Some of the major things to consider when planning to host locally is the bandwidth, load, and maintenance. The most limiting of these is probably your upload bandwidth. Most ISPs, especially DSL, have much slower upload bandwidth which needs to be shared by all users reaching your site. One nice thing about many of the hosting services using virtualization, is that if some reason, your site gets popular, they replicate your site to meet the load instantly. Most of us will probably never be lucky enough to need this. Lastly, a hosted site will perform all of the security and maintenance tasks you do not want to be bothered with. In your case, the bandwidth required to the server is probably most important and should be calculated for worst case.
I think you got enough of an answer to all of your DNS questions. So I will add a few tidbits anyway! The DNS system is a hierarchical system of services on servers that translate between the domain and the server's IP address. There are a small number of root DNS Servers, which are heavily monitored because they can cause massive outages. Most people use DNS Servers running at their ISP. Your domain lookup request travels up the tree until it gets an authoritive answer or an answer that has been cached recently. Otherwise, it asks up the chain toward the root, gets an answer and returns it to your browser. It was originally designed for each domain and sometimes sub domains each have their own domain server. When I worked at GE, we set up two levels and some buildings had their own DNS server. The domain system has vastly flattened out, to where today the .com domain is huge! It is fortunate server performance has kept pace, because even DNS requirements today would have been impossible with last decade'[s hardware / software.
It is possible to manually enter DNS servers in your router and bypass your ISP for this service. Using a free service like OpenDNS.com provides extra features like adult supervision of the sites that can be viewed in your home, based on settings in your account. Strangely, this service is faster than the the DNS from the ISP.
Don Marang Vinux Software Development Coordinator (vinux.org.uk)There is just so much stuff in the world that, to me, is devoid of any real substance, value, and content that I just try to make sure that I am working on things that matter.
Dean Kamen -------------------------------------------------- From: "Humberto Rodriguez" <sub@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 9:03 PM To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: a bit ot: servers
DNS stands for Domain Name Server. Internet works on IP addresses and whenwe request a domain for example, on the address bar of the browser, an FTPclient or an email server, there is a server for that domain extension, forexample a .com domain, which receives the request and through DNS entries,knows which DNS server to send it to; and the DNS server will in turn sendit to the host that handles that domain, either as a host or virtual host. The host server knows which account and protocol to send the request to, whether a dedicated or shared server. Humberto----- Original Message ----- From: "Littlefield, Tyler" <tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 8:37 PM Subject: Re: a bit ot: servers | The point of a nameserver is to provide redundancy; if one fails, there | is another one in backup. One specification is that they are on separate | systems, to help with the redundancy. Essentially the nameservers run | dns servers, which send out the records for the dns requests. That's | about as much of it as I understand. | On 3/2/2011 4:04 PM, Alex Hall wrote: | > I was hoping to avoid a monthly or yearly bill, though having root | > access does sound nice. While it may be more work, is it possible to | > register a domain on my own server (that converted pc)? What exactly | > do you mean by a nameserver, and how is it different from the server | > you get when you install apache or a similar program? | > | > On 3/2/11, Littlefield, Tyler<tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: | >> Hello Alex, First, you can save a lot of the trouble by grabbing up a | >> linode. $20/m gets you a sweet server, and it's your own. It's a vps| >> system, but you get root so you can do whatever you want. They also run| >> their own DNS servers, so you don't need to do dns yourself. Let me know | >> if this is something you are interested in, I have a refer code. What| >> you need to do is find someone that hands out domain names, then point| >> that domain at a nameserver. | >> On 3/2/2011 3:44 PM, Alex Hall wrote: | >>> Hi all, | >>> I am in a class in which we have to download WAMP. I did, and I also| >>> got Django (a Python web framework) since I love Python and had never | >>> tried Django before. After using it, I really like it and I am toying| >>> with setting up an old pc of mine as a server. It would be low | >>> traffic, probably no more than a hundred visitors at a time (and | >>> usually few to none), but I really like the idea of having control| >>> over everything instead of renting space where I have to shell into it| >>> and cannot add, for example, libraries or upgrades. | >>>| >>> My question is: I had a domain registered, but I let it lapse. It was | >>> through ipowerweb.com. First, can I re-register it for less somewhere| >>> else, paying whomever gets paid for this sort of thing directly? | >>> Second, is it possible to have that domain point to an ip of my | >>> choice, namely my Apache server's ip? If so, how would I configure | >>> this? | >>> | >>> Thanks in advance. When I google stuff like this, I only get offers | >>> for cheap domain registration, but they all come with server plans, | >>> which I do not want. | >>> | >> | >> -- | >> | >> Thanks, | >> Ty | >> | >> __________ | >> View the list's information and change your settings at | >> //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind | >> | >> | > | || -- || Thanks, | Ty | | __________ | View the list's information and change your settings at | //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind | __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
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