up one level
---
2015-08-01

Low-Cost from Existing Home Internet Service and Server and Domain Name – How to Serve a Website

My domain name service provider allows me to forward my domain name to any ip address.

This allows me to forward it to the ip address representing my own web server service.

This effectively allows me to make publicly-accessible (with an easily-remembered url) my existing service-connected web server, for the cost of only the domain name. Cost of this method: ~$10-$20 /yr. (per domain name.)

What are the comparable alternatives?

Well if I didn’t want to spend the cost of the domain name , then I could just set up my server on my own server, and tell my visitors to type in its ip address. The benefit is it costs nothing. The drawback is its not easy for a person to remember an ip address like its easy to remember a domain name. And If my ip address changes then I’d have to re-tell everyone what’s the new address. Cost of this method: ~$0 /yr. (No domain name)

Well if I can afford an additional $30-40 /yr., then I could buy dynamic dns service. The benefit is that when someone then browses to my domain name, the browser address bar shows the domain name the whole time as opposed to the ip address. This is friendly and builds trust. The drawback is it would cost that extra cost on top of the domain name. Cost of this method: ~$40-$60 /yr. (assuming one domain name.)

In summary, the above-mentioned method allows me to server a website from my home server for low cost.

a food image:




[2019 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2015/... .html.]