Is it worth it?

Hey guys thought maybe you could help me out with this...

Right now I'm on a 56k connection (i know it sucks! )
I'm also paying a virtual host to host my website, its like $30 a month for the host and $20 a month for the dial up,

Here is my question, Do you think it would be a better idea to drop the dial up and get DSL then run my own web server?

I can't afford to get DSL and still pay for my hosting right now, so the only way I could do it would be to host myself, Now I'm real new to this type of thing so I'm lost when it comes to web servers and such..

I would have to have PHP and mySQL, and I'm running a winxp machine is that a problem?

what do you guys think?

and it is going to as hard as I think to set up a webserver with php and mySQL?

any input would be helpful

thanks!

P.S.
I know I could find a cheaper host but I'm using allot of space thats why it costs $30 a month.

This is a topic you can't get a clean answer. Sure I would personally rather pay for a DSL connection than a dial up, but then again I can't personally even afford a dial up right now. Running your own web server can be rewarding, but unless you know what you're doing, it more of wasting valuable time. If you're new to servers, stick with hosts. We all pay for out hosting and mostly it's cheap. I pay about 50$ for three most for my host and I get MySQL, Perl, PHP, and Java support for that price. It's also very fast and good server and the server people are great. I think I'm getting my money's worth. If you don't like your host, change it. There are many good quality web hosts for reasonable price.

But if you do want to run your own server, knock yourself out. Like I said, it can also be rewarding. Running a web server on a Windows platform wouldn't be my personal choice, but then again you're not me. It shouldn't produce a problem to run MySQL and PHP on XP, but never tried it.

Is it hard to set a server? It can be, but it's fun too

Hmmm... lets see. I pay $40 for a cable with 1.8mbits down and 400mbits up, and AFIK dsl provides much less speed. Even though I host both ftp, which is amost always fills up my upload, and http, for developing only, I dont think what I have is enough to host more or less popular web site. Now if you just want a homepage which will not get way too many hits, this sort of solution will work just fine, but if you're thinking about something serious, I'd suggest either lease a T-x (better OC-x hehe) or (better solution) host somewhere else. Like datamike said, there are plenty of good deals out there, and if you serch 'webhosting' forum you'll find quite few good links posted by me and others.
edit:
BTW, dial up from peoplepc cost only $10 and it is the best I have yet seen in terms of speed and reliablitiy. Good hosting solutions (and I mean g-o-o-d) begin from as low as $10/month. Would you please describe your deal and I'll try to see if it is a good one (at least in me opinion )

Its hard to get a clear answer because it all depends on your priorities. As a person with a 21.6 kbps connection at my house (that genuinely is the fastest we can get without buying one of those $800 satellite dishes) I am sympathetic to you wanting to get a faster connection. However, serving your own site is a big deal.

Not only are their the issues of speed (how can you ever match the connection your virtual host is mostly likely providing? A DSL line won't do it 99% of the cases), but there are issues of server cost, security, knowing how to maintain a server, firewall etc. I think that you would be better off finding a cheap host ( I use 34sp.com which is as low as $17 a year - and YES, they are reliable so far and have a bunch of features ) that hosting on your own. I know you mentioned that you probably can't switch hosts, but I would check into it.

Yes, it is hard to run and maintain things like MySQL, if you don't have the knowledge. It would be a long process of trial and error learning how things work, not something you want to do if your site needs to be up and using the server right away.

I guess the only reason I could see for hosting your own is if you want to get the experience and have the time to mess around with it.

Hey guys, thanks the for replys!

Like I said in my first post I know I could find a cheaper host. but the reason I don't is because I am very satisfied with what I have now,
tons of space
PHP
mySQL
perl, java, you get the idea

and the main selling point for the host is the great support, they are always very quick to respond to any type of question.

as far as setting up my own server using a DSL connection..
I don't really want to serve a site from it, just somthing to test and delevop with, thats why I would need php and mysql.
from what I've seem allot of people use redhat linux and the apache software to run a web server.. is that somthing I would need to get?



thats one of the main reasons I want to try this.. experiance..

I know it will be difficult, so is there any websites that offer help or maybe a book, anything really to get me on the right track.

thanks again!

You can easily install apache on win, you could use one of those all in one wonders, they make it extremely easy.

Where can i get one?

phpdev by firepages is a good one, on sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpdev5/

Noooooo! Don't install apache/php on windows!!!

I must admit I do have php/apache on win32 (win95!) and it does work ok - however if you want to learn a bit about how most webservers run (read 'apache';\) and the OS that they run on (read UNIX;\) then go for linux! It's a nice gentle introduction to UNIX and apache/mysql/php also run a helluva lot faster on linux than win.

In some speed tests, the scripts served from my linux machine consistently execute over 200 times faster than from the win machine. Admittedly it is a win95 box, but there is more memory on the win box than the linux box so mmm...

I'm not slagging off win apache/php mind! If I only had one machine at home, it'd have windows as the primary OS and I'd do my dev work on it too using apache/mysql/php for win32. I find windows as a workstation a lot easier and less hassle than linux. However - since I have a spare machine (or two;\), it's been a good experience setting it up a linux server - serving up not just web stuff, but sshd, smb, ftp and even a tiny bit of DNS.

Basically - if you got a spare machine, build it with linux and read, play, read, play! Otherwise if you only have the one machine stick with win...

PS - Al I'm gonna send j00 a spare box and j00d best stick linux on it

Munk, go get some sleep tonight (actually almost morning for ya ;p) Apache, of couse, is not - and never was supposed to - run on windows for real-life servers, but it is good solution and does its job for home developing.

P.S.ttul munk (and hopefull change your opinion), btw what privelegies I have now with admin on your site? can I ban users ;) ?

hehe dude... you own the site

Don't mess it up too bad, I need it semi functional hehe

aye 3:30am right about now... check out the Lounge - ignore the stuff about *nix if ya want

I never really wanted to run apache on my win machine, I do most of my work from it and can't afford to screw it up.

Although I don't have an extra machine to put lunix/apache on, I do plan on building one,

so my question is what type of system do you think I would need to build?

Its not going to be brand new, so I won't be able to get more than 128 mb and a 40 gig hd
is that enough?

once again I'm totally brand new to webservers so I don't know what the basic machine consists of.

Like I said before, I'm only going to use it for developing PHP and mySQL, it will not be serving any site.

You could almost go for a second hand machine if you didn't want to fork out too much cash - that machine I mentioned above I got as a server is on a P166 32MB RAM machine and it runs more than fast enough as a server (for dev work - though apparently you don't need much more even for a production server depending on use of course).

One thing I'd say is if you intend to use X windows (*nix GUI;\), make sure that your video card and monitor is supported by linux. That machine I got has a duffer graphics card and so I only have a console (DOS style linux shell) and no fancy GUI. In a lot of ways this is good for learning how to do things from basics in a more 'hostile' environment than windows, but having said this I wouldn't fancy learning linux just from the command-line.

There are so many useful graphical configuration tools for linux that if you're starting out you really want to be using X windows really.

Basically though the list of supported hardware for linux grows constantly as ppl create drivers for previously unsupported hardware. Your best bet is to check out the hardware compatibility list (HCL) for linux at: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/ - if you are building a box from scratch then that HOWTO should be excellent for you, just go through each component one by one, picking a suitable item (though make sure they're compatible with each other too, not just linux!).

With a bit of digging you might even find a supplier that builds/supplies parts specifically for linux machines.

Indidentally that site above (the linux documentation project / LDP site) is very very useful for info - might be worth reading through a few of the articles there.