Hosting@home

[kerrymoralee9280]

Hey folks, me again.

I currently have a website for my local sports club but have since started getting into Joomla. Thing is the hosting I pay for is ASP and I will obviously need PHP hosting for Joomla. Then I thought, I pay 'x' amount each month for broadband so why don't I use that (as I also recieve a static IP).

1st question - Is 3mb broadband enough to serve the requests of about 2000 hits per month? This line obviously isn't dedicated either. I use it for normal surfing and my Xbox Live.

2nd question - what kind of machine do I need with what OS? I don't want to run it on a VM on my personal machine because that would mean I have to leave it turned on. I can't imagine it needing a decent spec machine but can anybody clarify who has done something similar?

[My220x]

Um just any old machine running Windows or Linux with php and mysql and apache installed and the ports forwarded. Why not just go with hostgator?

[kmount]

The downstream isn't the important bit for serving websites its the upstream that matters ... Nonetheless, as long as you're not hosting a shedload of movies/high res images it should be fine.

Spec wise, if you're using Joomla it'll need some power to crunch the database side, whereas basic html would be a lot quicker and need far less resources. - Anything P3 or above should be fine. - OS wise, use whatever you're comfortable with, PHP can be plugged into IIS (Windows) or Apache (Windows/Linux) or so...

If you want any help/advice, give me a shout!

[kerrymoralee9280]

Well what I was thinking was to run a laptop with IIS and just install WAMP.

The reason I thought of a laptop is, space saving, quieter, and it's available as I have a spare in the house. With a laptop, I can power it up and just fold it away down the side of my computer. It's a celeron of some sort I think with 512mb RAM and a 40gb HDD. Should this be up to the job?

Do I just run this with XP and WAMP installed or would it be better to put some kind of server OS on there?

Like I say my220x - I'm not fussed about paying for hosting as I have done for 2 years and to be honest it works out to be quite expensive.

[kmount]

Aye, laptop should be fine, I'd sooner it was a desktop myself but hey, one does what has tools for! - Spec wise, its fine.

You could run XP with WAMP if you like, as to be honest, it may be a bit of a pain to get Windows 2003 drivers for a laptop.

If the site is making you cash so to speak you may want to consider hosting but if its for a local club etc it's not mission critical (I'd imagine...) so hosting it yourself seems reasonable!

Who's your ISP?

[Domino]

You'd be better off (IMO) with a headless linux OS, like ubuntu server + LAMP

it'd run much better, as it won't have the same resource overheads that a desktop OS with a GUI would have.

It's probablt take a bit of time to sit and work out how to set it up, but I should imagine with a bit of google-ninjary you could get there.

[kerrymoralee9280]

My ISP is Eclipse. I'm paying top dollar for my package as I live in the sticks and can't get a decent speed, which is why I opted for the uncontended to try and make it a little better. The site isn't pulling any cash, and it doesn't even have advertising. I'm paying for the hosting myself, to have an informative site for the club. I don't think I'd mind it being a tad slower if it was going to make it cheaper on my pocket.

@Domino: I fancied going with some variant of Linux but as I'm very inexperienced with it, I wouldn't be comfortable in case something went wrong (GASP - Linux go wrong?!). At least if Windows falls over I have the experience to be able to bring it back up.

[j17sparky]

You'd be better off (IMO) with a headless linux OS, like ubuntu server + LAMP

it'd run much better, as it won't have the same resource overheads that a desktop OS with a GUI would have.

It's probablt take a bit of time to sit and work out how to set it up, but I should imagine with a bit of google-ninjary you could get there.

^ Seconded.

Have a look at ubuntu server. Select LAMP install and away you go.

[kerrymoralee9280]

I'm downloading Ubuntu server now - will have a bit of a play about with it to see how easy it is. There seems to be a pretty in depth knowledge base on it over at Ubuntu. And I always know that if I can't find it there I can find it here

[kmount]

Good luck

[Domino]

I'm downloading Ubuntu server now - will have a bit of a play about with it to see how easy it is. There seems to be a pretty in depth knowledge base on it over at Ubuntu. And I always know that if I can't find it there I can find it here

exactly, its very widely used, and a excellent place to get into linux.

Like I say, going for a headless one has quite a steep learning curve, but it'll pay off in the end.

as for it going wrong, once its setup and running, you shouldn't need to do much to it, but as you say, the unexpected does happen.

Hope you enjoy it!

[kerrymoralee9280]

Another question - I already have my new site set up on sever 2003. How do I go about copying the files over to the LAMP server?

[Domino]

is this the joomla version or the standard one?

[kerrymoralee9280]

Sorry haha - the new joomla one.

I don't want to do a fresh install as it means I have to customise it all again

[Domino]

this is a fairly comprehensive guide to doing it.

it looks scary, but as long as you go through methodically, it shouldn't be that hard.