How to make a website

Yes you can but I would not recommend it unless you are highly competent with the technology and software. To host a site you would need a permanent IP address, some web server software, a permanent Internet connection and loads of time and very chilled out.

In my opinion if you want to see your next birthday you are better off paying for some good web hosting from a good hosting company.

WARNING!

Before we go any further I have to issue a security warning. Connecting your computer to the Internet opens up all kinds of security issues, especially if your computer is connected to a network. Only attempt this if you really know what you are doing and are happy to take that risk – you have been warned.

However if you do want to host on your own machine you will need:

1. DSL, Cable or other high speed permanent connection to the Internet. You cannot do this with a dial-up connection.

2. Get a DNS hostname for your computer. There are various ways of doing this – just explore the Internet and you will find some free services. However you will need a static IP from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and not a dynamic one which is what most of us have (this will probably cost you more money per month – hosting for yourself  is not a cheap and free option.

3. Set up your Router (if you have one) to forward the web traffic (Port 80) through to your server (the computer where your website will be).

4. Make sure any firewalls you have will let your traffic through. If you set everything up but can’t get a connection through then this is the first thing to check.

5. Get yourself some web server software (Apache is the most popular and one of the most secure) and set it up on your server. You can test this is working from the server. You may also need to set up some software for databases and running server programs (e.g. mysql and php – are the most popular options).

6. Put your website in the location that has been defined by your server sofware in step 5. Test it!

If you are really serious about this then take a look at http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/creating/hostmyown.html where there are more detailed instructions.