Laptop as a web server?

[iviv]

I'm looking at buying a domain to use mostly for email, and occasionally for hosting files on the net when something like dropbox won't work, and occasionally for hosting a web page temporarily (Nothing huge, a basic wordpress sort of site). Since it wouldn't be a permanent website, rather than paying a monthly fee for more file space than I will ever need, would it be possible for me to hook my old laptop up to my router and set it up to host whatever I want hosted?

And I assume email would still be separate and I could get all that working separately through gmail?

Thanks!

 

[iviv]

The cheapest hosting package is £15/year or so. For the convenience, it's surely better to go with that than run your own server.

It is? Cheapest I found was £3/month so if there is something cheap like that, the convenience, near 100% uptime if required and lack of electric bill would probably make it worthwhile like you say. I must admit to not looking too thoroughly as the first few sites all had that £3 package as their cheapest, so didn't think it would get cheaper!

Who does offer that sort of rate?

 

[iviv]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. Just got a couple more questions related to it now.

Firstly, is there any danger in getting the domain I want as part of the hosting package? Obviously it makes things simpler with just the one account, but what happens if I decide I no longer need the hosting but still want the domain? As they see there is obviously someone who wants the domain, would they see that and push the price up a bit?

Equally, how does email work if I buy a domain separately without getting a server at all? Is it something where I can put the details of the domain into gmail, for example, and it all gets sorted automatically? Or would I have to have a hosting pack that includes webmail?

Finally, years ago I helped a friend host a really simple website, I don't remember many of the details, but we had to ftp in to upload files and so on. I'm fine with all this, but is there any real difference between a windows and a linux server for someone who only wants to do really basic things? For me it will basically be install wordpress, mess about with it a bit, and occasionally upload a big file to be downloaded by 1 or 2 other people once. I don't see why it would be much of an issue, since the wordpress install will be a case of following a guide, and then if I ftp in it will still have a recognisable directory structure to sort things out with.

Thanks again for all your help so far.

 

[iviv]

Think I'll go with vidahost. Acutely going to go with the slightly above basic level pack since the 3 years for 2 makes it a better deal than the base option.

Thanks so much for all the help!