I want get my own dedicated server using pentium 4 1.7 cpu with 328 megs of ram, and 200 gig hard drive isntalled in windowx xp home only. Wil i be able to set up dedicated server account off this equipment i own? Let me know before i run into any problems. Thanks, Joe- web master

I suppose you could run a server on XP Home, but it's certainly not something I would do for a lot of reasons. It depends what you want to do with it and what kind of connection you have. System specs really don't matter as much as your Internet connection, OS, and apps to provide services you want to offer such as web serving, FTP, database/SQL, etc.

i wouldnt even think about it unless you can provide them with cpanel or some kind of remote account administration and, most definetly you will need a 100MBIT connection roamhosting.net

I think a 100Mbit connection is a bit much. With overhead, that's running at about 10MB/s (that's megabyte). That's as fast as many LANs run (I'd kill for an Internet connection like that! :) It depends what you mean by "dedicated server". If you mean a server you run out of your house just for your own use, then really any Internet connection works, but the faster the better. Upload is more important than download speed. 256Kbps upload is alright for most plain HTML pages, but you'll want more if you do stuff like graphics, Flash, downloads, etc. If you are talking about a server that you let other people use for their own webspace, then depending on how many people you serve, you may want up to T1 comprable speeds (1.54Mbps). Though this is something you would very much NOT want to do with XP Home.

Yes, but... I've done the cost analysis several times (believe me, I've looked for every excuse to run things myself). In terms of money and the value of your time, you simply cannot compete with the price of webhosting. Even dedicated hosting is cheap (and I doubt you need that). But it can be fun to run your own setup, so don't discount that. Just don't run the webserver with Admin priveleges.

for personal use, running your own server can be fun and a learning experience. have your friends and family access your site. if it crashes.. ahha no big deal. for commercial/serious use.. have the professionals host for you.