Can I host my own website?

[Relztrah]

I work part time for a very small nonprofit org. that doesn't currently have a website. It really isn't necessary for our work, but it might be helpful just to have a web presence to list our phone number and contact information and a brief discription of our work. Nothing fancy. And quite honestly nobody else thinks it's even important. This is just a whim of mine.

I am reluctant to use Geocities or one of the freebie ad-supported services. My son knows Front Page and will develop a simple informational website for us that would provide the basics. I doubt that it would get many hits, but it would still be good to have one in my opinion.

Is there any reason I couldn't pay for a domain name but host it on a computer in my home? I have cable internet and I could use a spare computer, leaving it running 24X7. Is this even feasible? What would be involved?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[mjc]

Other than most ISPs frown on the idea...

There are several options other than ad supported free hosts...for a low traffic site, particularly a nonprofit you may want to contact local ISPs. Even the area United Way may be of some help...same with colleges/universities.

There are other non-ad supported free hosts...

http://byethost.com/

One specifically for non-profits...

http://www.orgsites.com/ <==look into that one

Also many ISPs do low traffic sites very cheaply...my old ISP did it for $5/month in addition to my internet service.

[yawningdog]

My ISP (Cox) gives away seven 10 mb chunks of web space with each account. Yours might do that as well. It's worth it to check. But building a web server is fun, and I would do it that way just for the coolness factor.

If you're using Windows XP, all you have to do is install IIS (add/remove software-> windows components) and voila. You have a web server. Then you have to buy a domain name, I used domainsbyproxy.com. Then map your DNS to your server IP address. If you're using a firewall, you'll need to forward port 80 to the inside IP. DO NOT use IIS with windows 2000 or you will be hacked down in less than a minute, or at least that's what happened to me when I tried it.

[Variable]

Many big ISP's block inbound port 80 (http) so the first thing to do is find out if hosting a site locally is even possible. Second thing is, your domain will point to an IP address. That IP needs to stay the same, that means you need a static IP from your ISP. But as has been said, if is very likely your ISP gives you a free web space and you are not using it. This would be the simplest way to do it.

yawningdog there is a tool to harden IIS in 2000. One of the issues with 2000 is that it comes with a default Everyone group with full control. Obviously this is stupid. So simply delete that group, give IUSR read and list to the web folder, make sure the IIS security tab is using IUSR account for anonymous access. Run the lock down tool
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/security/chklist/iis50srg.mspx?mfr=true

[rio_bugarin]

others may disagree with me here but I'm just sharing what I think.

here are some thoughs that came to me when setting up my own.

1. Running a computer 24/7 will cost you electricty(which is pretty cheap here in US-so i guess not a big deal).
2.When part of your server breaks down, it'll cost a few more dollars.
3.You may also spend a few more for protection against those children who do DoS attacks.
4.If I'm not mistaken, you still need to buy a domain name.(I'm not sure on MJC's link if they will give you a free domain.)

[Paul Komski]

my old ISP did it for $5/month in addition to my internet service
For this sort of money you can get very good packages from companies like Netfirms (http://www.netfirms.com/) and even their freebie is good except that you have to put up with their banner ad till you upgrade. This will give you a 24/7 presence, without any configuration or security problems.

I agree that if you can overcome any ISP problems that hosting your own site can be both instructive and cheap.

If you value your system then for security reasons I suggest you should install Apache every time instead of MS's IIS. A WAMP package (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAMP) can make it pretty straightforward to set up the server software.

A static public IP address is best but with a bit of geekishness one can utilise a dynamic IP address along with installing a dynamic dns server from say dyndns (http://www.dyndns.com/)for free with a sub-domain name or a with a full domain name for a price.

[Relztrah]

Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions. Since hosting it on a computer in my house is a bit beyond my capability at this point, I called my ISP and indeed they offer web space to customers. The person I spoke with directed me to an FTP which I was able to open and I got:

To view this FTP site in Windows Explorer, click Page, and then click Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer.

Which I did and then I got the promt to log on which I did successfully...and then what? There is a folder there called web_files which I open but it appears empty. (Perhaps because I haven't created any web files.)

I'm not familiar with FTP or what I do next.

Thanks to all contributors for your help.

Relztah

[rio_bugarin]

I would assume you will need to create your main page. have your son create your main page(name it index.htm or index.html). upload it to the root folder of your web space via ftp. then try to open your site with firefox/IE, etc.

I'm not familiar with FTP or what I do next.
open windows explorer then put in the address bar "ftp://www.yoursitehere.com" it should ask for your username and password.

once successful, you should be able to copy index.htm to the root folder. test.


sometimes windows explorer crashes on me. try dowloading filezilla. it should be straightforward.

[Paul Komski]

I would grab FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client) (or similar - but FileZilla is a very good freeware FTP client that you can also run as a portable app from a pen drive) right from the start. Once configured it makes uploading and downloading of pages and pics etc very much easier.

http://i31.tinypic.com/n3lvkx.jpg

The root of your web space (the one at ftp://yourdomain.com) commonly contains a couple of folders and one of these is normally for scripts and the other for files; the latter is usually a folder named /www/ and it is in it that your html pages, sub-folders and files are normally stored as the root of your "web" (as opposed to the root of your "web space").

Note also that index.htm and index.html normally are different and one will have priority over the other if both exist in your www folder. The other gotcha is that even though the domain name is not case sensitive the files and their extensions are. It's not a bad idea to get into the habit of only naming files say in lower case.