Me and a friend started a conversation over a place called mugglenet, and it states on the site that it costs over $120,000 a year to run, and i found this verry difficult to believe...thats 10,000 a month, but anyways...i was wondering, what would one have to do to run their own servers that they can host their websites on? their own servers that they can give @mugglenet.com e-mails out to the thousands of fans that visit the website... because i believe that he could go out and buy a server or a few servers for around 30,000-40,000 dollars for a one time payment, then they just need a place to run them...

now i know at my old elementary school they had the servers stored on campus, these servers hosted their website, it gave internet connection to the 200 computers on campus and this was stored in one small room...


so i am just curious, what would you have to go through to go about runnning your own server from home? besides finding the server

and yes i understand that his websites consists of more than the webhosting, there are the t-shirts that they make and sell, but hell order them in bulk and it would only cost you about $25-35 for about 100-200 depending on how many in bulk you order, because i know my Jr. High school got over 1000 shirts for less than $500

ALSO, if anyone knows of a place where hosting would cost that much, and be as fast as those servers are (www.mugglenet.com) and supply unlimited e-mail accounts... please let me know because me and my friend are going to be talking about this for a while and just being curious and figuring this all out

This post has been edited by Albus Dumbledore: May 14 2006, 02:55 AM

Right now im actually running my own server at my house. I've got a computer with linux installed and all the app's needed to run a website (Apache, Perl, PHP, Bind, FTP, MySQL, etc..). All im using is an empty computer I found, then I just added simple things to it (Ethernet card, harddrive, mouse/keyboard, cdrom). Then I looked around and found a pretty good monitor and hooked it all up. Then you just have to install linux on there, get everything you'll need running, and then its really fun because there's noone telling you how much space you can use, and if theres a problem, you just walk over to the computer and handle it . It doesnt have to be very strong if you're just using it for yourself, no dual-xeon processors 3gb ram needed. Ive got a really old pentium in there and about 64mb ram lol. But for that it works pretty fast for hosting myself and 2 other websites on it. The only thing I noticed that killed it is when I tried to install a wiki on there (wow did that thing go slow then). The only cost you'll need is to buy a domain name (you can get some for about $1.99 for a year now, its extremely cheep), the internet cost (I dont have any special packages, just Yahoo! DSL, I recommend cable though), and the electricty cost (its not a lot but its gotta stay on 24/7 for a good server .
The only trickey thing is finding out how to install inux/apps if you have never had any experience with that os before. A good site is howtoforge and they've got plenty of tutorials of how to install linux and everything you'll ever need. Ask me any questions if you have them
And as for the e-mail accounts, if you set up one of these you can supply as many email accounts as you want, just make sure you have the hard disk space

thank you lol, i thought noone was ever going to respond to this, but anyways...so if i were to install this linux thing, and Apache, Perl, PHP, Bind, FTP, MySQL, etc.. and all those things on a computer in the other room i could use it to host my website? im not really good with this stuff so if i were to get those installed would there be a process that it walks me through to set the website up?

Well after you get linux installed (its pretty simple, its about the only part that has GUI depending on what operating system you used, I use ubuntu 5.10) then it gets a little trickey, just follow guides and ask people (like me ) if you have any questions. But yeah once you've finished the tutorial on howtoforge you'll have a running server for you to use. The only part is that it does not tell you how to set up port forwarding on your router (if you use one). You'll have to open up the basic ports (80 for web, 21 for ftp 21&22&23 shold all be open, 25 for, 110 for pop. Thoes are the basic ones). So if you have a spare junk computer laying around your house, then I say go for it .

Edit: If you needed an easy way to manage stuff, once you get everything setup search google for a program called Webmin. Its a great manager for working your server, and setting up sites and all that razzledaz. But as for getting your website to work, you just place all the files in a folder (Usually the default one is /var/www/ ) and you're set to go. The easiest way to get your files on there is through FTP

This post has been edited by Bradley: May 16 2006, 02:41 AM

sweet, maybe that is somthing i can do later on lol becaus e i am just curious as for the conversation i had with my friend..lol thanx

There have already been topics here about starting their own servers. I'm doing so right now as well. I have Apache running and PHP 5 and an FTP server. It's all I need, and I just might be adding new features when I feel like it. It's not as hard as you might think... setting up a home server... The downside is, it uses up your upload, and sometimes even download bandwidth that may slow down immensely when you end up getting a lot of people to go to your site.



You don't necessarily have to setup your server on a Linux OS. It's much better, but not necessary if you don't plan on something big. Linux is more stable and secure, so most people prefer running on on Linux that on Windows. If you only have one computer, you might plan on running it on Dual-boot with windows. However, you might not be able to run windows while running your server on Linux. You can run a server with Linux if you want, but it'd be best if you had an old PC for it.

This site here explains how to completely set up your own server at home.
Howerver you do need to own a domain...
http://www.dslwebserver.com/

Yup you can set a server up on linux, windows (using IIS or Apache), or a mac. I prefer linux because its the os with the most developed programs for it. If you're using windows theres issues with security and some 'not as good' security issues with folder restrictions. My vote goes for linux

Running a server can be quite expensive if you are running on a dedicated fast line, multiple servers, for back up purposes unless something goes down, business licenses, software licenses, tech support, etc.
Most sites running servers are not the geeks in the basement kind of guys. These are business people who don't know and pay out the butt for things that they most likely do not need. And a lot of people do not trust linux yet. Unix, yes, but linux no? They would rather go with a reputable firm like Microsoft. Just fear mongering I think, but it's about the masses, ya know?