Hosting your own sites

[sharkee]

I'm just so tired of hosting sites (no offence to anyone though). I've been so let down by the hosts that I've tried, I've wasted both money and time, and I've lost files in the process.

I really want to start taking matters in my own hands, and I'm wondering if it's worth hosting my own sites? Is it worth having my own servers?

How big are servers anyway, and how much would a relatively good one cost?

[anantshri]

well the only thumb rule i can suggest you is go for big names,
like godaddy or hostgator, dreamhost,lunarpages,

and keeping matter in your hand will require that you have enough capability to serve.

[puffin]

If you are talking about dedicated server just for your self it would cost you at least 100 USD per month and for a VPS it would be at least 50 USD per month. unless you earns enough from your web sites to pay its not the best choice.
I have realized too that cheap shared hosting is not really great at we see them first. I had a horrible Dec where i had to changed 3 hosts still its not over.

[sunken]

A server is typically just a computer disguised as a rack system. Your personal computer (if it's a P3 or above) can do just as well as a dedicated server in being able to handle page requests, etc. Installations for Apache, MySQL, and PHP are available for free to do just that.

HOWEVER, the problem lies in having enough bandwidth to properly serve the pages. This requires an extremely high speed connection to the net. Cable/DSL/T1 isn't going to do it properly. You would need a lot more bandwidth than is generally available in a residential neighborhood. With proper investment, you could certainly overcome this, but is it worth it to avoid the hassle, as this option can be VERY expensive?

I can understand the frustration, but I would find a dedicated server host you can work with and go with them. We've had a dedicated server with steadfastnetworks.com for awhile now and they have worked very well with us and helped us with any issues that have come up (usually something we did, not connection issues or hardware failure).