Do you host a web server at home?

I currently run an entire startup in my garage, this includes routers, webserver, database servers, UPS's, etc, all hand built by the way. I work on it with 3 other guys who live 45 minutes to 4 hours away. We've bootstrapped this thing in a way that I'll have to write about once we're funded. I'm currently located in Virginia, and there is a mountain behind my house thats on fire about two miles away. I've been battling smoke for the last 48 hours. Operating out of your own house is amazingly convenient and a large undertaking at the same time. I both love and hate it, but most of all I've learned from it. Also, I'm running everything off of a Comcast Business Class connection, which was able to handle a LifeHacker post (10K visits in about 5 hours), so if Comcast frowns on my setup they haven't mentioned anything yet.

I did. Just save yourself the heartache and buy a cheap VPS from prgmr.com or similar (linode? slicehost? arpnetworks?)

I do, but just for web development and in-house apps.

It's possible to run a website from your home but there is a lot to consider..

- Does your ISP allow this? - Do you have enough upload bandwidth to deal with your expected load? - Do you have a static IP address (otherwise you can host your DNS elsewhere and use a Dynamic DNS program to update it)

So it's possible but unless it's something that's not that important, I wouldn't bother. You miss out on a lot of the standard features of dedicated hosting providers such as redundant power, multiple redundant uplinks and hardware support.

I do. I've run FreeBSD on a SunFire and on an old Thinkpad, and I currently run a Go web server under Plan 9 on that old Thinkpad. It's easy, just start the server and point your domain name at it. Since I've got a dynamic IP, I have a cron job to update it every day--it's just a personal page, so it doesn't really matter if it's unavailable for a little while every few months.

I've run a server at home for years. Mostly for SSH access to my old catalogue of email and to do some remote coding when at work. It also served as a website host for small scripts.. Which is about all you can do on a home connection.

For the handful of hosted sites that I manage and a version of Roundcube that connects to my mail provider - I use a VPS. Gandi is good.

For development, yes. For paying customers or a business, no way.

I used to, but shared hosting is less than 20 euros a year, a Decent VPS is use costs a little more: about 60 euros a year. For this kind of pocket change I can worry about other things than setting up and maintaining a web server. Doing it myself was a fun and good learning experience, though!

I host my Blog on a SheevaPlug from home. Additionally it runs an IMAP Server and some development stuff. In combination with the ARM Port of Archlinux it works pretty well - even with the small uplink my 2Mbit connection offers.

I used to do it. I've played with both static IP and dynamic DNS. Hosting from home works fine for a web server that doesn't expect a lot of traffic. Otherwise, save yourself the headache and fire up a VPS in a few minutes.

I have a low-key server at home. Ubuntu + dyndns. I even host some of my low-key sites on it. I've found it is a pretty good combo. It has come to be a very useful tool over the months.

I'd be interested to find out how to host from home. All these VPSs are getting expensive and I've noticed most of my side projects don't need all that.

It's so cheap to get a VPS from a good company (I use linode). Gone are the days that hosting from home is really necessary.

Have you considered the cost of a fixed IP ? Depending on were you live this could vary from 10$/month to 100$/month.