Hi,

I am currently thinking of setting up a family website where family members will be able to view images of holidays, etc, etc. Also for them to post photos.

The thing I am stuck on at the moment is whether to host it at home or on a free web host with unlimited storage and bandwidth (because the images are quite large (around the 2 - 3 Mb mark) and also with home movies (very large, but can be compressed down small by using FLV instead of the raw AVI/MPG file).

I do have a spare/old PC that I am thinking of setting up as a server for web and file sharing purposes. Would it be best to keep the web server (probably Ubuntu 8.04 LTS) in a virtual machine on top of Windows XP (Main Server) so that if the web server is hacked (hopefully it won't be because I will lock everything down) then the main server or the network isn't affected? Also would putting the web server in a different workgroup be best because the hacker won't be able to see file shares and therefore not have access to files on the main network?

Thanks

There is no such thing as UNLIMITED hosting paid or free.
I would use my own server if I had one and a fast connection or I would go for a free host thats been up for a while. A lot of free hosts go under after a while so be careful and make sure you backup data.

Thanks for replying and I like your blog!

There are some free web hosting companys that offer unlimited space and bandwidth like T35 and Quotaless, some with ads and some without ads.

So do you recommend hosting the website at home on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition? I am currently testing Ubuntu on a VM so I'll see how that goes! If not. then I will stick to the desktop edition and get rid of alot of stuff.

Do web servers need alot of RAM? Would my virtual web server need alot of RAM just for a few people visiting a week maybe? VMWare Workstation recommends 512Mb for Ubuntu.

Thanks

Do you have the ability to host a web site? You'll need a static IP address. If you can get a free acoount with unlimited storage and no ads then why not do it? As cowsgonamadd said just make sure to keep it backed up.


I do every thing that concerns my web site on my PC then FTP it up so I always have a back up copy. If you're letting other people upload stuff then you'll need to schedule back ups though.


Another though, even if you have to pay for it web hosting is pretty inexpensive these days anyway and you probably have some free ad free space with your ISP too.

I don't have a static IP but I found this website that shows how to host a domain at home: http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/creating/domainathome.html
I havn't tried it yet because I'm still stuck on which OS to use and whether to use a Virtual Machine or a Physical Machine.