A lot of ISP's will not let you run a web server (your own domain accessible from the internet) from your Home on a residential plan. You need a business contract to allow hosting your own servers (web site) from your home. That may have changed but its how things were not too long ago. Around here anyway. Just something to keep in mind and check into before you go too far.
I played around with Windows NT 4 Server / Workstation many moons ago. Just to see if I could get it all working. Actually had some training on it even though I didn't do any IT stuff. Long long time ago now though. I have product codes for just about every Windows server variant out there via my My Visual Studio subscription. I just don't have the ambition to do anything with it.
You don't need a Windows Server edition to host a website. What you need is a Web Server application installed and running on your system (any edition). Windows 10 (even Home) comes with one called IIS.
How to Install IIS on Windows 8 or Windows 10
However, there are better Web servers available. I use one called WampServer and run it on a Windows 10 Home machine. I don't make it visible outside my network, it's just used for website development. However, there's no reason why it couldn't be used on the web.
As others have said, your ISP may have something to say about that though. Also, to host a site yourself you'd need a fixed IP address from your ISP and would have to register a domain name so your site could be found.
Windows Server itself is designed for Enterprise environments. It has features to allow you to set up Domain Users and manage them through Active Directory services - none of which are likely to be of use in a home environment. PCs with Windows Pro and above can join a Domain and users can sign in on any PC using their Domain account, their profile being stored on the Server and following them from machine to machine.
Also, AFAIK Windows Server cannot run any Store apps. Apart from that, it looks similar to Windows 10.
Last edited by Bree; 21 Jul 2019 at 18:06.
Not necessary. I've never had either. I use Dynamic DNS (dyndns.com) to handle ip forwarding to a host name I have registered with them, and a program called Direct Update that monitors my ISP provided IP address and keeps dydns up to date. I don't have a fixed IP or a registered Domain other than what dyndns has.Also, to host a site yourself you'd need a fixed IP address from your ISP and would have to register a domain name so your site could be found.
I also have setup port forwarding in my ISPs modem to direct specific port traffic to my web server. I used to do this with my own router but was able to do it wioth their modem so no longer need a separate router.
Since I don't have a router, dyndns and Direct Update handle what your router does I guess. My family references the web server by name also.
Question:
Doesn't at least Windows 10 Pro have web hosting capability built in?
Quote
