Self hosting at home

The biggest headache will be firewalling and anti-virus (IMO)

The biggest issue is not whether or not you can plug an Ethernet cable into a Linux box.

It's whether everything else in the data center can be reproduced at home.

Most data centers have batteries that can keep the servers on in case the power goes out. Then they have generators that can keep the servers on in case the batteries run out. Then they have contracts to keep the fuel tanks full so the generators won't go out.

Most data centers have excellent security so unauthorized people can't get in.

Most data centers have fire response equipment that can spray foam on any servers that catch on fire.

Most data centers have staff to keep aware of the latest patches for the OS, web server, language runtimes, etc. They test everything on nonproduction servers, then put the patches into production. They may well be able to relocate your site to another server, without any downtime for you, while your server is patched.

Most data centers have spare hardware and good working relationships with the major equipment vendors. If they need to replace a motherboard or a drive, that's easy for them.

They also usually have some provision for handling backups in a reasonable way.

Beyond that, they are connected directly to Internet backbones. Silly consumer level billing or service outages from cable or DSL companies don't effect them at all.

If your business can do fine without any of that, sure, save ten or twenty bucks a month and host at home. The money you save will pay for a beer to cry in if your server goes out... because that's the full extent of your in-house support.

I know most of what's needed to run a data center. But I'd be a fool to try to do it myself when it's such a cheap service to get from several good vendors. Might not be foolish at all for you, though, if you have more time for patches and more of a home-based contingency plan than I do.

Chris

This is a case of letting the pros look after your sites. Forget the heartache if your server dies for a moment and consider the fact that you will be adding a LOT of tech monitoring on top of your daily routine. You can get good hosting for a pittance as you well know. I wouldn't bother doing it yourself for your business, too many things can go wrong. Now, if it is for a personal site (IE something that isn't tied into making you money) and you want to do to see if you can, go for it.

I think you're just trading a potential headache for a savings of very few dollars.

I won't repeat what others have said on the thread already about reliability and disaster planning. But one thing I'll add is that the bandwidth on your home DSL or cable modem is no match for the high-speed data services that hosting companies use. Even their "business" accounts don't have the upload speed you'd need to dish out video or large downloads.

I would really consider just paying a few dollars and hosting with professionals.

Bill

Most consumer ISP's have conditions in the fine print that don't allow servers / sites to be hosted from home; you might end up losing the home connection, or having to pony up for a business line.

Great point about the contract rules for home ISP service. That alone could get your server connection killed by the ISP.

You'd be surprised at the number of 'professional' web hosts that are nothing more than a guy with 8 servers in his closet. (For all you know, you're hosted on one now. )

Hosting at home is just asking for trouble if you ask me:

- Unless you buy extra bandwidth, your sites will be slow. Most home upload speeds are a fraction of the download speeds, at least they are in this neck of the woods. Your visitors download speed will be your upload speed - or perhaps even less if you have a few visitors at the same time.

- If your computer goes down, are you stocking parts and making your own repairs? Or are you going to take it to the shop where it may take days to fix. Either way your site will be down all that time. Or are you going to invest in a backup computer? Hosting is cheaper, and they take care of all the security updates.

- If someone hacks into your website at a host, all they can do is mess with your site. If someone hacks in a self-hosted site, they may be able to do a lot more damage. Hacking into a server is easy enough, do you think your computer will be more difficult or less difficult to hack into?

- The money you save in hosting fees will probably spent in other areas, and more. Unless you're doing it now, your electricity bill alone will probably eat any potential savings just by leaving your computer on 24/7/365.

- If someone claims your spammed them to your ISP, you could not only lose your ability to host your own site, but you could lose your internet access as well.

- You'll probably have to pay extra to have a guaranteed IP address. Otherwise you'll have records to update every time it changes, and you'd better hope you catch them quickly because your site will down until you do.

You sure you wanna deal with all that and more? I's probably not going to save you any money, and could end up costing you a lot more.