Setting up self-hosting, connection advise needed

I'm setting up my own hosting site for my business and personal stuff after naerly two years wth a hoster (aplus.net) who gives me:
500MB space
"unlimited" (yeah, right, sure...) bandwidth
10x POP3's and web access to mail
FTP access
perl
and a fast connection, for $14.95, no PHP or MySQL, so my web site has been done up in plan-jane HTML, i haven't bothered to update in awhile thanks to it being a pain in the arse to work with.

I've taken is upon myself to learn PHP/MySQL, i have setup a dev platform on my LAN and am trying to squeeze time in to do some serious coding/training. anywho, to host my new site, i have a few options, i can remain with aplus.net and pay $45 a month just for what i have plus PHP/MySQL (3 DB's no shell access), find another host or do it myself.

I have the know-how to setup a web server and administrate same, and have friends locally who can help if needed. i have a box slated to be used as the webserver:
XP 1800
512MB PC2100 ECC RAM
20GB Boot drive
80GB RAID1 Array (IDE)
2x Linksys LNE100TX

the system is currently connected to my cable modem providor as a router (shorewall) and is running SAMBA to my LAN as a file server under Red Hat 8.

what i need advise on, is the connection itself, the site has only 3000 uniques in the last year, but with the additions of dynamic content will more than likly (hopefully) get a boost.

I can get a DSL connection cheap enough, a 768k/384k for around $125 a month or a 768k/768k for $150 both with static IP's and serving capability.

I am assuming that a 384k upload wuld be sufficient for a small site, but adding LAN traffic (not MUCH mind you, this is an 8 box lan, with 4 users) a 768k symmetric is a better idea.

anyone concur, have a better idea, etc.
I'm sick and tired of dealing with hosting companies, and want to do this myself.

I have the same setup as you do, except for the 8 user LAN. Only 4 on my side, but im using Cable since DSL doesn't come out this far and it's fast enough. Anyways I think you should pay the extra 25$ for the extra bandwith, and I agree with you idea. It should be more than enough for you site, hopefully.

correction: it's 384/384 for $20 less than a 768k symmetric, tho verizon charges may be different for slower lines ($70 for a 768k symmetric) plus $70 for the ISP's 768k symm

Well, it's a cable modem, so it probably won't let you run HTTP service on port 80 (default when you type in an ip or domain)

i'm getting DSL

ah, helps to read previous posts

I have cable and my ISP has not blocked my server, it's been up for about a month now.

It's not the ISP, its the modem. Most cable modems dont allow connections to port 80.

That's strange, I always thought the ISP did. But that would explain why my port 80 has not been disabled. I got cable like 2 years before it became mainstream. My Cable Modem is the first model they issued, it doesn't even have a USB port on it. But that's better for me.

That would explain it. They started blocking port 80 a while back after some stupid iis trojan or something, so your modem must be older than that and thus ur lucky

BS

lol short and to the point