Getting a site on the Internet 1

[StevenB]

OK, here's a silly question. I have worked sporadically on some Intranet development stuff, ASP and HTML, but I have actually never dealt with a site that was out on the Internet.

Now I'm trying to throw together an Internet site of my own. I know there are plenty of hosting options out there, but if I have a Win 2K/IIS server on a very simple home network, what other elements need to be in place before this can be accessed from the Internet? I'm guessing I will need a static IP address, but where exactly do I come up with one of those? What else needs to be in place?

Does anyone know of any good resources that step you through this sort of thing?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[deanteam]

I found this article, I hope this helps you, its a pretty good step-by-step process for setting up a web server

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/main/sbs-wk2-pro-iis-web.html

 

[StevenB]

Hey, that's great! Thanks, I'll take a while to digest this....

 

[michaylukr]

I read through the link above and it's a very good HowTo for setting up IIS on a Win2K Professional computer. In order to have your website available on the Internet, though, you'll need a bit more. First, you're correct in that you will need a static IP - these can be purchased from your ISP. I would suggest calling them to see what prices they offer. You will also require a DNS name - again, your ISP may be able to help you here - I'd call and ask. Something to be mindful of with DNS is that there is a difference between registering a name and having that name hosted somewhere. You will have to register the name with a DNS Registrar - Network Solutions or the like. Your ISP will likely be able to host your DNS name for you on one of their own DNS servers.

I would also like to note that IIS servers are insecure if they are not tweaked after installation. In addition to making sure that you are current with all relevant Patches and hotfixes, Microsoft offers an IIS Lockdown tool:

http://microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/tools/tools/locktool.asp

 

[BlackHawk2]

Unless you are planning on making a lot of money by hosting your own server I would really think about just going with a hosting company. Cheapest on with best quality I have found is

http://www.2mhosts.com.

I was looking into doing the same thing as you, but I wanted to lease out space on my server for other sites. After carefull consideration I have decided to posiibly go into reselling (not for 2mhosts, nor do I have any affiliation with them, so take this as advice not a sales pitch.)

I would also like to know if anybody has ever used the Lockdown tool? I heard it had some bugs, but other than that I have not heard anything.

BH2

 

[MrKovacic]

Get this, I ran our company sites on a dial-up connection with win98. Talk about bare bones. I will read that artice also because I will be setting up our sites on our own server(s). I don't have the capital to put up 700 bucks a month for a T1 right now, but hosting will hopefully get me there. I used CWIHosting, but once I had some questions and a complaint or two, my service droped for a week. They have great service, just dont complain or they put you on their lamer server. Also. our sub-sites looked like this:

http://www.myname.com/subsite1

http://www.myname.com/subsite2

http://www.myname.com/subsite3

We're on a UNIX server with CWI which means the name "subsite1" is case sensative. So of someone types in
"

http://www.myname.com/Subsite1"

they will get a 404 error.

So can you run a site with less? You can run an online site with a 166Mhz computer and a dialup. It is ill-advised, but it can be done.