What do I need

[AdamScott85]

Hi guys,

So I have a few really daft questions but I need some advice please. I have just finished my foundation degree and moving onto Bachelors in September at University in web design. Now I have just developed my first website for a local nursery and I have been pondering who to go with to host the website and a domain name, it is not yet live. The wife said to me "If you are serious about web design, why don't you host it"... And it has had me thinking, now I know I have a good home computer but hosting a website from it probably wouldn't be possible, especially with it is using a dynamic IP address. (I may be wrong). So I guess my question is (And I know it is probably really daft, I am new to web development), what exactly should I purchase in order for me to start hosting websites? And also can someone please confirm that hosting the website from my home computer would be a bad idea. Also if I was to host the website from my home computer, I take it I would still need to purchase a domain from somewhere right?
Lets just for the moment say that I am only going to be hosting 5 websites max, so I really don't want to be spending a lot of money if I don't have to, but at the same time I will if I have to. Also if I bought a server, how would that work with a dynamic IP (Does it still stay dynamic)?, and the hosting domain like I said I understand I would need to purchase these?

I understand a lot of those questions are in "stupid" catergory, but this is all new to me. thank you for any advice guys.

 

[varkanoid]

Hosting from your PC is a bad idea especially when there are such cheapo options on the net. I use Host Presto for my domains hosting costs me £24.99 a year for 2gb space (which is all I need as my needs are small and in laymen terms is your "server" although my package is an old one its probably different now and better) and uses cpanel to administer the space which can do everything from monitoring visits, providing unlimited email addresses, scripting, provides webmail for users etc etc etc etc to much to list but does loads. On top I have three domains, one .net which cost me £14.99 for 2 years and a couple of .co.uk's which cost me £7.99 each for the year or less if you pay for more years.

 

[gummi32]

I pay for a VPS from 1&1 which gives me a single server and IP address with full root access.
All my websites get hosted on there and I just buy domains and set DNS for each to the server and let Apache deal with serving the correct site for each domain.

Shop around as there are loads of providers offering different services and one will meet your needs at a price that suits you. Would not advise buying hardware and running a physical host from home.