New guy who needs expert help? Want to build my own site

[igotregistered]

Good day all,

I am a new guy on the block running a P4 XP Pro machine. I recently decided to go the route of buying a domain name for our family website. I normally used the space provided by my DSL provider but now I would like to do my own thing, as they say. I was told I could just build my site and host it right off my pc, but then I've been told I cannot do this. Are there other steps I have to take to make this happen? I'm a dreamweaver user. When building a new site, it asks if I want to host, but don't know how. Please help. I appreciate your expert guidance!

 

[StephanieCordray]

I would advise against hosting it on your home computer but I'm a webhoster so my advice might not count for much. There are a lot of considerations that need to be taken into account, probably program expenses, and setting up a section of your hard drive as a webserver which may leave your whole system vulnerable. On top of that, if you have a dynamic IP address you'll have to use a service to update the IP on a constant basis. Some DSL providers assign static IPs so I don't know what your IP address situation is.

If you just want to get away from using your ISP offered space for your family website, you can find small hosting plans suitable for personal websites relatively cheap. In terms of costs, you'd be better off doing that than trying to maintain a home side web server. We have customers who have done that and also some small businesses who use their sites primarily for email and are not graphic intensive.

 

[stuluk28]

Although I've never done this before. I looked into it once and decided for myself and most home users – it's far more hassle than it's worth. Firstly as StephanieCordray said it'll all depend on your ISP, then you'll need to install a webserver, then any extra scripting technologies. The main problem would be having your computer on 24/7 to allow poeple to view the site, also leaving it vulnerable to virus and other internet 'nasties' that float around!

It would be a much better idea to find a cheap webhosting service (there's loads on this site – check out the 'web hosting and domain names' section). And then design and create your website using dreamweaver and FTP it to your hosting service.

Just my thoughts!