self hosting

now i am a bit confused about one issue. i do not want to let others host my site, but i would like to install Apache on my OWN station and host my things on my OWN station as well. the problem is how can i get a domain to tie up with my OWN IP address. and how can i buy a fixed IP address and how can i buy a permanet domain as well. or is there such thing that i can buy a permanet domain. or i need to pay by month.

i am not sure i can make my self clear or not. hope anyone could help me out there

thanks zillions and kind regards

Hi cyberjaya,
It all depends on your setup. If you are trying to host your site off of one of your home computers, you will need some kind of high speed connectivity to your house that allows you to run servers. In the US, most broadband providers do not allow you to run servers behind their connection, but they might let you in Malaysia. These broadband connections are typically extremely slow on the upload side and aren't well suited for hosting sites. You could step up and lease a T1 or a fractional T3, however they are very expensive (starting at around 400-500 US dollars a month) and they are only a fraction of the speed that professional web hosts have at their disposal.

If all you want to be able to do is have complete and exclusive control over a server and host your web site on it, there are plenty of companies out there who will lease you a server, give you the administrators password, and you will have complete control of the machine. They typically will also let you use their DNS servers. I suggest you check out www.EV1Servers.net. We have several servers with them and they have proven to be very reliable and reputable.

All you need to do is register a domain name (which you can do through EV1Server.net as well for 5 US Dollars a year), manage the domain with their DNS, and get to work on your server.

Hope this helps. Good luck

i know what u mean by "broadband connections", it would be ADSL. which is asymmetric, yet how about i apply SDSL?
which would be symmetric.
do u think 1Mb SDSL is enough to host a server. i am now also trying to get all those rules from
the ISP. see what kind of rules they have.

u mentioned that i can lease a server , right? but what if i want fully control of it. how can i remote control it? sometimes it is easy to have the server besides you. more flexible, i know it is risky if i don't have very high tech support for the security related issues.

ermm.. actually i am thinking to start my own .Com company. just see how it will go...
and appreciate ur suggestions and advices.

Hi cyberjaya,
The only thing I can tell you is none of my clients would stay with us if we decided to host their site behind a 1 mbit connection... but, the majority of our clients serve large files and run forums with lots of members. If the market is right in your area, you might be able to pull it off. I've run a personal web site off a broadband connection before and it served its purpose, but really wouldn't be able to handle much traffic.

We run linux servers which allow remote access to the box via ssh. We can control pretty much anything we need remotely. We have people at the data center that can go check hardware or reboot our server if it ever hangs.

I wish you the best of luck in your endevor. My only advice would be to try to see if you can find a fatter internet pipe and read as much as you can. Owning your own company (particularly a hosting company) can be hard work and is without a doubt, a continuous learning experience!