update cures all. there's no point running a Linux server and thinking that it can't be exploited if it's running old software that can be exploited.

again for a small site that machine will be fine.

 

[Tareq Diab]

hi
look my friend ,
i like windows xp so much because it's so easy and it works professionally
it is so good as a server
as well as widows 2000
your computer is not so bad for a small site BUT
It is better if u change your computer features !

 

[iamchickenlover]

if you're only running a small site then your home connection should be fine.

for small servers there isn't a lot of difference between windows and Linux.
yes, Linux does scale better, but if you're only expecting a few hundred visitors then you'll never notice the difference.

you should go with whatever you're comfortable with, both windows and Linux servers have OS exploits, and IIS and Apache have server exploits as well.
if you're not to hot on Linux it may be easier to use a windows box as windows update cures all. there's no point running a Linux server and thinking that it can't be exploited if it's running old software that can be exploited.

again for a small site that machine will be fine.

OK thank you, how would i host a site on it and how would i make a site? are there programs out there to make websites?

 

[root]

OK, to start with choose your OS.

either windows Server or Linux,
(you can as is also suggested above host a website from windows XP, though this can cause headaches).
you can have IIS on windows XP (pro) but you can only have 5 clients connected at any one time.
you can install apache on windows XP and have more connections.

really it depends what you're going to pay for licensing, (if you;re going to pay for licensing).

install your server software.

when you install the server software there will be a default location that the http pages are kept in.
you can find out from the manual where this location is, as well as what the default page name is, (usually either index.html or default.htm).

you can create a page in notepad to make HTML, or you could use dreamweaver / ms word etc

save it in the place where pages are served from.
then open a web browser and look at the page at the address 127.0.0.1 on the server...

Basically I'd get to the stage of having the OS/Server software installed the web software installed and a simple test page available to the machine on the server.

after then perhaps start a new thread as to how to make pages, and a new thread as to how to make your home machine externally available. how to map domain names to your home address (which may be dynamic).

 

[iamchickenlover]

alright, my parents are still not 100% sure on if we are gonna build this site or not but i will guess we are for now. i will probably use windows server because i am hoping it will be easier. what do i need to license? the site address? what do you mean sever software do you mean something like apache or does windows come with its own? I cannot do any of these things till i get back home which should be in a couple of weeks.

 

[root]

OK...

Licensing.

your first question is whether you'll use windows or Linux.
costs / free.

you've chosen windows, that's because you're comfortable with it, and are happy that you can manage to update and maintain it, that's a good thing, cause the last thing you want is your site being hacked and used to host some kind of extreme porn, or become a spam zombie or some stuff like that...

your next choice is what web server you're going to use.

your two main choices are really IIS (Internet Information Service) (Microsoft), or apache. (apache software foundation)

and to be fair, there isn't really much in it.
after you've bought the windows server you get IIS included, if you go the apache route you can download it for free.

so again it really comes down to a question of maintaining, and IIS can maintain its self with automatic updates through windows update.




to get an idea of how it'll be to work with, if you have windows XP pro on your computer at the moment I'd really suggest putting IIS on the machine as well.
(do this using add remove programs in the control panel and select add/remove windows components).

just accept all the defaults and have a look to see how you like it.



to come back to the question of licensing, you've chosen to host on windows, you'll need a windows license. same as if you chose to run windows on your desktop.

 

[crappybob]

Dude, just save yourself a bunch of hassle and host the site at godaddy or something for like $5 a month. I have been down this road before and paying $5 a month is so much easier then messing with all this stuff.

Register the domain name at godaddy and sign up for thier lowest level hosting package. You get to pick between windows and linux hosting. Then go open up a google apps account and you can get your domain mail hosted by google for free.

If you want to learn how servers work thats great, but if you are just wanting to host a website as cheap and as easy as possible then do what I say.

 

[iamchickenlover]

yes i could just go have someone else host the site or because i want to learn how servers work and how to build web pages i will do it myself and with lots of help from these forums and the internet.

ok so when i get home i will install IIS and see how i like it. Is it possible to put IIS on my vista laptop to see if I like it?


thanks for your help root i will probably need more when i get home

 

[crappybob]

Well since you want to learn then it makes sense to do it in house. If you want to use XP I would ask you to have a look at xamp.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html

It's apache running on windows and it is pretty easy to set up. If you go this route you won't have the user limit that you will ecounter with XP and IIS.

Also you need to consider that fact that you probably have a dynamic IP address on your home connection, you can still host a site like this but it is easier if the IP is static (meaning it never changes)

Once you register your domain name I would point it to the DNS servers over at http://freedns.afraid.org/ and then create an account and point the www. subdomain to your home connections IP address. You will also want to make sure there are no firewalls blocking traffic on port 80 from coming into your home network.

If you want to host a site but don't want to register a domain name right away you can just put the external IP address of your home DSL connection in a internet browser to see if it works.

This is a fun project, let me know if you have any other questions.