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<p>
I think it was roughly the end of high school when I first had the idea I
wanted to make <i>some</i> kind of website. This would be around 2010 and I did
what I thought would be a good idea and bought a book on the subject: "Web
Sites for Dummies." I was dummy after all...
</p>
<p>
I got up to hyper linking with the "a" tag until I hit a wall. I don't want to
link the exact page since I don't want to get sued, but it basically read:
<pre>
Web design programs:
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Contribute
- Microsoft Expression Web
</pre>
</p>
<p>
Well, damn. I didn't have any of those. And as a stingy high school kid, I
didn't want to buy anything. So I shelved that book and forgot about for a
while since making a website seemed too expensive and needed too much flashy
software to make it. I knew nothing about free software at that age, other than
music software like Audacity which is what I was into at the time.
</p>
<p>
A few years later I caught a bit of a poetry bug--and maybe a bit of a snooty
college kid bug--and tried to run a blog. At that point, I had learned about
WordPress, which lets you easily make a space for sharing writing, media,
content, whatever really. And it's free as in <i>freedom</i> as I understand
since it's licensed under the GPL (if you want to take the time to deploy it
yourself). But they also give out free .wordpress domains and some storage
space for people who know nothing about hosting.
</p>
<p>
I had fun with that one, I don't update it anymore, but it's still up at
<a href="https://postquantumpoetry.wordpress.com">postquantumpoetry.wordpress.com
</a>. WordPress got closer to what I wanted, but it still wasn't <i>really</i>
my site; it was WordPress's site unless I wanted to pay the hosting and domain
fee. It's pretty modest, but I wasn't sold on sticking with a .com or .space
domain, or even sticking with WordPress. I was getting tired of blogging and
wanted to really make something.
</p>
<p>
It's now 2021, five years later, when I write this (and this website isn't even
finished yet). So what led me down the rabbit hole again? It probably started
where the last one left off, when I decided I wanted to switch to more
practical IT things over the academic science-y things I had previously wanted
to pursue. I signed up for a Cybersecurity program, somehow got in, and
eventually managed to land a entry-level SOC role after graduating. At this
point, it was getting a little embarrassing that I had no web
presence--especially after I decided to take down most of my social media
accounts. So I was back at "how do I make a website," again, but this time, I
at least had some understanding of what a server was and how networks work. And
more importantly, I had a better idea of what it meant for a computer to be
<i>mine</i>. Even though--let's be real--it <i>still isn't</i>. I can't get
high-speed Internet easily which I need to host a server long-term so I'm stuck
using some else's computer, otherwise called a Virtual Private Server (VPS).
Even if I could host at home, I'm still of course at the mercy of my ISP so
even then, I'm not totally free.
</p>
<p>
Because of that, I think it's important to understand that
"running your own website" is not just a <i>technical</i> ordeal, but also an
<i>economic</i> one since you have to carefully think about what it means to
you to <i>own</i> your server, your software, and your hardware
</p>
<h2>What is a web <i>server</i> and how do I run one?</h2>
<h2>How can make this server available on the Internet <i>cheaply</i> and <i>independently</i></h2>
<p>
I think it's important to cut to the chase on an important point that I feel
is not written about a lot.
</p>
<h3>Can I run a web server at home</h3>
<p>
TL;DR Technically yes, but practically probably not. At least not at a lot of
extra cost to you.
</p>
<p>
I spent a lot of time searching on this (you can find a full list of references
at the bottom), and I've even tested a little bit by hosting game servers and
web projects for code jams, but the problem is twofold. First, if you are in
the United States and not a business, you probably have a standard plan with
one of the major ISPs (Verizon, Optimum, etc.). This limits
you in a few ways.
<li>
Your bandwidth is limited, which limits the amount of people you can serve
at one time <i>and</i> the rate you can transfer data to them. Think laggy
games and videos that take 10 years to download.
</li>
<li>
Your ISP probably explicitly does not allow this. I have <i>never</i> had my
ISP complain about hosting small personal servers at home, but I imagine if I
hosted higher traffic things, I would have some problems.
</li>
<li>
</li>
</p>
<p>
</p>
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