What is this website? What does it run on and with which techniques?

My website is (luckily) nothing like the picture on the left; it runs on a fairly simple webserver. It is basically my old PC on which I installed Windows Server 2003 R2. At first I wanted to run Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7 but unfortunately my old machine wasn't to happy with the prerequisites those two made ...

Ever since I started experimenting with all kinds of Internet related technologies, I've wanted to run my own webserver. I've always had networked PC's and at some points I even connected a server to my network but the dream of running my own webserver that hosted my own domain - and not just a redirect - remained. And even though the Medion PC has been retired for over three years it was only last September or October that I decided that I would be running my own webserver.

As I am a Microsoft fan and its technologies I wanted to learn how to run Internet Information Server (IIS) and SQL Server, learn how ASP.NET actually worked and do all programming with Visual Studio. Running my own webserver also had to do with the fact that I did not find a webhosting company that would offer such services for free. Although I know there are some incredible clever solutions available, if you put the above into perspective you will probably see why I wasn't interested in PHP and mySQL.

So how did I actually setup my old PC to run this website? Well ... here goes:

On the hardware side the webserver is a Medion MD 3001 mini tower, which I have used as my main computer for a year or two before I bought the Dell Dimension I currently use. I bought the Medion in 2002 when it was on sale at our local Aldi Supermarket for around €550. Buying that computer for that price and at that time was a really good deal considering its specs. It's mainboard is a rebranded MSI 6513 which runs the Intel 845D chipset. The processor is a Pentium 4 running at 2.0 Ghz. There's 512 MB of RAM onboard the server. I know 512 MB of RAM is not much but I will be replacing the server this year with my current PC as I want to buy a new PC this year. Therefore I do not wish to invest in RAM, although I know it is relatively cheap.

There are two (120 & 80 GB) hard drives in the server. The first is divided into three partitions; C for the Operating System, D for all applications and E for all 'My Documents'. The reason for these partitions is that I want to separate the Operating System from the other 'vital' parts of the server - not considering the websites data which is on the other physical drive. If the server fails I can do a reinstall on the C drive while keeping all the data on the other partitions. Although I would still need to reinstall all the applications that are installed on the D drive, I still have all the data on the D drive. The same goes for the 'My Documents' drive. Like I said the website's data is on another physical drive which is divided into partitions too of which one is labeled as webserver.

On the software side the setup is as follows:

Internet Information Server 6 comes with Windows Server 2003. The interface you are looking at is a template made by Arcsin which is a small media company founded and run by Viktor Persson. The template is adapted by RazorAnt, the alter ego of Al Nyveldt. Al is one of the developers of BlogEngine.NET, which is - as the name already suggests - the blogengine to this website. The blog is connected to SQL Server so everything I write here is stored in a database and every blog page you request is generated dynamically. No static pages in here ... well, at least not yet. The main website that I am building around this blog will probably have a few static pages but they might be dynamically generated too ...

I use Microsoft Visual Web Designer Express for designing and developing this website. The website as you see it now is basically just a free template that I did not adapt and is exactly how Viktor and Al designed it. But the website that I am designing around this blog will have a completely different look and feel. It will most probably feature a glass inspired GUI (Graphical User Interface) and will be more colorful.

As far as blogging goes I am using the aforementioned BlogEngine.NET with Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 in the background. As a front end I am using Microsoft Windows Live Writer, which I find to be a great editor for my blog without having to log onto the website first. It is a full featured, flexible and easy to use editor with which I can publish directly to my blog but also edit existing blog entries in case I made a mistake ...

Of course when everything is up and running I want it to stay up and running and not loose anything when something bad happens. The same as with the website, I am still building the server. Apart from my own website I also want to host www.arthurkoning.nl, my son's website and www.hawkinsstraat.nl, a community website for the street I live in. So I need to have all that data backed up on a daily basis. I am still investigating different backup solutions but for now I am using Microsoft SyncToy as it is really simple and seems to do the trick. If you have any useful suggestions please let me know!

So there you go ... you don't need much to run your own webserver.

Thank you for reading and please share your feedback.

Harold