Simple one. Should I host my own site?
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Need an opinion. I have two websites that probably get well over 200 hits a year at least, if you include my visits. I have them hosted at a cheap ISP (reliable though) It costs me about $90 a year... I think. They provide free Access and MySQL 4.x. The only drawback is that I am a web developer and one of the sites is a portfolio site and it's a hassle that I don't have even the most basic SQL Server available ($50 a month from the ISP). I was considering hosting my own site. I can get an IP address for $20 a month, so that would be a minor expense. I could get a cheapish notebook and put a small SSD drive in it so it would always be on with minimal power. With just Windows 7 Pro, I think I could have 10 simultaneous connections (gonna rule the web). Sew... Can you suggest any pluses or drawbacks that I didn't think of? PS. Reading the "Hosting and Servers" comment, I'll mention that years back I used to work for XXCal Test Labs. That was a place to work with smokey hardware. One test was to test 7 SCSI devices on a single controller. It produces unimaginable heat. On the other side, I know from experience how long it takes to dry a PC back into working order after your manager throws a cup of water into it. I also remeber when we gor the first "Yamato" notebook to test. That's "Thinkpad" to you. Those were fun days. Heck, I was working for Juggy Tandon when he started selling the first 10 Megabyte harddrive. The Winchester! Twice as big as his first 5 Meg one. Ya know, the burn in room in Simi Valley got hot one weekend and we fried 120 drives. I could go on, but you'd call me a fogey.
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Need an opinion. I have two websites that probably get well over 200 hits a year at least, if you include my visits. I have them hosted at a cheap ISP (reliable though) It costs me about $90 a year... I think. They provide free Access and MySQL 4.x. The only drawback is that I am a web developer and one of the sites is a portfolio site and it's a hassle that I don't have even the most basic SQL Server available ($50 a month from the ISP). I was considering hosting my own site. I can get an IP address for $20 a month, so that would be a minor expense. I could get a cheapish notebook and put a small SSD drive in it so it would always be on with minimal power. With just Windows 7 Pro, I think I could have 10 simultaneous connections (gonna rule the web). Sew... Can you suggest any pluses or drawbacks that I didn't think of? PS. Reading the "Hosting and Servers" comment, I'll mention that years back I used to work for XXCal Test Labs. That was a place to work with smokey hardware. One test was to test 7 SCSI devices on a single controller. It produces unimaginable heat. On the other side, I know from experience how long it takes to dry a PC back into working order after your manager throws a cup of water into it. I also remeber when we gor the first "Yamato" notebook to test. That's "Thinkpad" to you. Those were fun days. Heck, I was working for Juggy Tandon when he started selling the first 10 Megabyte harddrive. The Winchester! Twice as big as his first 5 Meg one. Ya know, the burn in room in Simi Valley got hot one weekend and we fried 120 drives. I could go on, but you'd call me a fogey.
As a web developer, you should absolutely host your own website. I can think of a few good reasons for doing so: 0: The experience of configuring and maintaining a web server. 1: You can use third-party or custom libraries. 2: It's much more convenient to work with local files and databases. On the downside, there is the issue of security and backups. If you host your own site, you should be prepared for attacks from the outside world. Follow best practices for security...rename/disable the Administrator account, use strong passwords, etc... You may want to look into IIS 8 Express to replace the 7.5 that comes with Win7. It's a little faster and has some extra security features. I have one site web hosted and one self hosted. The web hosted site is mostly static pages and links to downloads. (the heavy lifting) The self-hosted site serves out around 20 customer reporting applicatios and demos. Good luck!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Need an opinion. I have two websites that probably get well over 200 hits a year at least, if you include my visits. I have them hosted at a cheap ISP (reliable though) It costs me about $90 a year... I think. They provide free Access and MySQL 4.x. The only drawback is that I am a web developer and one of the sites is a portfolio site and it's a hassle that I don't have even the most basic SQL Server available ($50 a month from the ISP). I was considering hosting my own site. I can get an IP address for $20 a month, so that would be a minor expense. I could get a cheapish notebook and put a small SSD drive in it so it would always be on with minimal power. With just Windows 7 Pro, I think I could have 10 simultaneous connections (gonna rule the web). Sew... Can you suggest any pluses or drawbacks that I didn't think of? PS. Reading the "Hosting and Servers" comment, I'll mention that years back I used to work for XXCal Test Labs. That was a place to work with smokey hardware. One test was to test 7 SCSI devices on a single controller. It produces unimaginable heat. On the other side, I know from experience how long it takes to dry a PC back into working order after your manager throws a cup of water into it. I also remeber when we gor the first "Yamato" notebook to test. That's "Thinkpad" to you. Those were fun days. Heck, I was working for Juggy Tandon when he started selling the first 10 Megabyte harddrive. The Winchester! Twice as big as his first 5 Meg one. Ya know, the burn in room in Simi Valley got hot one weekend and we fried 120 drives. I could go on, but you'd call me a fogey.