Useful Tips and Tricks on How To Host Your Own Website
Among the leading money-making ventures today revolves around setting up your very own online business. To be able to do this, you would have to create an engaging website. When you do build a website, you would also need to find a web hosting provider or learn how to host your own website.
Whether you intend on creating an online business that generates profit or just put up a website for the sake of having one plays a big role in deciding to hire web hosting provider or try DIY solutions. Hundreds promise easy, quick, and cheap services and the choice can sometimes be overwhelming especially for beginners.
To give you a head start, allow us to introduce to you what web hosting means as well as share with you some proven tips and tricks in building, managing, and hosting your own website. By the end of this article, you would also be provided with reliable web hosting providers in the online world today.
What is Website Hosting?
So, first thing’s first, what is website hosting, really? For any website to be viewed and made available to the public, it needs to be hosted by a reliable web hosting provider. Some of the most well-known companies that offer web hosting are Verio, Interland, Yahoo!, and AOL.
Website hosting companies provides their clients with access to a platform made of high-powered computers that are connected to a very fast network. This is where your web files are stored. They are responsible for managing these web servers, which include everything from the software to security, bandwidth, support, and speed.
A web hosting service works like this: every time someone types in your website’s domain name, the internet connects it to the web servers where your web files are stored. The information in these web files is then transferred back to their computer, allowing them to view the pages on your website.
How To Host Your Own Website
Now that we know how a web hosting service works, would it be possible to do it at home using your own computer? The simple answer would be yes. However, running any kind of server at home poses a great security risk when your computer is not up to date.
- Setting up a website using your own web hosting service is fairly simple if you know your way around computers. Here are the general steps that you need to do: Make sure that you have a high-speed internet connection at home. A dial-up telephone model will not be able to handle what needs to be done. You need to invest in either a cable modem, DSL, or fiber optic connection. When it comes to hosting websites at home, you need to focus more on the upload speed instead of the download speed.
Additionally, you also need to pay attention to the terms of service that your connection offers. Some internet companies forbid clients who create hosting servers for home use and would advise you to convert your connection into a business service.
- Choose a DNS hostname for your home connection. Having a hostname is similar to having a home address—it is how other people get to locate and communicate with your website. Those with a broadband connection usually have an address that changes often. The solution would be to choose a dynamic DNS service.
- Once you have made sure that your internet connection can handle your servers and you already have a DNS hostname, the next step would be to get a static local IP address that is within your home network.
Every time your computer is turned on, it receives a new local address on your home network called the Intranet. However, we have established early on that you would need an unchanging address when you plan on hosting websites or torrents.
- After you have done steps one to three, the next thing would be to configure your router to forward connections from the HTTP port or port 80 into your server. As mentioned above, some internet service providers block port 80, so you would need to use another port number.
- For Windows users, you are also required to set up Windows Firewall to allow communications between your web server and port 80. You should also install a high-quality web server program such as Microsoft IIS or Apache.
- Try accessing the web server from your computer. Also, test it using a computer that is not part of your home network, if it worked, then that means that you followed all these steps correctly and the website is now your own.
What is the Best Web Hosting Service?
If you do not have the necessary tools and equipment needed to set up a high-speed web server, you can also choose to hire a web hosting company to upload your website on. A good web hosting service is something that offers an all-inclusive package that turns a simple website into a web business that generates income.
At the top of our minds is the web hosting service offered by BlueHost, which you can access here. This package offers more than just web hosting; they provide their clients with an effective process that is designed to work perfectly with all the complementary tools to build a real online business that delivers profit.
Final Words
Learning how to host your own website takes time, effort, and money, most especially if you are not that tech-savvy. While it is possible to do it at the comfort of your own home, web hosting using your own server poses a great risk when it comes to security.
Once a security problem is found in a server software, it can be used to gain access to your computer and damage your files. You can minimize this risk by making sure that your computer is always up to date. You can also use a separate computer to be set up as your home server to reduce the danger to your own PC.
All in all, a home server would still not be enough if you intend to use your website to generate profit. This is best done with the help and guidance of platforms such as Solo Build It! by SiteSell.