Is it possible to make a full-fledged hosting from an old PC?

Question

Network administration

Good evening, I’m sitting choosing hosting for my hobby and the thought came to my mind, is it really possible to make my own hosting from an old PC and not pay bearded guys). I'm not strong in servers, etc., is this idea really real? and is it possible to implement it for a beginner in this business using some lessons from the network? Of course, I googled the whole thing, they seem to say that it is quite possible, but you need to resolve issues with a static ip from the provider and get DNS there where I will buy a domain name. Simply put, is it worth doing this or is it all a hassle and is it easier to buy and engage in your hobby?

Answer 1

Simply put, is it worth doing this or is it all a hassle and is it easier to buy and engage in your hobby?

If there is a desire to make it your hobby, then it is very real. Experience is never redundant. In a couple of months, you can do a lot of interesting things (and consciously, and not with a stupid copy-paste).
If the goal is simple savings, then it’s better not to even start. Your time is much more expensive than such a benefit (and, by the way, take into account Alexander's comment - an old computer with a consumption of 150 W per month will eat ~ 100 kWh, hosting will be cheaper).

Answer 2

Really. Easy enough for those who understand linux. If you want to learn new skills and at the same time the site does not have to have 100% uptime or withstand thousands of users, then do it - it will be fun.

Answer 3

Can. At one time, I did such peruetas that I would not dream in a nightmare.
Router=>Windows=>Virualbox>OpenVZ>LinuxOS
On the router I forwarded the necessary ports and everything worked)

Answer 4

It is useless: you will have a noisy heating system at home 24/7, while power outages, Internet lags, everything will affect its operation. Reliability and uptime will be worse than any shabby hoster.

Answer 5

Everything is real. As a second hobby - setting up and maintaining home hosting.
But so that the second hobby does not slow down the first - creating and maintaining your site - it is worth doing everything in parallel.
Buy a domain name regardless of hosting, buy hosting (not for a year, but for 3 months), place a website there.
At the same time, set up an old computer, buy an IP address, deploy a duplicate site on your computer. With access by IP address.
Earned? We change the A record - we redirect the site to the home server, we do not pay more for hosting.
Didn't work? No time to practice? Not interested? We do not pay more for a static IP, we pay for hosting for another year.

Answer 6

Absolutely. For a small number of users (for example, an internal corporate Intranet/Extranet service) is ideal. For a wider audience - you can leave heavy data and business logic on it (because taking it outside is quite expensive) plus build a layer on some inexpensive shared hosting that will distribute static and try to work with a server via web- Services.