Introduction
This article will give a break down on what do you need to run a home website server.
In terms of the browsing flow, we will need to focus on domain -> ip:port -> server process.
And from infrastructure side, stability and cost will need to be considered.
Finally, I would suggest give up a home server, and choose cloud server instead.
Domain
We need a domain to provide an access for end users to get into the website.
How to get a domain, there are typically three ways:
- Buy a new domain from cloud provider. You could decide the DNS to that domain, and map it to the home server.
- Apply from a free domain. There are some free domain provides, which could provide subdomain from their domain, for example your-subdomain.provider-domain.com . The downside is that the domain look not so independent and sometime you get restrain from using the server.
- Domain from GitHub Page. You could put static website in your GitHub repository and access it from your GitHub Page.
IP:PORT
Three things you need to fix here, 1) DNS for your domain to your public IP, 2) LAN access, 3) check the availability of port.
DNS
You need a public IP to map you domain. You could check it from you router side, and see if the router get a public IP. You could double check it with the result from IP address website. The network provide might give you a static IP or dynamic public IP.
Static IP
It is easily to set up DNS for static IP, you just need to configurate on domain side.
Dynamic IP
For home network, you usually get a dynamic public IP, in this case, you need to set up a DDNS to periodically renew your DNS configuration. For example, using ddns-go.
LAN
Most router allow you map the outer port to an inner port. For example, you router have a public IP 1.1.1.1 , and your LAN pc have a private IP 192.168.1.2 , for running a http sever, you need to expose 80 and 443 ports, in this case, you need add a configuration in router to map 1.1.1.1 80 and 443 to 192.168.1.2 80 and 443.
Port Availability
There are some network provides blocking 80 or 443 port from home users. In that case, you have to use other port instead, but it is not a good idea for the public access to your website.
To check the availability, you could host a http sever by tomcat or python server in 80 and 443, and access it directly from your public IP.
Stability
When setting up a home server, you have to prepare for sudden power down, and the way to recover from it.
You could try use Wake-on-Lan feature to power on your home pc by network. And if you are not physically home, you have to proxy yourself into LAN, which could be implemented by VPN or other proxy.
Cost
Last but not least, the cost of home server.
If you are using a common laptop, the power usually is 50W. And in Singapore, it will lead to 10 SGD electricity bill.
Meanwhile a 2C1G AWS lightsail virtual server cost 9.5 SGD.
So, in the end, with so much effort you need put into building a home server, I would say how about do yourself a favor and have a cloud server instead, thank you.