Probably not a good idea.
First of all, its probably agains your ISPs terms of service.
Second, most broadband systems have fast downloads but relatively slow uploads, which would make the site seem slow for users.
Third, if you get any significant ammount of traffic, its going to eat into your bandwidth and your broadband experience isnt going to be so great.
Fourth, running from your own system means you are more susceptable to power outages (you dont have a multi-hour UPS, do you?) or downed network connections (expensive T-1 and faster connections have a tendancy to get fixed VERY quickly, with broadband you could be down for days).
Fifth, by running the server on your machine, you are now responsible for securing it. If you dont secure it and someone get access to your machine, would you want them having access to your personal files or your source code? I wouldn''t
Sixth, there just isnt a good reason to run it from your connection. If your site will be low enough traffic that your broadband connection can handle it, then you could probably qualify for some of the web hosts that only charge like $20 a year.

I completely agree with LordKronos. Check out readyhosting.com or halfpricehosting.com for very good, reliable, and inexpensive hosting.

[edited by - alex mcandrew on July 8, 2002 9:59:43 AM]

$20us a year!?! What host do you do business with? I wanna work with them at that price!

The biggest issue with running your own server is making sure that you have a static IP. Most broadband providers supply you with a dynamic IP. It is pretty much impossible to run a server with an IP that can change at nearly any time. If you pay the extra cost each month and get a business connection, only $15us extra a month for me, then you will get a static IP and a DNS entry. If you are not sure what a DNS entry is - forgot about running a web server. Also, a business line usually has uptime garauntees.

Hope that helps.

God was my co-pilot but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him...
Landsknecht

quote: Original post by Landsknecht
$20us a year!?! What host do you do business with? I wanna work with them at that price!

I dont use them because of some of the restrictions, but I dont think their restrictions are any/much worse than what you get hosting over your own broadband connection. My friend is hosting his own personal site there, so thats how I learned about it, but I dont think there TOS would prevent you from running a small commercial site. Just realize you arent getting the same features/support you get from a $30/month host. Anyway, here is what my friend emailed me a few months ago:

"I got a great deal for webspace from http://www.cyberwings.com which is only $7.80/Year with 110MB space, Unlimited Email address with 50MB of space, 2 MySQL databases, and PHP support"

That might work just fine for what Jix needs. Their site seems a little slow today (or maybe its just my connection) but the last time I looked they were pretty speedy, and my friend''s site seems to come up pretty speedy right now (even if it is only a small page, there was no delay)



Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Coming July 2002