[Seria]

I wanna host my own web page and I donÂ’t know how. I mean I donÂ’t know ANYTHING about it.

The reason I want to though, is cuz I don’t like the idea of paying someone else and its not cuz of the money, its cuz I wanna have my web page’s data on ‘my computer(or server... whatever)’, not someone else’s...
I have some questions and hopefully with the help of all you smart ppl, I can get them answered.

1.Could someone please tell me what kind of hardware I am gonna need?
2. Do I have to have a T1 line?
3. Is there a website I can go to and find out some... I guess.... ‘rules and laws of the internet’?
4. Do I have to own some expensive software or something that allows me to own/host a ‘.com’ site?
5. .... I donÂ’t even know enough about this to makeup more questions...

Anyway, pre-thanx for your input.

[OIDanTheManIO]

Originally posted by Seria
1.Could someone please tell me what kind of hardware I am gonna need?
2. Do I have to have a T1 line?
3. Is there a website I can go to and find out some... I guess.... ‘rules and laws of the internet’?
4. Do I have to own some expensive software or something that allows me to own/host a ‘.com’ site?

1) Any hardware will do. The faster, the better. I have a P4 running one of my webservers and a Pentium MMX running the other

2) You can anything from dial-up to T1 or anything. Although faster, a T1 line is NOT required.

3) The internet basically has no limits. Just keep in mind that you aren't supposed to host any copyrighted material of any kind.

4) You can host a webserver on your computer with your IP address as the URL for free. I recommend purchasing a forwarding domain name through www.godaddy.com and using that rather than your IP address. You can register domain names through GoDaddy for under $10.00 USD a year. If you choose to, go to www.apache.org to download a free Apache webserver for whatever operating system you are running on.

I hope this helps you

-Dan The Man

[Seria]

Originally posted by OIDanTheManIO
4) You can host a webserver on your computer with your IP address as the URL for free.

6. You mean like "www.123.123.1.2.com", or "http://123.123.1.2/" ?

Originally posted by OIDanTheManIO
I recommend purchasing a forwarding domain name through www.godaddy.com and using that rather than your IP address.

7a. What does this do exactly? I thought half of the advantages of hosting my own page is that I dont have to "buy" the domain name?
(even though I might be wrong with what I am about to say, just hear me out...) I understand that if someone owns a domain name that I want to use/have/own, I must purchase it from them. On the other hand, if I want to use a domain name that I know nobody owns, why should somebody like goddaddy.com get my money?

Originally posted by OIDanTheManIO
I hope this helps you

yes it has so far... thank you so much.

[OIDanTheManIO]

Oh yes. I'd also like to add that Apache ( www.apache.org ) is VERY easy to setup and install. Just remember that when it asks you for server name and address, put in "localhost" without the quotes. And when you're ready to add your files, add them to the htdocs folder located in your Apache directory. Others can access your webserver by typing you IP address in their browser, but YOU will have to type localhost into your broswer to preview your website and/or files on your server.

Might I also add that you can get a nice subdomain URL for your webserver so that people don't have to use your IP address. You can get a free forwarding subdomain to your IP address at www.no-ip.com .

Hope this helps even more

-Dan The Man

[OIDanTheManIO]

Yes, it will be entered as "http://123.123.1.2/".

No domain name is free. You can get a subdomain however from www.no-ip.com .

Yes, Apache runs the webserver on nearly any OS including Windows XP Porfessional.

Glad I was able to assist you

-Dan The Man

[Seria]

Originally posted by OIDanTheManIO
No domain name is free.

8. Ok, so, once I buy a domain name from godaddy.com it will be mine 4ever?

9. What is the difference between a domain name and a subdomain name?
domain= "www.site.com"
subdomain= "www.site.place.com" ?

[OIDanTheManIO]

That domain will forever belong to you for as long as you pay the annual amount of $8.95 or whatever it is.

Yes on your second question

-Dan The Man

[Seria]

Originally posted by Seria
if someone owns a domain name that I want to use/have/own, I must purchase it from them. On the other hand, if I want to use a domain name that I know nobody owns, why should somebody like goddaddy.com get my money?

7b. Is this why:
Places like godaddy.com are the "phone directory" of the internet. I am not paying for the 'domain name', I am paying for 'url directory' service, right?

[OIDanTheManIO]

Originally posted by Seria
7b. Is this why:
Places like godaddy.com are the "phone directory" of the internet. I am not paying for the 'domain name', I am paying for 'url directory' service, right?

Domain names are names like _____.com or _____.net. URLs can be anything that a client can type into the address bar of a browser to access your webserver.

If you want to purchase a domain name that someone already owns, it will most likely cost you several hundred dollars, although some domain names in the past have been sold for tens of millions of dollars. You can register a new domain name with www.godaddy.com for under $10.00 a year. There is no other way around this, you can not get a domain name for free.

What you CAN get for free though is a free forwarding subdomain from www.no-ip.com .

-Dan The Man

[Seria]

FIRST OF ALL: All of the #7 questions are simply a matter of curiosity. I am not trying to get around it or beat the system. And I am especially not trying to **** any of you off. I just wanna know. I mean, thatÂ’s why we're all in this forum, we have question that we would like answers to.