im thinking of making a server to use for a forum or maybe a irc chat and maybe a occasional game server (not alot of people at max 16) anyone have some suggestions, please not too expensive either.
a domain name, u pay like $50 for 2 earys for a company to say that www.imbudsserver.com to point to ur ipaddress and load ur page, you can also get it hosted in a building with limited bandwidth
short-medias ip is 198.64.189.142, if u type that in the address bar it will take u to S-M, but the www.short-media.com is a URL ( pointer ) to the ip address
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KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
edited November 2003
That's not true, Armo, you can use dynamic DNS redirect, like www.dyndns.org or www.no-ip.com. Building the hardware for a server really doesn't require much, especially if you'll be running it off of Linux. My personal web server is an Athlon 1GHz, 256MB of RAM and a 40GB HD. This is overkill. I could run the same thing on half the MHz, memory, and HD space and it would still work well, especially on Linux.
You dont need a Domain name, as you can go to www.no-ip.org and get FREE DNS service. You can even have it point to dynamic IP addresses. The problem is you need to check with your ISP, most of the time running a server is against their rules. Ive been practicing with my server (only on our campus network) running Debian Linux, so all of the software I am using is free!(right in your price range ). You could also use Win2K, XP, or W2K3 and IIS, but i am using some older, slower hardware(AMD K6-2 550Mhz, 384MB PC100) and Linux runs a lot faster then Windows. ive found for games you really need some CPU power. I ran a Q3 server on this box(then it only had a 450MHZ CPU/128MB RAM), and when i get to around 8-10 clients connectiong we started experiencing lag/slowdown as the the machine cannot keep up with all the request. So if you want a game server you may need to invest in some speedier hardware. If you just want to host/mess around with fourms, the older hardware is fine, and you could dig up a machine as old as a 486 to use(again, right in your price range ). Im not sure about the IRC chat, (never tried that) but the biggest thing to setting this up is just knowing what you want and trying it out. Ive been all over the web reading help files/manuals to get my software running, and its just the hands-on experience to truely understand how to set the thing up and get it running. So, in a not so short way, you could build your own box, but look into your ISP contract, or you could purchase some hosting space, as it is pretty cheap and just what you need. For the forum you would need a mySQL database, and PHP support from your webspace provider, which is a pretty commom option. Good luck and have fun!
You CAN buy a domain name, it's very cheap... and much cooler than myjagname.someothercompany.com
Domain names are from $8.95 to $14.95 a year. Any more than that, you're getting ripped off. Armo, domain names were $50 like 5 years ago.
I get my domains from dotster.com because I like their management tools. It costs $13.95 to buy a domain name for a year.
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KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
edited November 2003
I like Go Daddy for domain registration. Their website is a little hard to navigate because they're always pushing some extra service while you register. The price can't be beat though ($8.95/yr) and their domain management tools are great.
My experience with running a small webserver: I have Charter Pipeline, and as such, my upload blows. 15kb/s at most. I post an image in any popular forum, it gets raped. Secondly, running any kind of server is against Charter's Terms of Service. You can call Tech Support and ask them if it is. They won't report you or anything or put you under some kind of surveillence (or, they SHOULDN'T). I ran a server for nearly 3 mo. and charter never said anything to me.
I was getting some weird requests from some of Charter's routers or whatever they have and decided to shut down incase they were snooping around :\ I used a simple Apache package for Windows that ran in the background. It was useful for what I used it for (image hosting, and maybe files for friends). Just make sure to check with your ISP if you care about having your internet connection pulled for 2 years or so (Charter's punishment, but I have a DSL line here also that dad's company pays for, so it was a simply move the router and some cables trick and I was back up again. Heh).
For that you could use something very low end such as a P2 266mhz or so, as people have already recommended. You dont need anything special for those basics.
Next you are going to need an OS for the machine, if its high end then it can be anything, if it's low end then it will need to be Windows 2000 (in some form) or Linux.
Buying a domain is only going to work if you have a static IP address, otherwise you will need to use no-ip aswell, and you end up forwarding to a forward to get to the site, which is a complete mess.
WuGgaRoO had this to say i never KNEW hosting is sooo damn easy.... i gotta try this out myself one day
If it is on a machine with modem, all you need to do is install Apache and it will work. If you have a router then it is that plus forwarding the port on the router.
