If you are having an unlimited bandwidth internet connection at home, and you are a bit tech savvy, wondering how you can host your own website from home, this post might help you. In this post, what is needed to host website from home, is explained in brief.
Requirements
- Internet Connection – Ofcourse the primary requirement, ideal to have an unlimited bandwidth, uninterrupted power supply.
- A computer with a web server software – A webserver running on your computer is required to serve your pages. Common web server softwares are IIS(Internet Information Services) and Apache. If you are running windows, IIS can be installed from the windows installation disk, or can download Apache. If you are running Linux, then you cant have IIS, but can stick with Apache.
- Static IP Address – This is an optional requirement. Having a static IP address for your internet connection makes the setup fairly simple. If you are not sure whether you have one, keep checking your computer’s IP address on the site http://myipaddress.com/. If the IP address changes when you reconnect your modem/router, then its not a static IP.
- Dynamic DNS service account – This is required only when you do not have a static IP address. I have used http://freedns.afraid.org/ which is a free Domain Naming Service (DNS), which maps a freindly domain name to your computer’s IP address even if its not static. It uses a client on your system to update the IP address in periodic intervals so that anyone trying your domain name always gets to the correct location.
- A Domain Name – This is optional but advisable. When you are using FreeDNS.Afraid.org, you can create a subdomain from the available list of domain names, but your own domain name gives you an edge over a subdomain for sure.
Set Up Your Website
- Design your website.
- Configure your webserver to listen to the domain name and serve the desired pages.
- If you are using a static IP, have your own domain name, type in the IP address of your computer in the DNS configuration of your domain name.
- If you are using dynamic IP, sign up for a Dynamic DNS service as mentioned above. Add your domain name/subdomain name in your account with the DNS provider. Set up the client to update your IP address periodically.
Follow the above, you should be able to run a website from home ! You can boast around giving out your URL and saying ‘hey this website is served from my home PC’ !!
I have only tried to outline the process of running a website from home. Each of the point mentioned above might need still further explanations. Do post your comments and queries just in case you would like me explaining further on anything related to it !