[JonathanAnon]

Hi

I now have a broadband connection at home, and I want to host my website at home. I know all about DNS, static IP and all of those things.

My only question is about cost of the hosting software.

Red Hat Linux AS3
Apache
PHP
MySQL
PhpMyWebAdmin

I know that Linux AS3 costs $349.
But do I have to pay for anything else, and is there a better or cheaper version of Linux that I should use as my webserver instead.

thanks,
Jonathan

[DaijoubuKun]

I also host at home, and I didn't hay one penny for my software. go get a 'free' distro Like Fedora (which is a RED HAT project), suse, open solaris, mandrake (I don't recommend that one), slackware, gentoo. Apache is free (www.apache.org) and so is really everything else you need. Most of that stuff will come with any distro.

I never recommend paying for things unless you want their tech support. Just get the free software that's out there and you'll do fine. Just ask here if you need help with the setup. I may be able to answer most of your questions. I run DNS, FTP, HTTP, Jabber, IRC, MySQL, Shorewall (router), and probably some other things I can't remember right now.

Good luck

[JonathanAnon]

Hi and thanks for your help.

I have a server at home at the moment that has a copy of Linux AS3 and that took me ages to set up Apache, PHP, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, wifi (particularly painful!). Not being a Linux expert, I just got a copy of this from my friend and installed it. That is why I am asking specifically about this version.

When I went to the Redhat site https://www.redhat.com/apps/download/ and saw that I had to pay for it I got a bit of a shock as I assumed that it was all free.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS
Fedora

I take it they will all run the webserver software. If I plan on hosting other companies sites would I be better off buying Linux AS3, since it is "For high-end and mission critical systems." :-)

[Squashman]

If you are going to be hosting other companies websites, who is going to do the DNS?

[jiml8]

I'm interested in the TOS for the broadband supplier. Most won't allow hosting except for substantial extra charge. Also, to host you really need a static IP.

[DaijoubuKun]

just a warning about these OSes that are 'mission critical', all that means is that you just paid for tech support that you can get here for free!

Any distro will work fine. Like I said before, I run a server, I'm running Slackware (free) everything I need is free. Sure I have to do my own tech work, but a major benefit of setting up everything yourself (and not with any gui tools) is once it's up... it's up. No rebooting, no defragmenting, no nothing. It just sits there and eats electricity.

I try to get people to avoid paying for Linux, most tech support that I've run into don't know much (altho there is a lot to know when it comes to Linux). There will always be someone to help you. And unless your trying to do something that you shouldn't. you'll get help.

I just want to try to save you money, if you want to purchase Red Hat (which relies heavily on a gui that eats up system resources, and tools that may not always work) that's OK, like I said. I'm here to help, and I hope that I do. If I can save you $349, then I'll try.

[mixx941]

I definitely agree that you shouldn't have to spend money for the operating system. I personally don't think RedHat is special in any way that would warrant anyone to spend money on it anyway, but that's just my opinion. There are many free distributions of Linux and then there's the BSD family as well (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD). I personally always use and suggest FreeBSD, but a free distro of Linux would work for you as well.

I also think GUI's on servers are just a no-no. As DaijoubuKun said, they eat up resources that should be spent actually serving. I know newcomers are scared by the *nix command line, but it's really not all that hard. If you ran a GUI on the server, that could maybe give you some graphical package management tools, but you still have to configure the applications that you install via config files. Whether you edit the config files in a GUI editor or a text based editor, it won't change the content that you're editing.

I should also point out that most distros now have good package management tools already without the use of a GUI. What you could get done in several clicks of a GUI you could probably get done with a simple command on the command line too, such as "cd /usr/ports/www/apache2 && make install" or "apt-get install apache2". In other words, they really aren't saving you much.

Another valid point is your residential ISP. They may not allow web serving, they may block port 80, you may have a dynamic IP, or you may not have enough upstream or reliability to serve much. These are also always factors to consider.

-Mark

[tdi_veedub]

Slackware + Webmin == perfect combination.

With it you just goto any pc on your network and type the local ip address of your server and you have a nice graphical configuration tool for EVERYTHING you will need your server to do.

[mixx941]

A web based GUI like Webmin would be much better than trying to put X and a window manager on there. It can't do EVERYTHING, but it makes doing things like adding domains, MySQL databases, etc a lot faster and easier.

-Mark