Websites... help clear something up plz.
 

An interest group of mine has its own website. We pay <insert amount> to keep it running.... but why.... why pay? What does it take to have a website of your own without paying for it? I have little understanding of how domain names are used. Do you need your own server? How does this work?

Why pay? The infrastructure of the internet cost money to put together, and it costs money to keep it running. Machines that move data about, and machines that look up domain names and cross them to IP addresses cost money. Maintaining them costs money. Writing software for them costs money. If you get your own server, you will probably pay money for it (unless you have an angel). Keeping it running will cost money, unless you have an angel. If you manage to set up your own server and get a domain name and get all the organizational things that go into keeping all that running, then you are just a leech with an angel. Get real. Think.

Have your own box with static IP address (preferably), install Apache web server, MySql for database, PHP for programming... all of which are free. Register a domain name with someone like Go-Daddy (godaddy.com) or check with Kurifu for hosting options. Last I checked it was like $17 a year or something like that. I run my own... the only thing it costs me is electricity and the domain name registration of ~17.00 USD for 3 yrs.

And $17 a year isn't free, and if your time is worth anything at all, setting up your own system isn't free. After all, you could have been recycling cans during that time, so you lost that money. Things may be CHEAP, they aren't free. You may GET some things free, but someone pays, if they're worth having.

I think im right in saying you can host your own website for free, a .com domian too by using your desktop, laptop as a server. But this will mean that it uses up alot of your upload limit, and be slow if you got a lot of hits, This is just a option but its much easier to pay (godady.com) for webspace. But having your box as a server will work. My friend did it and it worked no problem.

What DaWei says is true (we posted at the same time apparently)... Anything worth having, you have to pay for. Even if you have your own server... it costs you for the equipment, the ISP service, the electricity, the domain name, etc... more importantly, it costs you time which you cannot recover.

Your question probably was more to the tune of "Why pay <insert amount>? Can I accomplish this cheaper?"

Posting at the same time with everyone it seems... lol @ Zorin.

You can host your own website for free, sure.... http://12.345.67.89 or use the no-ip.com approach... but if you want a domain name... you have to register it, which means money... I've never come across a free alternative.

Yea, saw everyone else posted for the hell of it so thought id give it a go for a while, never no might end up being the next big posting whore. :)

who are these people you pay to register a domain name? do they own certain parts of the internet? doubtfull... so what I dont understand is why your paying some company for a domain name? they can do it with the help of your money so what does it take for you to do it alone?

There's a big difference between nameserving and hosting. When you register most domains, you pay them to add your website name and attatched IP to a list that is then populated throughout all up-to-date ISP Servers. When you connect to the internet, you are connected to one such server, which in exaggerated terms 'hosts the internet', as it provides a translation from "http://google.com" to the actual server that holds that site.

Hosting, on the other hand, can be done for free by using a personal machine and running a webserver such as Apache or IIS on it in order to serve the documents. Once you have a name on the internet, what you do with it and how you serve it is up to you. Professional hosting most certianly has its benefits, though, as you get reliability, stability, and in many cases some sort of an insurance/loss recovery service.

Sites such as no-ip.com use their own nameservers and offer them for free as a sub-domain, in order to further internet population by people with little or no money to spare.