Can't get server to work and wouldn't know how to use it anyway....

[Silman]

Carriage Return / Line Feed

you don't have to pay godaddy or anyone else a dime to have a publicly available webserver - that is a fact. however, if you purchased a domain name, you need to have your domain name registered to an IP address. if you bought that silman domain name from a registrar already, i'd guess you could do it (or already did it) thru them. at any rate, the DNS records for your domain name need to point to your public ip address, if you want to run the webserver a la your own crib. i'm not sure the best way to do it, though - i've never purchased a domain name myself.

however, if you want tons of storage, automated backups, 24/7 reliable up-time, fancy shmancy web control panels, etc., you could pay godaddy or the like. in that case, silman.com or whatever would point to a webserver hosted by godaddy and your local webserver would have nothing to do with your website (except as a coding/testing platform). another nice feature of using a hosting company is that they won't change your public IP address on you, like your ISP will, which can cause (brief and infrequent, hopefully) site outages.

Huh, well the reason i wanted to set up a server from home was so 1) I could learn to admin a real webserver and 2) i wouldn't have to buy hosting from a company. I just don't know how to get godaddy to point the silmanserver.com domain name to the server in my room. I guess i should call them in the mornin'.

[atreyu]

Huh, well the reason i wanted to set up a server from home was so 1) I could learn to admin a real webserver

you're doing that now, and you can keep on doing that no matter who is hosting your public webserver.

and 2) i wouldn't have to buy hosting from a company. I just don't know how to get godaddy to point the silmanserver.com domain name to the server in my room. I guess i should call them in the mornin'.

i agree, you absolutely don't have to rent space, host it yourself, if you can get away with it. did you get silman.com thru godaddy? if so, then yes, call them - they should be helping you w/that.

[Silman]

you're doing that now, and you can keep on doing that no matter who is hosting your public webserver.
i agree, you absolutely don't have to rent space, host it yourself, if you can get away with it. did you get silman.com thru godaddy? if so, then yes, call them - they should be helping you w/that.

True, but i would feel bad not giving hosting from my own server a shot considering i wasted so many peoples time with troubleshooting it. Also it was my intent to get it working as my own server so i didn't have to pay! I dont need control panels from webhosting services if i can just use the ISPconfig control panel (or any other one).

Hopefully i will be able to get it to work!

[elija]

Running your own server from home is possible. When you are behind a router you forward port 80 requests to your server. And you make sure that port 80 is open on your server's firewall. You don't need to do this until you want others to see the site.

Some ISPs don't allow you to host your own servers in their terms and conditions while others actively block the ports. Bandwidth can also be a consideration. You will also need a static IP address on your internet connection, othrwise you will have to use a service like dyndns.org which will give you a domain such as silman.dyndns.org

[Silman]

Well ****. Do people just not have home servers?! I thought that hosting a webserver from home was common!

[atreyu]

Do people just not have home servers?! I thought that hosting a webserver from home was common!

it is (at least for hacky nerds like us). what have we said that makes you think otherwise? we're just saying (or at least I'm just saying...) that using a hosting provider is more reliable, that's about it, really. if you don't mind being your own tech support, you should totally be hosting/administering it yourself.

[Silman]

it is (at least for hacky nerds like us). what have we said that makes you think otherwise? we're just saying (or at least I'm just saying...) that using a hosting provider is more reliable, that's about it, really. if you don't mind being your own tech support, you should totally be hosting/administering it yourself.

Thank you! Thats what i'm trying to get to! I was turned away when it was mentioned that a lot of ISPs block port 80 completely and don't allow any sort of hosting. I mean its not like my website is gonna be the next google (well, if it were that would be tight) so the ISP shouldn't really be concerned with traffic. And the talk about needing my ISP to give me a static IP was discouraging because i cant call them because i dont provide myself with internet .

[elija]

Well ****. Do people just not have home servers?! I thought that hosting a webserver from home was common!

Of course we do! Not all ISPs prohibit doing so; my current one doesn't but I have limited bandwidth a month so I prefer to use it for other things. A hosting provider is a more reliable as has been said.

You don't need a static IP but as I said you then need to use a specialist service to get a domain name. dyndns is one such service and you will get a domain such as silman.dyndns.org

[Silman]

So for someone who has the CentOS box running already but is completely new to this do you suggest that i use a hosting service and one of their servers to start out? Or do you think its still worth it for me to try and use my box to as a server. If dyndns.com disregards the need for a static IP should i start on that? Or should i try to get a sevice that will allow me to do the same thing as dyndns except for my real domain silmanserver.com? Eventually i want to get this thing running as a server for silmanserver.com.

[elija]

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about that for now. Use the server to create and test your site and cross the hosting bridge when you need to.