wat is a server?

Question

how to set up my own server?where to buy a server?

how much does it cost to maintain my own server?

how much does it cost to maintain my own commercial websites n my own domain names?

wat other costs r there ??


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Answer 1

Wow now thats a loaded question.

Put simply, a server is another computer that performs either one specific function, or multiple functions. Servers are computers that usually run all day long without anyone sitting at the keyboard. they are automatic and allow multiple users to share resources like printers, disk drives, and other things. There are many different kinds and the one that you want to choose is really dependent on what it is that you wish to use it for.

Servers can be setup with different roles, and here are just a few, A domain controller, Mail, File Server, Web Server, Print Server ...etc.

Actually the size of your company will drive how many and what type of servers to setup. When i say the word "type" im not actually saying that its different hardware, just when you load the operating system you need to set them up by giving them "roles"

As far as a basic server goes, you can start small and simply buy another regular computer and then load microsoft windows server on it. If you need more power you can upgrade to a real "server class" unit. The differences here are the robustness of the hardware. Most pc's are not meant to be left on 24/7/365.. whereas a server is made with that duty cycle in mind therefore has a beefier power supply, better cooling etc.

You can expand to a blade server later when you need more computing in less space... and there of course is always the thought of protecting your data with a raid system.. we could go one for a very long time here!

As far as the costs go for maintaining you own commercial website, there is the annual domain registration fee. Check out the fees at internic.com. You will need some sort of publishing program like frontpage to add content and maintain your site. You may wish to purchase a template for your website and those prices can vary alot depending on how much or more to the point how fancy the content you want. After that you need ot consider how much power it will use per month being left on all the time, your internet connection is a monthly expense and price varies by the amount of bandwidth you want. For instance my broadband connection at home is a 4Mbps connection that I pay 80 a month for with basic cable. If its commercial you may have access to a t1 line. And then there is the equipment (the TSU or cable modem) they can be purchased or leased. One more thing, if you are running a web server, you need to be able to tell the internet "where youre at" at all times, this is done by obtaining a "static IP address" from your provider. The reason we do this so the Domain name servers know where to look for you. when you register a domain it points to two or three name servers, these name servers are programmed with your ip address and when someone types in your URL the name servers translate it to the IP address. static ip addresses cost more as well.

once your up and running however the maintenance doesnt cost you much. just the recurring bills. monthly or yearly.

You could also consider renting server space from someone in that line of business, these guys typically have bulletproof redundant connections to the internet to ward against outages, they maintain the server hardware, and maintain your backups. this lets you concentrate on creating your content, and maintaining your pages without all of the headaches of server administration

Check with your isp about pricing. Of course there is always maintenance, backing up your data, costs money too, tape backup media, cd's or whatever method you use.

does that help though?