But it might not save you much money, and it definitely wont save you time. The best reason to host your web site at home is to learn how it all works. Warning: running a server of any kind at home is a security risk. Security problems are sometimes found in server software, and these can be exploited to gain access to or damage your files. Your computer must be kept absolutely up to date with windows update or the equivalent for your operating system if you intend to run a web server on it. If you choose to run Apache instead of Internet Information Server, youll need to keep your version of Apache absolutely up to date too.

You run a server at home entirely at your own risk.

PC on the curb and setting it up as your home server, reducing the danger to your own computer. Here are the steps to follow to set up a web site hosted entirely on your own Windows PC. First Ill present the general steps, then Ill break down the details for you: 1. Get a DNS hostname for your home internet connection. Get a static local ip address for your computer within your home network. Configure windows firewall to allow your web server to communicate on port 80. But that option only allows you to host one site.

Test your web server from your own computer.

Replace the default home page with your own web page.

Test your web server from a computer that is NOT on your home network to make sure you followed all of the steps correctly. Test from outside your own network or have a friend do that for you. If you want to access your site from a computer behind your router, youll have to access it at its static local ip address instead of by name. Now Ill present detailed information about each step. If you cant do that, youll have to host your web site in some other way. Upload speed, not download speed, is the most important feature for hosting web sites at home. Now multiply by 8 and youll know how many bits make up your home page. Divide that by your upload speed and youll have a rough idea how long it takes to load your home page under ideal conditions.

There will also be latency delays slowing things down, and multiple users will of course slow things down and make it take longer.

DSL connection, your address change often. You can solve this problem by using a dynamic DNS service. DNS server for you, unless you are willing to put up with giving users a URL that begins with a string of numbers.

Ive written a separate article explaining how to get a hostname for your computer at home. Intranet, every time it is powered on. But to forward web browser connections to your computer, you need an unchanging address to forward those connections to. Ive written a separate article explaining how to give your computer a static local IP address.

IF you have WiFi, or more than one computer, you definitely have a router and must not skip this step. Now that you have chosen a static local IP for your computer, youre ready to configure the router to forward web traffic to your computer.