How difficult is it for a novice to set up his/her own server for hosting web sites?

www.homestead.com is the best. I know nothing about computers and I did this site by myself Www.domesticconnection.com

How difficult is it for a novice to set up his/her own server for hosting web sites?

It is not really difficult and is a good experience...just build a very solid server with alot of cooling since it needs to run 24/7

How difficult is it for a novice to set up his/her own server for hosting web sites?

This would depend on who%26#039;s websites you are hosting and the degree of problems you are willing to deal with. If you are planning on hosting for fee, I would not recommend this for a novice just because of the amount of work involved and the knowledge level required to support clients. If you are hosting just your own sites and you (and your viewers) are willing to live the problems that arise until you are able to %26quot;figure it out%26quot;, then You should consider the issue further. You should do a deep analysis of the costs involved before proceeding though, as the costs of providing quality hosting service can add up very fast.

Other Replys:instead of going through all the headaches of having a server on your pc for the purpose hosting other peoples websites i suggest you get a virtual server online and let them have all the headaches. then just set it up for others to use. this is way easier on you and your pc

using a pc for this pupose will wear it out very quickly. be smart, don%26#039;t do that. besides pages loading off a pc would be very slow.

Other Replys:You guys are so full of crap it hurts. It really depends on what the server is going to be used for, and how much traffic you expect, and like stated above how many headaches are you willing to put up with. Personally I have an old compaq 586 with a 500mhz intell processor and 32 mb of RAM running my lan photo gallery server that has over 10000 photo%26#039;s on it. I utilize Debian/GNU linux, with apache webserver, php5 and a php script that I found on the internet. The total cost of my server was $15.00 for a network card. I have family memebers in California and Washington that utilize it all the time (the server is located in texas) and they tell me my site is just as fast as any coorporate site. It also depends on how %26quot;into%26quot; computers are you. If you are willing to dig up the information there are plenty of how to%26#039;s and tutorial on how to set up a linux webserver. Most of the major Distrobutions of Linux have the option of installing a webserver at OS install, and not to mention most major Linux Distribution (Debian, RedHat, Fedora Core 5, etc) can be downloaded for free. If you have the will to dig up the information you need and the drive to apply what you have learned and have problem solving skills, it will take you a while to get your server up and running but you will learn so so so much along the way. Hint don%26#039;t ever try to run a server on Windows XP Home Edition, I learned this one the hard way.