A Beginner's Adventures in Web Hosting

By : Zvi Grauer

In this blog I will review the lessons, dilemmas and occasional miseries associated with hosting a server. I will describe in detail my hosting journey, from conception, through planning and implementation, to (I hope) triumph.

The importance of the web as a tool of self expression is quite obvious. Blogs, social networking and collaboration sites are hugely popular. These sites provide tools to facilitate creativity, and make it easy to contribute without knowledge of programming or design. Yet, the great majority of these sites are run by companies and media organizations, and users are tenants, not landlords. For owning and controlling web pages, one has to use a web hosting provider or use a co-location facility one's own server.

Let's consider the available hosting solutions. Most residential Internet providers, be they dial-up, cable or DSL, provide space for personal web pages at no extra cost. Shared hosting costs a few dollars monthly. Dedicated servers are available for lease at well under a hundred dollars a month. For this amount, one gets (or at least should get) quality hardware, fast and reliable backbone connectivity, server administration tools, site monitoring, technical support, and additional paid services. All these hosting options keep the noise, the heat, and the reboots far away from the user.

So, you must be asking, with so many cheap and easy alternatives around, why do I want to host my own server, rather than lease one? For quite a few reasons, actually. Because hosting my own server is a challenge and a learning experience, because it lets one have things exactly the way I like them, and because it gives me the freedom to mess things up, repeatedly, without serious consequences.

By hosting my own server, I can use any hardware I choose, run any OS I like, upgrade, downgrade, or replace hardware, operating systems and applications as I see fit, as often as I desire, without driving my ISP's technical staff up the wall. I can use any program and every available port, without the risk of violating my service agreement. No one (except the guards who admits me to the co-location facility) will ever know how many times I had to re-install the system . And with all the fidgeting, I will become a better server administrator, learn about the business and technology of hosting, and, last but not least, be able to write about it and learn from the experience of people with a similar interest.

If, like me, you enjoy tinkering, trying out different software packages until you find the one with the right combination of features, stability and usability, then hosting your own server is the best way. Provided, of course, that you can find a colocation facility that is not too far and let's you in 24x7.

I hope you keep up with my progress on this blog, and help me along with comments, suggestions and advice. My web site will be up soon - the URL is www.words2u.net. Feel free to visit the site, and tell me how I am doing. I would love to hear from you.