Need some advice here. Just registered a domain for a new Sheffield based company I am setting up, working on the web site now actually, but would like to actually run the web site directly from computer in my office. SO rather than have it hosted which I have always done before, prefer to dive in the deep end here and work out how to set up a web server....something I would love to know just so I can say I have done it, if you know what I mean.

Anyone give me an idea of how to do this? I have a new PC in my office which has a new business option dedicated 24/7 broadband connection at 4MB and unlimited bandwidth, so what software would I need to deliver a web site to the internet 24/7? It has a fixed IP address according to the info I have....is there some web server software that is best suited for fairly basic web sites, no advanced php or other stuff, just basic HTML site with a Paypal merchant shopping basket system (not CGI).

And how on earth do I get the domain I have purchased to "point" directly to my web server....I have a control panel in my domain supplier that has all sorts of DNS numbers, etc, so it looks as if I just have to change some numbers?

Yes, I am a complete newcomer to web servers, but want to give it a try. Please treat me like an idiot when explaining as you may sail completely over my head with high-tech talk....

First off

1) What sort of number of visitors do you expect. An office line might not be able to cope.

2) On what system (window/unix) are you wanting to run it on

3) If its only static content something like Analogue X Simple Server (http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/sswww.htm) will do

4) If you have a static IP, there should be an option in the control panel of your registrar that will allow you to point it at the IP of your connection. You then just need to allow a port forward from your router to the PC on port 80.

If your really stuck, I could come and help you get it setup for a (small fee, possibly payable in beer) :P

Joel

Cool! its probably not going to get much traffic to begin with...not sure, its something of an experimental business to test the market. I have Windows XP but have just found out I have DYNAMIC IP address and not static as I thought. Not sure quite how that impacts on everything though......


Other factors have been causing me to maybe reconsider this, I just found out I have 11 months paid hosting space left from an earlier project (I thought had expired) and plenty of space on that to run many more websites. Might therefore leave it to the hosting service.......after all if it breaks down its their problem then and not mine......

STill like to discover how to do it though, but with a dynamic IP address I imagine some problems will arise if I reset the connection at any time.......

Dynamic IP is not a problem, you can have your domain name updated everytime you reconnect (and ur IP changes) by your router or by a little program. :)

http://www.no-ip.com/

Have a read there.

Joel

If the operating system is Windows XP Pro you can use that as a simple web server if you install the IIS module from additional software on the add new programs dialog.

Once installed put your files into the wwwroot folder and off you jolly well go. Only for simple static stuff though and may require tweeking later for security.

Im running http://www.englishpewter.co.uk from a machine in my office on a 10 Meg leased line.

I could be wrong but doesn't it take about 24 hours for the DNS changes to take effect? i.e. visitors will see page cannot be displayed / server doesn't exist for 1 day after the dynamic IP changes?

Your probably better off getting it hosted somewhere cheap to begin with and move to a better provider if the website takes off.

nope, no-ip updates immediately, i've never found that my machine was unavailable due to an ip address change from the isp (I do occassionally find it unavailable due to an internal change as the port forwarding is to a fixed address rather than netbios name.

I wouldn't recommend IIS to someone as a simple easily configurable webserver, it has more holes in it than a siv(sp) and isn't easy to secure.

Apache tomcat might fit your needs, it will serve static html, is pretty easy to configure and gives you the option of doing dynamic things with datasources and stuff later on if you want too.

I don't know enough about the web server side of things yet to give out great advice but you are aware that it doesn't matter what size your connection is the upload (i.e. pushing out the pages to browsers etc...) is only 256k. This isn't a major problem for a low traffic text only site but once it gets busy or if you have regular downloads then you may want to look at SDSL or bonded lines. I'd go for the bonded option myself with accounts at different ISP's for redundancy. :wink:

If you want a bonded line, I can sell you one at a very reasonable price ;)

Joel

Bidding war anyone?

yeah when i was typing up my reply the post about no-ip wasn't there. Never heard of them before but sounds like it'll do the job.