Web Hosting for Noobs
The following pages contain information about hosting web servers. I will try to keep things simple for first time web hosts but please keep in mind that there are lots of technical steps involved. We will talk about and use a Virtual Private Server, Ubuntu (Linux), SSH, Web Servers, Domain Names, and Certbot.
If you would like something added or fixed, please send me a email at gremlin6482@gmail.com
What is a Web Server?
According to Wikipedia, a web server is "computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS." When setup correctly, a web server allows you to host websites!
Benefits over Free Web Host Paid Tiers
Scalability
Dynamic Sites
Direct control of web server settings
Rent and setup a Virtual Private Server
Before starting this, I would like to state that I am not sponsered by OVH nor do I think they are the best VPS host out there for some pretty blatent reasons. However for the sake of keeping things safe and "simple", you will need to rent a VPS from OVH to act as a webserver. Yes this is the same OVH that had this fire.
To help remedy the issues with OVH and webhosting in general, you can do your part by monitoring and attempting to improve your score on the website carbon calculator and by regularly making backups of your sites that you keep locally. I will not be talking about hosting web servers at home or from other VPS hosts because not all VPS hosts make things as easy by default and setting up public facing webservers on your local network is not something I want to encourage.
I recommend OVH's VLE-2 as it's the most comparable to neocities' and nekoweb's paid tiers. The OS should be set to the latest LTS release of Ubuntu to keep things simple and able to be troubleshooted online if needed. Once thats all setup, you should get a email with all the needed info to connect to the VPS via SSH.
Most mainstream Linux Distros have SSH setup by default so you would just need to type into your terminal the command below
ssh ubuntu@VPSIPaddressgoeshere
On Windows you can download the Windows Subsystem for Linux or PuTTY
The first time you connect with anything you will get a message that states "The authenticity of host 'VPS IP' can't be established", Type or click yes. The first thing you should do on a fresh install of any OS is update the system! You can do so with the command below
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Rent and attach a Domain Name
In most cases you will want a domain for your website. Below is a link to namecheap where you can get a domain. Unlike the VPS which is a monthly payment, domains tend to be a yearly payment.
Follow the guide below for setting up your domain and subdomains.
Choose your Web Server Software
Apache HTTP Server
Open source
Nginx (Guide not ready yet)
Not open source