website hosting

[jmosier]

i was asked by a small local band to put together a website and host it for them but, i need a complete server and/or a pc that is capable of running 24/7 with small load for the time being.

[ALwin]

4 minutes ago, jmosier said:

i was asked by a small local band to put together a website and host it for them but, i need a complete server and/or a pc that is capable of running 24/7 with small load for the time being.

Why don't you use a web hosting company, or set up a server on something like Amazon Web Services.

[jmosier]

because they said they would pay me more if i host because then they aren't paying the hosting company and me. also i am not paying for power.

[EunSoo]

it might be cheaper to use some of the money they pay you to host online. Because you would have to pay more for a Business account from your ISP along with power usage from the server. So if it fits in the budget, then that would be much easier and still produce a professional site

[jmosier]

i already pay for a business account from my ISP but i will try out hosting from other companies

which should i go with though. i feel godaddy or amazon, they seem more reputable 

[brandishwar]

6 minutes ago, jmosier said:

i already pay for a business account from my ISP but i will try out hosting from other companies

which should i go with though. i feel godaddy or amazon, they seem more reputable 

Shop around, but definitely go with a hosting company. There are many things about running a web host that they *already* do right that you'd have to learn if you've never set up your own web server before.

[jmosier]

i have set up my own web server I just don't want to run it off of my own PC and it needs to be up 24/7

[codefus]

Checkout MacStadium. The use Mac hardware but you can put any OS on it. Their prices start out a like $59 a month for a dedicated server. I have used them for years now. 

 

MacStadium.com

[Windows7ge]

You could build a small Linux box and open the necessary ports in your router + share folders. I built a small Linux box myself but I don't use it for web hosting.

[jmosier]

i have done the same thing, i just need something that can stay up 24/7 for awhile

 

[Jarsky]

if theyre paying you to maintain it, then they just pay you, and you pay the host.

You can get shared hosting plans for as little as $4-6/month with heaps of features.

 

Reputable web hosts have 99.9% Uptime thanks to their enterprise networking, redundant network links and power solutions.

 

It's just so much less effort using a host, and you'll generally just have a more reliable service.

[maxtch]

How popular are they? If they are just a local band set the website on a Raspberry Pi 2. That little board consumes less power than a smartphone and can hold off a website facing an audience of 10k or so (no streaming or big files though.) I have six of them running 24/7 around my apartment (3x HTPCs that is always left on, a stratum 1 NTP server and two Hi-Fi audio receivers)

[dvdmuckle]

If you want something super cheap, you could get a VPS (virtual private server) from OVH or Scaleway for something like $3 a month. Setting up a webserver behind a NAT is a Bad Idea (coming from someone that does it for misc stuff), but if you want you can. You can use nginx to host the website itself, or pair that with something like Wordpress for simple website building. And, of course, you'll want a domain name. tld-list.com lets you search for the domain name you want, the cheapest place for first year purchase, the cheapest for renewal, and the cheapest for overall three years. Domain names are cheap, with companies like Namecheap and Namesilo selling some for less than a dollar.