Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

PHP

Martin Dweh
Martin Dweh
1,014 Points
Posted by Martin Dweh
Martin Dweh
1,014 Points

How can I set up my own website server?

Hello Guys, I have a question about web servers

I want to build my own social network, like facebook. -it'll have Instant live Chat, messages, Photos, profile, home page, newsfeed, the whole 9 yards.

Question: What type of server do I need to run something like this. I tried hosting it on iPage, but after 3 months, they shut down my social network when it got to 6,429 members. I called and asked why? -They told me it's making too many calls to the server, and the server is a shared server. And if I wanted to keep the social network up, I'll need to upgrade to VDS virtual dedicated server, and that'll cost me about $600 per month. And the price will go up as my members grows.

I don't have that kind of money for now to move from paying $167 every 3 years to $600 monthly. So I took down my social network.

Can I build my own server? and if so -How can I link my domain I bought, to the self-built server? and How do I make it LIVE for people to find it?

Any good answer will be greatly appreciated -THANK YOU!

1 Answer

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

There will be significant costs to do it properly, starting with almost all ISP's are not going to allow you to have a home server running that kind of bandwidth on a consumer grade internet connection. With that amount of traffic, your ISP will likely throttle your service or discontinue it.

I actually don't know what it would take to be legit on your own, it would be a good question for a system admin. I can tell you, from experience iPage is not the right host for you. A company I used to work for used iPage, they're not set up for that.

You should look at more cost effective options like AWS and Digital Ocean. And at 6,700 users, you should be able to start monitoring that user base to get the site paying for itself.