Hosting a file server or website from home.

[mkessler9]

Hello. I'm in need of some help. I have a few extra computers at my house and am interested in either hosting a website with one or using it as a file server accessible like Google drive. I have Tonido running on one of them so I should be fine as far as a file server goes. But what about a website? What software do I need? I've tried this before but the software I've used has never worked correctly. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Also if you have any knowledge/experience of hosting a website at home and would like to help me please pm(private message) me on the forum. Thanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                              Also  I'm not worried about ISP's right now as it would just be me and a few friends accessing the site.

[miyabwah]

Well, you would need an ISP that allows website hosting..

[EChondo]

You need a static IP and also you need a business plan to comply with your ISP's policies(if your ISP requires it).

 

If you don't have that, then you can't host a website. I don't know about a file server though.

[mkessler9]

Well, you would need an ISP that allows website hosting..

The website would just be accessed by me and my freinds so as long as I don't use to much internet I should be fine.

[IdeaStormer]

You can do it, even with DHCP all you need is dynamic DNS (http://www.dnsdynamic.org/) and the service activated on your computer to allow you to upload. Your ISP gives you an upload allocation so there's no reason you can't use it, that's what its for. As long as its not a service you charge people or if you're running a business its ok.

[Darren]

Should be fine. Just need to run apache, have a domain, point it at your IP address, forward port 80 on your routers WAN interface to port 80 on the box running apache with a static DHCP lease.

[IdeaStormer]

Should be fine. Just need to run apache, have a domain, point it at your IP address, forward port 80 on your routers WAN interface to port 80 on the box running apache with a static DHCP lease. Not too sure what IdeaStormer is talking about DHCP in that lack of clear context. I don't think DHCP is what he thinks it is, but could have accidentally a word.

 

Egh, DHCP as in if his ISP gives him a DHCP address it can change when ever they want so in order for the OP to get to his computer reliably he needs something like DNS-Dynamic so he can get to it at any random time without having to know the IP the ISP currently gave him. If not, enlighten us how you can get to a computer at your house from outside the house that is given a DHCP address out on the intetubes?

[Darren]

Egh, DHCP as in if his ISP gives him a DHCP address it can change when ever they want so in order for the OP to get to his computer reliably he needs something like DNS-Dynamic so he can get to it at any random time without having to know the IP the ISP currently gave him. If not, enlighten us how you can get to a computer at your house from outside the house that is given a DHCP address out on the intetubes?

 

First, it's not called a "DHCP Address", I am aware of DHCP and how it works, which brings me to my second point of being sorry, I never thought of it at a carrier level, only at a private level. I have a static IP address, ie. I don't authenticate via PPP.

[Blackterror25]

You can get a little tool that runs on your server that checks your IP every 5 minutes and updates the IP

try: http://www.noip.com/

 

 

For running a server try Apache

http://httpd.apache.org/

 

 

Just be sure your isp doesn't block port 80 or you'll have to change that in the settings.

[rufee]

If you are new at this you can start off by running premade web server packs, search for LAMP (Linux) WAMP (Windows).

Later on if you so desire you can switch out the heavy apache server for something lighter like nginx or lighthttpd.

[Ginz]

I would recommend setting up a Linux distro like Ubuntu server 12.04LTS. I currently have one running apache2, a ftp server, samba server, dns cache and openvpn server; it's only a vm too. With the openvpn server, I have it set up so that my mates can all connect and play games over "lan" through the internet. That's just one of many awesome things you can do with a home server (provided you have the internet speed for it. I have 10mbit/s upload).