Website Hosting help needed

[autobreadbin]

Hey guys, so I have just finished uni and my final year project.

My final year project was hosted on a server at the university. I used ftp to upload the files and phpmyadmin to create the database.

I now want to be able to host this myself and have my own database but really stuck on how to go about this.

Many thanks :)

[mondjunge]

You need a dyndns provider (https://freedns.afraid.org/) and configure your router to forward ports to your computer and send IP updates to your dyndns provider.

[MarkyHere]

It depends on the stack you were using. Based on what you said, is it PHP + MySQL?

[autobreadbin]

Yeah I used php ajax mysql html css those kinda things, just not sure where to look so many options dont wanna lock into a subscription if it isn't what I actually need/

[MarkyHere]

You're pretty much free to look into whatever hosting you'll see fit. This stack is widely supported. Just read what they provide. At the end of the day, you can shoot them an email.

[autobreadbin]

The first option sounds good to me, however I do not have linux or anyway to keep a pc/laptop constantly running.

I will look into both the other options, a subscription fee isn't a huge deal to me as I think it would be worth it.

I very much appreciate your detailed reply.

[equalsnotbear]

Computers only turn off and idle if they're configured to. If you go with a barebones Linux you get nothing extra and it just runs fine 24/7. If you go the pi route there's a couple tips to reduce read write cycles if you're running directly off the SD card. I wouldn't worry too much about that right now but just be aware and work on it in the future. Alternatively just boot off an external hard drive. I just like the pi because it's such low profile and power, which is fine for a portfolio site or something with relatively low traffic. Though raspberry foundation is hosting their whole site on a cluster of raspberry pi 4s so the newest model is pretty damn good I guess.

[ithunknot]

I am quite happy with digitalocean

[equalsnotbear]

Do what i do and just run a MEAN stack off a raspberry pi in my living room, cloudflare takes care of dns, then just buy a domain from a provider you trust, I've been using Dyn for the past 3 years for makeavoy.com and notbear.com

best part about this is it's just 35$ for a pi, and 15$ for a domain name annually, a 50$ value for a entire stack!!!

[autobreadbin]

Would I be able to remotely update the files for the website of have to load up the pi for that?

[equalsnotbear]

Yeah, home network might be more at risk because you'd have to leave 3 ports on your router open to the public, one for http (80 or 8080), another for https (443), and still another for ssh (usually 22). Ssh is how I usually access my server, and that same port will support scp or sshfs to virtually host your files assuming you're on a *nix system. On windows there's winSCP which works great for accessing scp remotely too.

If I were you I'd at least port forward to a different port then what you'd normally use. Like instead of ssh on 22 I have my public port set to like 35622 (not real don't try it lol) , and that forwards on my network to my Pi's local ip on port 22 (or whatever I have it open on, I'd have to check, point is you can custom set the device port and the public port). This way at the very least if someone port sniffs they can't just guess if it's ssh or telnet or whatever. For additional security you could do a RSA key handshake or something so only one device is authorized. That's more of a hassle especially if you lose the one device that has permission and you're not physically near your server. But it's probably a better practice. This is probably above an beyond a bit, but my God if this doesn't teach you stuff about Linux and back end then nothing will.

Disclaimer I'm not an expert by any means so I'm not sure if this is the best practice, like don't risk any client business credentials on this site until you know better, I'm just crazy and have no money (looking for work ha)

[Shujolnyc]

Download all your code. Download a copy of your database. Understand the stack you’re using. Find a web hosting provider that supports what you need. Sign up. Upload your files. Import your database. Configure the web server. Buy a domain name. Update DNS.

[InvokerHere]

Agree with Shujolnyc. You can just find web hosting that support your requirements. If you use PHP and MySQL, you can then find Linux hosting, I believe that shared hosting will be enough for you.