When you take the role of the host, what you will need to ensure is that your PC at all times perform optimally and reliably. This is not an easy task. First of all, you must choose the right hardware and secondly you have to maintain it in such a way that its hardware and operating system is maintained on a day to day basis.
Key things that are to be maintained or needed;
- Your Internet connection.
- Your reliable and fast performing PC.
- Windows XP professional as your secure Operating System.
- IIS Server (Web server in Windows XP professional). Windows 98 also has personal web server and it will suffice too. However, IIS and Windows XP are far more stable.
- Dynamic DNS – This is a very important aspect of hosting from home.
(On the Internet, people connect to you using domain names for ex: cnn.com. Technically Internet works on IP addresses. We will discuss more about dynamic DNS soon.
Hardware & OS recommendation:
- Intel Pentium 4, 2 – 3 GHz range.
- 512 or 1GB RAM
- High Performance SATA or SCSI Hard Disk preferred.
- Dual Power Supply System recommended.
- Windows XP professional as the OS.
- Windows, Mcafee, ZoneAlarm, or Symantec based Antivirus and firewall.
Next: More about dynamic DNS