IS virtual hosting worth getting?

[jcrlencic]

I am looking for a scalable solution for my web site. Is virtual hosting going to lead me down a destructive path? Will I be able to find a virtual host that will scale with my needs? Thanks in advance for your help!

[Till]

... on your needs.

Virtual hosting means, that you are very likely to end up being on a server with 100 other users. If one of them runs a process that will eat up CPU and memory, you are on the loosing end.

However, most people will never notice any of this, if you go with a company that has an eye on their servers and knows how to ristrict certain things. Which is why, I would recommend going with someone who has been in business for a while.

If you choose to go with a company, try to find others hosting with them already. Don't trust those "customer statements" on websites, they are fake in 8 out of 10 times.

If you are just starting with your site. Find a hoster who would lets you upgrade to another plan easily (without a lot of downtime, hassle). Just add to it as needed.

_till

[Murex]

Depending on your connection at home, I myself found it easier to host my sites myself, they generate next to nothing in traffic, so I just dug in the closet found an old Pentium 150 and put a 1gb HDD in it, loaded FreeBSD UNIX and Apache .. or you could just as easily use NT/IIS/Apache etc .. I think its alot easier to do it myself since its such a small scale, and fun to learn. and costs nothing. When and if I my sites get big enough then I will find a "real" host. Until then my homegrown webserver works the best for me

[Laurie]

Murex


That's an interesting idea. However, is it as simple as you make it sound, or are you an expert at all this stuff.

Also, can you recommend any books or websites that break this down a little more, step by step on how to do this?

Do you have DSL connections?

I am new to all of this, however I do have an extra computer set up for the kids. I put it together myself when I upgraded to a new tower, motherboard, etc. Am quite proud of that accomplishment.

Any more advice on this idea, would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, this is my first visit to this forum. Hi everyone.


Laurie

[Murex]

Laurie,

Yes I have a DSL connection, and I do make it sound a little more easy then it really is .. I am by far not an expert by any means,

the things I used as reference are as follows

For the server OS FreeBSD - http://www.freebsd.org
for the web server Apache - http://www.apache.org

for the DNS A Record (to point the domain to the IP of your server) - http://www.zoneedit.com


I dont know that I can really offer alot more then that, I have had experience working on servers in the past and so I just built on that and did a little reading and a lot of hair pulling

let me know if you have any more specific questions ...

[Till]

Hi Laurie! Welcome on/to the board.

Originally posted by Laurie

...

Any more advice on this idea, would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, this is my first visit to this forum. Hi everyone.

As you were asking for advice.

FreeBSD is a pretty easy install, you put it in your CD-ROM drive, boot from it and follow the instructions at the prompt. If you use a "blank" harddrive, you shouldn't run into any problem as well, as it basically tells you what to to and it even recommends options to install. You should have that running in no time.

As for Apache, there is a load of options how to install it and with which modules and so on. Anywy a very nice article about installing Apache can be found here. The article will tell you how to get Apache running with all the good stuff (MySQL, PHP and SSL).

I hope that helps!

_till