Question: Running a web server in the UK

[squilookle]

I'm hoping someone in the forums will be able to help. I'll start with some background.

I am a web developer, and I work in a company where most of my work goes on to servers that are looked after by someone else, so I just write stuff and upload it where I'm told to.

However, I have recently been thinking of doing some freelance work and have about 2 or 3 friends that have asked me to create websites for them. So, for the freelance work, I have created a web site which will hold a portfolio of my work, and generally present myself.

I have been thinking of how I will get this website, and the other projects online. I have a computer in the house which is run as a web server and has been used for development work (while I'm at home) for quite a while. I would like to connect this to the Internet and host the work on there.

My question is, can anybody recommend a decent provider in the UK for an Internet connection suitable for running a web server?

Thanks

[hessiess]

Home connections are perfectly antiquate for a development server and when the site reaches a state of completion, you can move it onto a 3rd party web hoasting service, which will be a lot cheaper than paying for electricity and a connection with good upstream bandwidth.

To put your server on the internet, all you need to do is set up port forwarding on your router. However doing this does open you up to attack from the internet (make sure its secure).

[ssam]

i use http://www.linode.com/ for virtual private hosting. you can ask for you virtual machine to be in their london data centre.

[Meep3D]

It's probably against your ISP's TOS, Most consumer broadband connections have horrible upsteam speeds (where it counts) and your home server/connection will probably keel over and die if faced with significant traffic.

If you are aiming to be at all professional use a proper web host - they are pretty cheap now and it's worth it just for the peace of mind. Personally I use UK2 and they've been pretty good so far.

[yknivag]

PlusNet (http://www.plus.net/) offer a fixed IP address included in the normal price on some of their deals and also allow personal servers to be run within the terms and conditions.

However if you want high availability then I'd go for a hosting solution such as http://www.unlimitedwebhosting.co.uk/.

[squilookle]

Thanks for the input all. I've been looking at the hosting providers and the isp's, weighing up the pros and cons and costing up: hosting is definitely the way forward.

Thanks for the input and recommendations. :)

[jpeddicord]

+1 to linode, they've got beefy VPSes and great support.

[mr-woof]

we used melbourne for our hosting, very good indeed. As said before, being in the uk you probably won't be able to host your own server, unless you have a business package and a static ip.

[yknivag]

we used melbourne for our hosting, very good indeed. As said before, being in the uk you probably won't be able to host your own server, unless you have a business package and a static ip.

I have a standard domestic package from PlusNet (http://www.plus.net/) and have a static IP and host my own server with no problem at all.