[Glorfindal]

I plan to get a server because my Webhost won't allow me to host ASP files or database. And I have a couple of questions about getting a server, I plan to get this server.
1) Do you have to pay monthly fees to have a server?
2) Can I put ASP on my server?

Well those are the only questions I have now, so could someone try to answer them for me?! It would really be nice.

[thehat]

Sounds to me like you need to get a better host. Most hosts permit at least one server side language and a few databases as standard.

What're you wanting to end up serving? Unless it's something quite large I don't think there's any need to buy your own server, but I'll have a bash at your questions anyway.

1) You don't have to pay anything to have a server, but putting it online will incur ISP and line rental charges. How much this costs will depend on what speed connection you want, and I'm afraid I'm not very well informed on US ISP and telephony charges. Some ISP's will also charge you more for a static IP address, which you will need.

2) If you're running a windows server with Internet Information Services (which you will be if you buy the linked product), then ASP will run straight out of the box.

[Auzzie]

There are plenty of website hosting companies that allow you to get hosting on a windows based server to allow you to use ASP, please note, if you are told you can run ASP on a Linux server, you can it is called mod_asp BUT mod_asp uses PERL not the standard VBScript, JScript etc engines

[mocker]

Running a server on your ISP's connection is really only useful when you are using it to debug software, and not a good idea for anything live online. The link you pasted is to the windows software, so you'd still need hardware to put it on.
The best two options for running your own webserver is to either:
-buy your server and software, and then pay a datacenter for a spot to put it, and bandwidth. (colocation)
-rent a server from a company already in a datacenter

Both of these have monthly charges associated with them.

If you want to just look for another webhost, make sure they support ASP ahead of time. ASP is specific to windows servers only. mod_asp is an unofficial port to try to get it to work on Linux, and is a headache to run for server administrators so not very common.

[MarkoDaGeek]

Windows Home Server is designed for multimedia sharing, photos, videos, music etc.

The OS is not designed to host websites. You would be looking at getting a *real* Windows Server OS like Windows Server 2008 or Server 2003, which would feature IIS. IIS fully supports ASP among other things - http://www.iis.net/

[no2pencil]

Glorfindal, on 29 Jan, 2009 - 06:37 AM, said:

Well those are the only questions I have now, so could someone try to answer them for me?! It would really be nice.

Depends on your ISP.

Their contract with your service may not include ports 80 (web) & 25 (mail), as you have the residential service. Plus your IP will be on residential registration with the ISP, & easily tagged as "spam" for email & possibly web connections, again, if they even allow that traffic.

Also with a residential service, you'll have a DHCP assigned ip address, which means that it's prone to change, & then the DNS will no longer be correct.

Check into their corporate package, but be prepared to pay more. You'll get on a different subnet, where you won't be tagged as a possible spammer, & most other email services won't automatically block your traffic.

But along with the connection, be aware what security you'll be up against. Hackers & spammers will target your server specifically for bandwidth & storage. But most pcs connected to the internet run that risk as it is.