My own internet server and domain

b/General Help publicado por u/Ephraim Becker November 24, 2015, 04:24:47 PM

My own internet server and domain

I want to know how to build my own internet server and get my own .com domain for a flat fee. I don't want to pay every month for this. How can I do this?

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u/Dream of Omnimaga November 24, 2015, 04:59:48 PM

Have you checked Google? There are plenty of dimanche name companies like Namecheap.

u/Yuki November 24, 2015, 05:24:28 PM

I can recommend the ones we use on CodeWalrus: DigitalOcean is a pretty fine VPS provider, you pay credits whenever you want and you're credited for every hour, you can easily pay for a year in advance. Plus, if you're a student, GitHub gives you $50 in credit. For domain names, NameCheap is the one I always use (except for one domain in some weird extension NC don't sell), depending of the TLD it varies between $1 and $50 a domain for one year, .com are around $10 a year, there's special prices once in a while (like right now on most domains, com is $6) and most TLDs are around that price, again you can pay for 10 years if you want. Again, GitHub's student program gives you a free .me for the first year (normally $9/year) with a free SSL certificate.

I'm afraid there's probably no such thing as a flat fee, except if you're actually buying hardware and you're going to host the server in your own closet and still, you're going to pay every month for your internet access. Those I recommended are the closest I can find to a flat fee, as in, billing is not every month but every few months to every few years.

Last Edit: November 24, 2015, 05:30:30 PM by Juju

u/DarkestEx November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM

It also heavily depends on what country you are in. Often the TLDs for your own country are pretty cheap when you buy them locally.
Also, if you want to go even cheaper, don't go for a full VPS. You will most likely not need it at all. It's only trouble to keep it secure and shared hosting is often only half the price of a VPS.

u/Ephraim Becker November 24, 2015, 08:11:12 PM

Quote from: Juju on November 24, 2015, 05:24:28 PM
I'm afraid there's probably no such thing as a flat fee, except if you're actually buying hardware and you're going to host the server in your own closet and still, you're going to pay every month for your internet access. Those I recommended are the closest I can find to a flat fee, as in, billing is not every month but every few months to every few years.

I want to buy my own hardware and host my server in my own home. Where do I start?

u/novenary November 24, 2015, 08:27:59 PM

Quote from: DarkestEx on November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM
It also heavily depends on what country you are in. Often the TLDs for your own country are pretty cheap when you buy them locally.

Well most country TLDs are only available in the country they belong to. That would be .us for him.

Quote from: DarkestEx on November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM
Also, if you want to go even cheaper, don't go for a full VPS. You will most likely not need it at all. It's only trouble to keep it secure and shared hosting is often only half the price of a VPS.

I wouldn't trust shared hosting at all. A VPS is more secure even if you don't put effort into it.

u/Yuki November 24, 2015, 08:47:53 PM

Quote from: Ephraim Becker on November 24, 2015, 08:11:12 PM
Quote from: Juju on November 24, 2015, 05:24:28 PM
I'm afraid there's probably no such thing as a flat fee, except if you're actually buying hardware and you're going to host the server in your own closet and still, you're going to pay every month for your internet access. Those I recommended are the closest I can find to a flat fee, as in, billing is not every month but every few months to every few years.

I want to buy my own hardware and host my server in my own home. Where do I start?

First, you need a friendly ISP and a good Internet package. Pretty sure the one you have right now is sufficient. Then, do you have some old, unused desktop or laptop you no longer need? It will do the job. (Otherwise, your current computer could do, provided it's on 24/7.) Plug it in, install some Linux distro such as Debian Server or Arch Linux (you don't even need X), install a suitable web server such as nginx and whatever you need, port forward ports 80, 22 and others you need on your router (maybe even turn DMZ on), leave it in a corner and there you go, you have a server.

Quote from: Streetwalrus on November 24, 2015, 08:27:59 PM
Quote from: DarkestEx on November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM
It also heavily depends on what country you are in. Often the TLDs for your own country are pretty cheap when you buy them locally.
Well most country TLDs are only available in the country they belong to. That would be .us for him.

.us is one of the cheapest, but you need an address in the US in the whois info or else it won't work. Just like CW, the domain is technically owned by me, a Canadian, but we put the address of one of our willing American members in there.

Quote from: Streetwalrus on November 24, 2015, 08:27:59 PM
Quote from: DarkestEx on November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM
Also, if you want to go even cheaper, don't go for a full VPS. You will most likely not need it at all. It's only trouble to keep it secure and shared hosting is often only half the price of a VPS.
I wouldn't trust shared hosting at all. A VPS is more secure even if you don't put effort into it.

You do need to have some Linux command line knowledge to run a VPS, and if you do, you should definitely go for it. If you don't want to configure anything and just want to put some files on a FTP server and it works, you can either go with shared hosting or a friend with his own VPS who's willing to give you some space on it.

u/DarkestEx November 24, 2015, 09:24:52 PM

Quote from: Juju on November 24, 2015, 08:47:53 PM
Quote from: Streetwalrus on November 24, 2015, 08:27:59 PM
Quote from: DarkestEx on November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM
Also, if you want to go even cheaper, don't go for a full VPS. You will most likely not need it at all. It's only trouble to keep it secure and shared hosting is often only half the price of a VPS.
I wouldn't trust shared hosting at all. A VPS is more secure even if you don't put effort into it.
You do need to have some Linux command line knowledge to run a VPS, and if you do, you should definitely go for it. If you don't want to configure anything and just want to put some files on a FTP server and it works, you can either go with shared hosting or a friend with his own VPS who's willing to give you some space on it.

I certainly have the knowledge but I personally don't feel that I need a VPS. I am happy with shared hosting. If there are any security incidents, it's not my problem nor my fault. I have strong 20 character passwords and keep them secret. But after all, having to administrate a system for a site that does barely use any server side scripting stuff, a cheap 3 euro / month shared hosting is exactly what I need. I can forget about anything and let somebody else deal with it. Shared hosting is cheaper than VPS but when having special needs, its not optimal.
Btw, some time for about 3 months I once owned a VPS to host a Minecraft server. It worked out well, though I wouldn't do it again.

Last Edit: November 24, 2015, 09:27:10 PM by DarkestEx

u/Dream of Omnimaga November 24, 2015, 11:44:27 PM

Quote from: Streetwalrus on November 24, 2015, 08:27:59 PM
Quote from: DarkestEx on November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM
It also heavily depends on what country you are in. Often the TLDs for your own country are pretty cheap when you buy them locally.
Well most country TLDs are only available in the country they belong to. That would be .us for him.

Quote from: DarkestEx on November 24, 2015, 06:38:04 PM
Also, if you want to go even cheaper, don't go for a full VPS. You will most likely not need it at all. It's only trouble to keep it secure and shared hosting is often only half the price of a VPS.
I wouldn't trust shared hosting at all. A VPS is more secure even if you don't put effort into it.

It depends. If all he wants to do is host some static website or webpage, then sometimes a free shared hosting provider would be the best solution. But otherwise, most VPSes have plans that are cheaper than most paid shared hosting nowadays, which wasn't the case 5 years ago.

Omnimaga ran on 1and1 shared hosting for 2 years and aside from a few 500 errors, we didn't have many issues. Even during the slashdot effect of October 2011 we still got away with just some errors. But I would definitively not recommend hosting a chat, a chat bot or a forum there.

@Ephraim Becker If you are gonna host a server at your home, make sure that your ISP allows it. It's against the rules of certain providers.