[hooksets]

Does anybody have any experience using a Mac as a web server from home? I use a couple of internet services that put out my websites, but the fees always go up and also it seems that I get so much spam as well as others that connect to these sites.
I had considered using a Mac and apache to have my sites on my own server. One problem I know of is the dynamic address. I have cable broadband and it changes. I tried using a service one time that supposedly corrects this, but I could never figure out how to make it work. The company was very indignant at my ignorance (except when it came to asking for a renewal payment).
How safe would it be security wise to do such a thing?
[image]http://www.pokeweed...._1012.JPGt.jpg+

[car1son]

I don't think you're terribly unsafe doing it.
If your Mac is connected directly to the Internet, turn on its firewall when you turn on the Web sharing service. And be sure to check for Security updates periodically, in case some new vulnerability to Apache is found. (my Apache log shows a couple of probes a day looking for old vulnerabilities in Apache, windows or ISS. An up-to-date Mac is safe from these.)
And of course you're going have to leave the Mac running (power up, booted, awake) full-time, or impose limits on when people will be able to access the site.
To manage a dynamic IP address from my ISP, this is how I set up DynDNS and DNSUpdate on my Mac
If you have a home router, see this port forwarding info so you can open port 80 for Web access.

[aalegado]

Check your AUP (acceptable use policy) with your cable provider. They may explicitly disallow the use of "servers" meaning web, ftp, IRC, etc. They may even go so far as to block the inbound ports for popular services so even if you've got the server running on your home machine, it won't be visible from the outside.

[hooksets]

Thanks car1son...I'll check into the items you suggested. Not much time to work on this now, but I want to give it a try.