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Setting Up Your Own Server Note: Establishing a Web presence on your premises is never recommended unless you have enough technical expertise to build your own network and install and maintain your own Internet services. If you understand the intricacies involved in setting up your own server then firstly, you will need to obtain a high-speed connection, because you will not be able to use a cable connection. By calling your local telephone company or a national bandwidth provider, you will be able to order a local loop connection to a high-speed T1 or T3 line. Usually, access to such lines is only available in major metropolitan areas throughout North America and Europe and can cost at least $2,000 US per month in some areas. Once you order the line, it will be installed on premises and you will require a "router" to direct traffic to the Internet. A router is a very expensive and sophisticated piece of equipment that allows your in-house computers to communicate with the Internet at large. This piece of equipment usually costs in the range of $500 to $2,000 US. You can cut this cost in half if you set up a Linux-based server as your router. All you need for a Linux-based router is a $1,000 PC clone and two network cards. You also need the technical expertise to load up and set up the server so that it is safe and secure. If your Linux-based router sustains a denial of service attack, then your whole network could be paralyzed. For this reason, most experienced network engineers select reliable router hardware manufactured by Cisco Systems or Nortel Networks instead. The router must then be connected to another piece of equipment referred to as a "hub." The hub allows you to plug a numerous number of computers into your industrial-strength Internet connection. You will need at least two PCs connected to the hub to provide a reliable Web presence. One computer will be used to provide domain name services (DNS). A DNS server allows you to establish, manage and resolve your domain names on site. A DNS server is rather cheap to set up since open source DNS software is included in most Linux distributions. And because a DNS server does not demand a lot of computer power if you are only running under 100 domains, you can install it on an old x86-class computer, thereby reducing your costs. The second computer that will be required will be the Web server itself. The Web server will be heart of your Internet operations. It will continuously run software that physically distributes your content quickly and efficiently to your customers. For this reason, the bulk of your investment must be on this computer. In order to beef up your site's performance, you will need to lease or purchase the fastest computer you can afford. The minimum specifications will be at least 256 megabytes of RAM and 4.3 gigabytes of storage space. The more RAM and storage space your server has, the better its performance. This will set you back at least $1,000. But inevitably, you will need to spend more money in order to back up your site, because your computer will require a tape backup. You will also want to consider an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or in extreme circumstances a gas generator to ensure that your site does not go down if there is a power outage at your premises. Then you will have to determine which operating system to load. This choice will depend on your technical know-how. The most accomplished administrators may wish to load a flavor of the UNIX operating system onto their computer. This will allow them to take advantage of the GNU licenses that explicitly permits them to use popular server software packages such as the Apache Web server free of charge. The trade off is that UNIX-based systems are extremely difficult to install and implement. They are living remnants of the first mainframe-based systems and are still as complex. You will need to know how to customize and compile C based programs, multiple shell environments and edit script-based applications, mostly without the aid of a GUI-based environment. The other operating system choice is Windows Server. This OS is selected by administrators who wish to run Windows specific database applications such as Allaire ColdFusion or MS-SQL. Windows requires a huge amount of system resources, so your computer will need to be loaded with a lot of memory. Setting up a Windows-based server is always more expensive because of the cost of the software and user licenses. A maximized Windows server (including hardware and software) will cost at least $15,000. A maximized UNIX server will cost at least $8,000. And after all these expenditures, you must now consider how you will integrate an expensive e-commerce solution into your network, which will set you back anywhere from $2,500 to $7,500. For these reasons, we suggest that outsource your hosting requirements. Doing so will reduce your costs, add network enhancements such as load balance and redundant connectivity and allow you to place unilateral focus on your business.
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