I am in the process of setting up a social netowkring site with a fairly extensive amount of user generated content, emails, and a very small amount of commerce.

I am currently hosting at IX web hosting... the response times don't seem great, and there are also issues with certain services (for example, they claim that Yahoo! "throttles" their emails and doesn't accept emails sent from the IX server). In short, I am ready for a change.

Is it possible for me to set up an industry-strength web server with Linux and MYSQL at home? If so, where do I start? Or should I switch to a dedicated hosting service (in which case I would like to keep it somewhat cost effective).

Thanks for your advice.

Sure you could setup a great server at home, but you will be bottle necked by your home ISP provider. Most providers block port 80 and port 25. (web and email) Thus stopping you from serving web pages and sending email without a few work around. You will also be limited by your line and traffic size. I would suggest a high end VPS or Dedicated Server that is hosted someplace else. You can find really cheap vps for linux pretty much anywhere but not many are not managed. If you spend a little more you can find great managed Windows Dedicated Servers hosted with Server Intellect. From what you have I would spend the money and not mess around with a home server.

I would suggest you to go for dedicated server.

Sure you could setup a great server at home, but you will be bottle necked by your home ISP provider. Most providers block port 80 and port 25. (web and email) Thus stopping you from serving web pages and sending email without a few work around. You will also be limited by your line and traffic size. I would suggest a high end VPS or Dedicated Server that is hosted someplace else. You can find really cheap vps for linux pretty much anywhere but not many are not managed. If you spend a little more you can find great managed Windows Dedicated Servers hosted with Server Intellect. From what you have I would spend the money and not mess around with a home server.



Can you tell me how to do that.. is thr any configuration or setting as to do for that?

You can set up home server but it is not recommended. There is too much tech staff you should consider and bandwidth we'll you'll get from ISP we'll be too low. If you're not satisfied with shared hosting and don't have money for deidcated solution you might try virtual private servers - the middle ground.