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pXiaolin

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Changing A Home PC (high specs) To A Web Server

Thank you in advance to all who will contribute to this question.

If I had a personal computer with high specs (memory, hard drive, etc) and wanted to change this to a server on which i'll host my website for a small traffic at any one time, is it possible? I mean a Server with the common features offered by most hosting providers - with php, ssl, etc. If achievable, can anyone please tell me -

* What best softwares, OS's, additional hardware I will need to accomplish this. Will I need an expert service to do this?

* If possible, please post any links to additional resources which might be helpful.

PS: I simply want to ascertain if it's achievable with an ordinary PC serving the small size WWW users.

Thanks, all comments are welcomed.

Avatar of Lee W, MVP
Lee W, MVP
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Hi pXiaolin,
> * What best softwares, OS's, additional hardware I will need to accomplish
> this. Will I need an expert service to do this?

Any server OS.  Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003 Web Edition, Windows Server 2003 (any other edition), Just about any major version of Linux.  All of the above will host a site quite nicely.

Do you need an expert service?  You mean someone to set this up at your house or small business?  Probably not.  But that depends entirely on your skill level, how serious a site you want, and how much you want to learn this.


> PS: I simply want to ascertain if it's achievable with an ordinary PC
> serving the small size WWW users.

You could achieve this with a 10 year old PC if you want to.  Web services (for small sites) are generally not intense things and don't require much horsepower.  IF you want a database and interactive web site, then sure, more power is nice.  But again if it's small, a 5 year old pc will run things fine.  I run my mail server, web server, and dns server off the same dual 750 MHz Pentium 3 with 768 MB RAM.  ANd I host 10 different domains for both e-mail and web.

You COULD host a site on windows 2000/xp home, problem is there are built in limitations that prevent more than 10 simultaneous connections (5 on home) and there's no legal way to get around these.  Thus a Windows server (if you want a windows solution) is best.

Cheers!
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pXiaolin

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Thank you leew for your comments. Well said, If you can elucidate on how I'll go about doing this, i'll appreciate it immensely. Like a guide, link, etc.

Thank you, I am waiting to give you your points.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Lee W, MVP
Lee W, MVP
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{Hi pXiaolin,
As this is not an MS Site Server question I have moved it to the Web Servers TA for you. -- alimu / EE Page Editor}
Could you please explain the C grade?