as your new to this you have to know several key areas about self-hosting, first is security. You run the risk of exploits being made if you install a webserver or open up your system if you dont adequatley protect it behind a firewall.
The next thing is that self-hosting on your xDSL/Cable line will not be as optimal as those hosted on OC3/Tx lines, IIS 5.1 (XP) has a hard limit of 5 connections max so your viistors will get a busy server msg until the slots are freed.
First decide what languages you need to support... heres a rough guideline:
ASP, ASP.NET
IIS
PHP, CGI, Perl
Apache
JSP, Servlets + PHP, CGI, Perl
Tomcat
Apache runs great on both Win32 and *nix but optimally you'd want to be running in a unix environment, so knock up a linux box (any spare old rig)and let it host. In terms of IIS, if your serious (hangon, if your serious you'd be using dedicated or atleast shared hosting!) look at atleast IIS 5.0 (Windows 2000) or IIS 6 (Windows 2003).
Enter your message below
Sign in or Join us (it's free).