Should I Host Myself

[Octet]

Hello Daniweb,

Not sure if this is in the correct forum so sorry if I'm in the wrong place.

I am an amateur web developer and I am currently in the process of making a full working, advanced website created purely from scratch and in Notepad++ so that I can further advance my knowledge and because it has always been my end goal to own and manage my own website.

I currently have an HP Proliant Small Business Server that I've been using as my development environment which is running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server edition with a LAMP stack.
I've hosted on it before, with a couple of basic websites that I closed after a couple of weeks.

My ISP doesn't have a broadband cap so this isn't an issue.

My question is, should I host a site on my own server or pay for hosting (I shall need a database with a potentially large number of tables, PHP, JS and iFrames). The site may have a couple of hundred pages that are dynamically loaded from a DB.
I've never used a hosting service before so I'm not sure what they allow and don't allow? (I understand it shall vary from host to host)

Thank you
AHarrisGSY

[JorgeM]

If this is just for development, hosting on your network is definately OK. However, if you plan on having actual visitors that depend on your site, you have to consider that your internet connection at home is not guaranteed with an SLA, at least I wouldnt expect. If your connection goes down, even if its unlikely, what this the guarantee of getting it back within how much time? In addition, with only one server, how are you going to be able to maintain a 24/7 availability in services. You'll have patches to install, upgrade hardware, failures, etc. over time.

Of course if you host, you are limited by the plan you choose, bandwidth, storage, etc...

[Octet]

Thanks for the reply Jorge,

I think I may pay for hosting when I eventually get the site completed, security is probably my main concern if I did host it from home.

[nmaillet]

Is this a personal or business plan through your ISP? In either case, you may want to look over your service agreement, as some prohibit users from setting up servers. Whether they monitor and enforce it, I have no idea.

[JorgeM]

With regard to security, the hosting provider should have more experience and controls to help you with that, generally at the server level of course. But some for example, may have application based firewalls that will prevent common attacks such as SQL injections by looking at the traffic coming in an inspecting the content itself.

Either way, I agree with your plan to continue development and then host when you are ready. No sense if paying for hosting until you are ready.

[Octet]

Thanks for the replies,

My ISP allows port 80 and I have emailed them and they responded saying that there are no restrictions regardless of whether you are on Business or Personal plans.

I think I will pay for hosting then, as you mentioned Jorge, they shall have security professionals who manage their servers instead of me attempting to understand the full extent of Linux vulnerabilitis.