Another server question, but for a different purpose

[Shadow]

How does all of this work, with bandwidth issues?

Could I put a drive on my computer, and host a website off it, and that would give me unlimited bandwidth options? Would this cost a lot of money letting people access me all the time or is bandwidth just an implimentation of hosting companies to get money?

I'd need to register a domain, which I've seen isn't bad. Is that even possible? Having a hard drive in your computer dedicated to a website, and having it so everybody can access it? Yeah, you'd have to leave your computer on 24x7?

What are some of these issues for this kind of an idea?

I don't know much about networking or website stuff. I just manage to get by and throw together what I need for small stuff.

To be clear. I have my own website. It's mine, and a personal one for people to view. I host it on my hard drive that everyone can access. This is SOLEY for my own website and to allow larger files and considerable bandwidth. This is the idea.

[XSquared]

>Could I put a drive on my computer, and host a website off it, and that would give me unlimited bandwidth options?
What type of internet connection do you have? That will be the limiting factor for your bandwidth.

[Shadow]

Well, right now I get a 200-400 KB/sec download rate, I don't know what my upload rate is. If It's really important, I can tell you after I stop at http:///www.pcpitstop.com

I'm not going to do this idea right away, I'll do it after I get Charter's platinum connection which, in our area, gets you 2megabytes/sec download rate. Again, I do not know the upload speed.

The bandwidth issue is, how much bandwidth can I transfer, and how much DATA can I trasnfer to people per month if I have my own server, which only runs a personal private website. I don't mind if it can be a tad slower at times compared to big company servers. I'm just interested in doing this so I don't have to play by anybody elses rules.

Understand now?
Is this a pointless idea?

[Xterria]

no, its not pointless, because every other person does it.
and wtf are you talking about data transfer? it's unlimited of course.

[Shadow]

So, what's an average price of this type of a thing? Just whatever your internet connection is?

Why do hosting companies put caps on data transfer and charge more for more data transfer per month then? The almighty dollar?

[Xterria]

my price for 512 upload is 50 dollars a month. usually hosting companies dont let you have all the transfer is so that you don't suck all the speed out of them while other people are using their connection. and for other reasons im sure

[XSquared]

The reason they limit your bandwidth is that it isn't free. Most of those companies have OC or DC lines coming in to their servers, and they're charged for those by the megabyte.

[Waldo2k2]

yeah dude, just check with your isp and make sure they don't cap your bandwidth. A friend of mine is limited to x gigabytes a month, and he's gone over it a few times (at which point your connection speed drops to less than what a 14.4 modem would get you)

[adrianxw]

A few ISP's have run into trouble with uncapped bandwidth. I remember a fuss in England when BT started capping, "Un-metered" accounts. Here, TeleDanmark still offers unmetered access, I have that, but they have introduced a capped service that is cheaper.

[Shadow]

Well, I was pointed to some free webserver software called Key Focus. I'm trying to configure it, along with my router and modem/IP addresses and am running into some trouble getting "the oustisde world to access it." I was having somebody help me set it up...and I got it so I could view my website, off my hard drive, from another computer off the router....but was still trying to get him to view the web page. I was working at just giving him the raw IP before working at getting and pretty stuff on it like giving it a name, trying for a domain, or trying to figure out ANYTHING that makes it simple for anyone else to use.

He said I have to do stuff with port forwarding and my DHCP settings. Well the DHCP is enabled on my router, and I believe I have the correct ports opened.

Any ideas?

[Waldo2k2]

if you specify an ip for your computers NIC then dhcp won't matter. Just set it in the network connections property dialog. Then enable the firewall on that connection and go to advanced and check the box for http web server (or something to that effect, so that port 80 is open).