I'm not aware of a way you can use a Domain truely without it being just a redirect if you aren't on a static IP address..... also, se if you can set up an RDNS with your ISP, then when someone resolves your IP to an........ no, wait, won't work, you aren't static.
Yeah, no-ip seems to be the way to go then, you have to keep a little program running that updates their site and tells them where the address needs to point.
Just call up your isp and ask how much it would be to get a static ip. I work for a isp in my town and all of our dsl customers are on static ip's by default.
I went all out and payed a little extra for a static ip adderss, and just made a dns server. It makes things really easy once you get it up. I went to www.dot.tk for my domain name because it is so cheap, and the name I wanted wasn't taken yet.
dyndns is real easy to setup the only things you need is a domain name and your current IP address
now start by adding you domain name
add host
mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=A) (DATA= IP address) then www.mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=CNAME) (DATA= IP address) then
mail.mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=A) (DATA= IP address) then
ftp.mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=A) (DATA= IP address)
Now you will need to go to your registry co ie:Godaddy.com and add ns1.mydyndns.org ns2.mydyndns.org ns3.mydyndns.org up to ns5 if your registry allows it
you should now be setup and it could take up to 24hrs to take effect
If you are on cable you may not be able to do this as most all cable co's WON'T let you run a server unless you sign up for a business account with a static address (more money in there greedy pockets)
Need anmore help pm me
Bud,
dyndns has an excellent how to guide to setup your service
Have you already signed up? The instructions I gave you were simple and to the point, you should've been able to setup from that.
Comments
You could build a good server for under $300.
//edited for typos
but do u still have to buy a domain name?
Nope! no-ip.com will give you a subdomain pickyourname.no-ip.com!
Domain names are from $8.95 to $14.95 a year. Any more than that, you're getting ripped off. Armo, domain names were $50 like 5 years ago.
I get my domains from dotster.com because I like their management tools. It costs $13.95 to buy a domain name for a year.
I was getting some weird requests from some of Charter's routers or whatever they have and decided to shut down incase they were snooping around :\ I used a simple Apache package for Windows that ran in the background. It was useful for what I used it for (image hosting, and maybe files for friends). Just make sure to check with your ISP if you care about having your internet connection pulled for 2 years or so (Charter's punishment, but I have a DSL line here also that dad's company pays for, so it was a simply move the router and some cables trick and I was back up again. Heh).
Next you are going to need an OS for the machine, if its high end then it can be anything, if it's low end then it will need to be Windows 2000 (in some form) or Linux.
Buying a domain is only going to work if you have a static IP address, otherwise you will need to use no-ip aswell, and you end up forwarding to a forward to get to the site, which is a complete mess.
Also how do you connect to the internet?
NS
If it is on a machine with modem, all you need to do is install Apache and it will work. If you have a router then it is that plus forwarding the port on the router.
I'm not aware of a way you can use a Domain truely without it being just a redirect if you aren't on a static IP address..... also, se if you can set up an RDNS with your ISP, then when someone resolves your IP to an........ no, wait, won't work, you aren't static.
Yeah, no-ip seems to be the way to go then, you have to keep a little program running that updates their site and tells them where the address needs to point.
NS
It's great to see people asking for upload space when they're sitting on a 512kb/s connection
Just make sure you don't leave your server's ass open to the intarweb
So true.
now start by adding you domain name
add host
mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=A) (DATA= IP address) then
www.mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=CNAME) (DATA= IP address) then
mail.mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=A) (DATA= IP address) then
ftp.mydomain.com (TTL=60) (type=A) (DATA= IP address)
Now you will need to go to your registry co ie:Godaddy.com and add ns1.mydyndns.org ns2.mydyndns.org ns3.mydyndns.org up to ns5 if your registry allows it
you should now be setup and it could take up to 24hrs to take effect
If you are on cable you may not be able to do this as most all cable co's WON'T let you run a server unless you sign up for a business account with a static address (more money in there greedy pockets)
Need anmore help pm me
dyndns has an excellent how to guide to setup your service
Have you already signed up? The instructions I gave you were simple and to the point, you should've been able to setup from that.