You might be having your set of websites. Or you might want to shift to local hosting of your web pages. Maybe you don’t want to pay a good lump sum amount to a web hosting. Or maybe you are just wondering, how to create your own server at home for web hosting. But you might not be well aware of what to do. Then fear not, this article shall help you out with it!
Before we start about the details of building a web server, let us know
What is a web server?
A web server’s main purpose is to store website files and broadcast them over the internet for you site visitors to see. In essence, a web server is simply a powerful computer that stores and transmits data via the internet. The IP addresses of each device helps to locate and transmit the data to them. Web servers are the gateway between the average individual and the World Wide Web.
Let us now talk about the centerpiece of this article,
How to create your own server at home for web hosting
Let us talk Hardware
You need to know that to have a good host server you have to focus on a few key points. You need to have a good CPU, a lot of RAM and tonnes of storage.
Having a good CPU that can handle heavy tasks is very essential. In addition to that having a good amount of RAM and a lot of local storage.
Ideally for budget servers, having a 6-core processor would be good, but if you can stretch your budget more cores will yield more benefit. To know more in detail about which CPU would be right for you, visit this website.
Processors:
AMD Ryzen 5 3500X – 6 cores, 12 thread, Upto 4.1 Ghz, 35 Mb Cache
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X – 16 cores, 32 thread, Upto 4.7 Ghz, 72 Mb Cache
Next question will arise, how much RAM do I need?
Well that majorly depends on your use case scenario and the number of users that will be connected to that server. Ideally the more RAM, the merrier. To know about the exact RAM configuration for you, you can read here.
RAM:
HyperX Fury – 8 GB 2666 Mhz (1 × 8)
HyperX Fury – 64 GB 3200 Mhz (4 × 16)
The storage for your server again depends upon your usage. Most servers use SATA Hard Drives as their storage options. While an NVMe SSD is used as your boot drive(more on this later). Most of the drives used are NAS drives.
SATA Hard Drive:
Seagate BarraCuda 2 TB – 3.5″ SATA Gbps, 5400 RPM
If you are short on budget, or don’t want to invest in building a new server. Don’t worry, you can always use your old PC as a server. Just remember to check if the Power Supply Unit is sufficient if you are going to keep it on for 24 hours a day.
What’s your Operating System?
After your hardware is ready, the next thing to think about is what software do you want to use on it. As it is the Operating System that you communicate with when you use a device.
Mainly you have an option of choosing between Windows and Linux. Windows is a paid Operating System. While Linux is open source. Almost 70% of the servers that are up and running to this day runs on Linux.
Internet Connection
All the transfer of files from the server to your computer happens via the internet. Having a good and stable connection is really important. Contact your Internet Service Provider for the details regarding the same.
You can check your internet speed here.
Almost there…
Set up and configure your server. Depending upon what Operating System you used this process will be different.
For users opting Windows : Click Here.
For Linux users : Click Here.
Proceed to set up your domain name and check whether it works or not. Before you do, users will only be able to visit your site by typing in your web servers external IP address. Rather than a series of numbers, you’ll want an easy-to-remember address for your users to type in.
Voila
You now have your own server ready. Feel free to enjoy and be productive!