Hosting Website

[WDCentral]

I have a couple of questions.

Currently my dad's offices, only 6 computers networked, is getting internet access from a fair cable company; we are getting 0.7 megabits down and 0.8 megabits up (although our contract says 1.5 megabits). Soon our internet provider will be switching to the @home network, which I've had no experience with although it is said to be much faster. We are also paying a webhosting provider $50/month for webhosting of his little traffic but large-database website - He probably gets less than 5 order transactions per day. I proposed to him that it may be cheaper in the long run to have our own on-site server to be used as a network router, web server, FTP server, mail server, and file server. I also told him that he would be able to do all of his work on his website, which he does a lot of, and access is e-mail quicker because it would now be over a 100 megabit connection instead of a 0.7 megabit connection to the off-site server somewhere in CA.

1. Do these server components look to be good for the tasks - remember he doesn't get much traffic:

300-watt supply
Abit KT7 (i have an extra one and I can put it in the server for free next to buying a different one)
900 Mhz Thunderbird (same case)
256MB SDRAM
NVIDIA RIVA TNT (of course I don't need anything powerful for video)
Dual Netgear FX311 NIC's
12x/8x CD-RW
Floppy
Windows 2000 Server

I will also be upgrading 5 of the 6 computers to Windows 2000 and 128MB of RAM


2. What should I use to backup?


3. I won't be able to have 2 DNS servers to direct the domain name, what can I do as far as DNS?


4. The @home connection - Is it fast enough to support a server? I've heard that @home shut down port 80 on its network because of that new virus.. obviously I can't have this happen.



Any input would be most appreciated!

Thanks,
Ben Hughes

 

[Russ]

<< Abit KT7 (i have an extra one and I can put it in the server for free next to buying a different one) >>



An Abit motherboard in a business server? Did your Dad treat you badly as a child?



<< 2. What should I use to backup? >>



How large is the database? If only a few hundred MB, just use the CDRW. If REALLY large, get a 10/20 tape unit. (not cheap, though).



<< 3. I won't be able to have 2 DNS servers to direct the domain name, what can I do as far as DNS? >>



http://www.zoneedit.com Excellent service, and free for the first five zones.



<< 4. The @home connection - Is it fast enough to support a server? I've heard that @home shut down port 80 on its network because of that new virus.. obviously I can't have this happen. >>



AFAIK, they're not blocking port 80 for the @Work connections, so you should be fine.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Poof]

Oh boy.... What you propose is alot of work (trust me, I know).

First, @home has that fun AUP (although there has been alot of debate about it) regarding using their connections for servers... They recommend getting their @work service. So if you want to go through with it, just be aware. 😉 It is possible to host a domain, but you'd need to go through places like dhs.org and/or using a DNS service (or your own DNS) to transfer the domain to that assigned @home IP. There are places like Practically Networked that offer how-tos.

Second, for security reasons, I wouldn't put all of that on one box. It would be preferable for you to have the database/FTP on a the beefy box you recommend and separate out the other stuff.