Is it possible to run my own website from my home DSL connection or from by Cable Broadband Cable?

If so what would I need?

these are questions i have asked myself for a while and i wanted to see how i can do this.

the answer is yes, you can.

what will you need? you can use dsl or cable service: however, becareful, because some ISP (Internet Service Providers) do not allow you to do this. so you better read their "Terms of Service" i know what AT&T used to be SBC, they would allow you to do this, but Comcast (now Infinity) did not allow you to do this. so check with your provider first.

1. WAN IP ADDRESS - you will need to get your WAN IP address so people from internet can access your connection. go to this post to see what your ip address is:

show me my ip address what is my ip adress?

what is a WAN IP.. in the computer networks, there are two types, a LOCAL network (aka LAN or intranet) and a Public network (aka WAN or the Internet). so the WAN IP is basically your PUBLIC IP ADDRESS (or Internet IP ADDRESS)


2. WEB SERVER: you will need a web server. the most popular web server on the internet is APACHE. best of all, its free. if you dont have a web server already, this is your lucky day, because i will tell you an easy way to get a web server running on your Windows PC or laptop. just go to www.apachefriends.org and download XAMP. XAMPP stands for (Windows Apache MySQL PHP Perl) so download and install it, its very easy to install

3. once you have installed XAMPP on you computer, start it running and go to your browser and type in the following to see the server:
http://localhost

or

http://127.0.0.1

4. for step four, be sure you can answer this question.. are you able to see the XAMPP control panel? if yes, continue, otherwise, you have to get your server setup to continue to step 5

5. ok, if you are on step 5 is because you can access your localhost, so now, enter the ip address you got from step 1 into your browser and you should be able to see the XAMPP control panel or whatever web server you have running.

NOTE: if you cannot see it, then it means you are behind a firewall and you need to set your DSL or CABLE router to "Port Forward".. if you dont know how to do this, connect your computer running the web server directly to your DSL or CABLE modem. and you should be able to see it by using the WAN IP address.

now you can see run whatever website you want on your XAMPP server. the only thing you need to do is rename the htdocs folder to htdocs-XAMPP and create a new htdocs folder and put the files in the htdocs folder to run your website

ADVANCED: if you have a domain name and you want to use the domain name, you can use a service called dynamic DNS, just google it - basically what this is, is a service that you install on the server and the software automatically updates the WAN IP address that your ISP is giving you. this is useful because ALL ISP give you a DYNAMIC IP through DHCP. however, there are ISP that you can by STATIC ip address and you wouldn't need to install a DYNAMIC DNS application. so you have to choices:

A. install a DYNAMIC DNS program
B. Check with your ISP if they provide STATIC IP ADDRESS (NOTE: this will be more expensive service than the regular service you get)

for example,

COMCAST calls this service "Comcast Business IP" http://businesshelp.comcast.com/Pages/HelpNFC.aspx?id=internet-using-a-static-ip

AT&T offers STATIC IP also, they call it "Static IP for Single IP IDSL/ADSL" http://dsl.bus.att.com/ys/si.html#static_ip

if you can't afford these services, http://dyn.com is a good DYNAMIC DNS service