Before we discuss how small businesses can host their own domains, let us make a couple of things absolutely clear:
First, make sure you really want it. Hosting your own server is no easy task if you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. You will need to know your way around network and server configuration and administration – at least at an intermediate level.
Next, hosting websites with third-party hosting companies have become so cheap you will really need a good excuse to host a domain on your own server. It would make more sense to have a professional hosting company worry about 90% of the issues involved with your site than to have to do it all by yourself.
Finally, this will only be feasible if you don’t expect too much traffic and anticipate normal bandwidth usage as well as limited disk space – in short minimal resource usage. Because anything more than that and your website will load too slowly (before eventually being inaccessible due to traffic overload) and you will need to keep growing your hardware to keep up with demand (becoming too expensive for you to maintain).
With those warnings out of the way, let’s go on and have our site up and running:
A Dedicated Internet Connection: make sure you have enough bandwidth to handle your traffic. This isn’t a dialup affair – the minimum should be Cable Internet or DSL. Your ISP should be aware that you intend to host a website (and keep port 80 open) because they might start to wonder what you are doing with all that traffic rushing down your connection.
A Dedicated Server: fortunately the price of hardware has gone down in recent years. If you’re good at building servers, you can go ahead and use your own creation. But for hosting a small business website you can go out and buy a machine with 4GB of RAM and 64GB SSD, if you can do better, good for you.
What is better than one server, are two servers. If you can get two servers up and running you will reduce by half the chances of your server crashing. With two servers you will be able to use server replication so one server can take over if the other were to fail.
Choose Your Operating System Wisely: the best players in the OS game are either Windows-based or Linux-based.
Windows is a lot easier to install, configure and manage but when compared to Linux it is much less flexible. Open-sourced Linux, on the other hand, can be configured to do almost anything – if you know how to do it. If you want a server that can be locked down and deflect all attempts at hacking into it, Linux is your choice, but if you want the backing of a company that will regularly patch and upgrade your server for you and also offers support you can fall back on, Windows is the way to go.
Once you have decided on your choice, go ahead and install it. Next, install your web and FTP servers. Finally, it’s time to move your website to your new server(s).
(We won’t look into how the installation and replication is done as the internet is full of information on how to do it.)
Get a Static IP Address: a normal internet connection from ISPs comes with a temporary IP address that is assigned by a DHCP server. In other words, if you were to reboot your modem or if your ISP provider decided to change your IP address, it would make it hard for your site to be found by DNS servers.
This means you need to get yourself a permanent address – a static IP address, that is. Your ISP should be more than happy to help you with your purchase. Once they point your IP addresses to your NIC (network interface cards) you are ready to get your domain name.
(If you have a backup or replication server you will need two IP addresses.)
Get A Domain Name: this step is pretty forward – buy a domain name from a seller and point the name to your IP address or addresses.
Once your domain name resolves to your IP address, you will be accessible to the public and ready for business.
Now, once you have your site up you will need to start thinking about safety, security and administration.
- Give your server power backup using UPS.
- Place your servers where they cannot be accessed by anyone other than you. Install and configure a firewall – you will need it.
- Draft a plan to maintain your server – patching, updating, tuning and tweaking. Know your server inside out and keep monitoring it regularly.
- Although it might be a small server, you will still need to back it up as a precaution, especially if there is continuously changing data on your website. Setup regular backup schedules and make sure you store the data at a separate, safe and secure location.
Well, there you have it. You are now a proud owner of your own website that is hosted on your own server.
