If you’re planning to start blogging or building a website of your own, you might be wondering if it’s possible to set up and run your own web server. Well yes, indeed it is, and you can get the software needed to do it for free! The question however is… “Should you?” Here are a few things to consider when deciding whether or not to set up your own web server:
1 – Do you possess the skills required to keep a web server online, updated and secure? Installing Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP for a standard “LAMP” configuration is relatively easy, and you will be able to find a number of great step-by-step tutorials online that will guide you through the process.
The hard part is keeping hackers out and your server software packages up to date. The skills required to do this can certainly be learned, but it’s a daunting task to say the least, especially if you plan to “teach” yourself.
2 – Can your Internet connection handle the thousands of requests for files and data that a busy web server will have to field? Most cable and DSL connections offer a rather zippy download speed for surfing the Internet, but many of them limit the upload speed to a paltry fraction of the download speed. This means that as your website or blog begins to get popular and visitors start arriving by the boatloads, your site will eventually grind to a halt unless your Internet upload speed is fast enough to handle the data transfer requirements. And if you plan to use lots of images and/or videos on your site, that day will probably come sooner rather than later.
3 – Are you OK with your site being down for hours (and perhaps days) at a time if you happen to live in an area with frequent power or Internet outages? When either of these critical services goes down, so will your website.
4 – Do you have the capability to do regular backups of your server and quickly restore it in case something goes wrong? (And trust me, things WILL go wrong on occasion.)
If the answer to one or more of the above questions is no, then you would probably be better off signing up for a hosting plan with a reliable web hosting company. They will make sure your server is always up to date, secure, online and backed up, leaving you to develop and grow your blog or website.
However, if the answer to all of those questions is yes, running your own web server can be lots of fun and save you lots of money in the long run. As an added bonus your site(s) will be running on a dedicated server, which has a number of important advantages over shared hosting.
Personally, I prefer to have all of my websites and blogs tucked safely away on a professionally managed server somewhere far, far away. I use Hostgator for all of my hosting needs, but you’re free to choose from dozens of other great hosting companies should you decide to go this route. Whatever you decide, have fun building, maintaining and growing your site(s)!
About the author: Rick Rouse is the owner of RLROUSE.COM and a number of other popular websites and blogs.