Does It Make Sense To Host My Own Website?

So you've built a website and you are ready to share it with the masses. You have some options, you can pay for hosting, you can try one of the free hosting services, or if you are feeling ambitious you can try to host it on your own.

So is it possible to host your own website. The simple answer is "it depends" and I would hazard to say the answer is "probably". You have to first answer the following before you can really move forward.

1) How are you connected to the net and does your ISP allow you to run a service from home. For example, my ISP does not allow me to run a web server as part of the terms of service. This is a show stopper unless you want to change your ISP.

2) If it is possible for you to run a service to you plan to run it on the same PC you user for everything else? It might bog you down a little if you plan to deliver photos, music, etc. You might want to recycle and old pc you might have lying around and use that instead.

3) What OS are you using? This will make a fairly big imact on the path you take. There are a few free webservers you can find for the PC, but the most robust free software is running on Linux.

4) What sort of firewall hardware/software are you using (you have a firewall don't you? ;) The firewall will need to be configured to allow connections, but keep the bad guys out. Are you willing to deal with this?

5) Do you care if the site is not up all the time? Using a web hosting service usually means they make sure your site is up.

6) Are you willing to share your bandwidth? If your site is for family and friends, it's probably not an issue. If you are planning something bigger you should probably bite the bullet and go with a hosting company.

If you've made it to the end of this list and you still feel hosting your own website is the way to go, there are some choices. I'll try to work on this hub and flesh out the options.

If for whatever reason, you don't want to host your own website, I can recommend Lunarpages.com. I personally use them to host my blog (it's mainly for family and friends) and I pay around $7 a month. I like the service and features and my wife and I share the hosting account because you can have up to 10 domains pointed to the same account.