Personal Web Server?

I'm new to this, so maybe someone can help clear up a few cloudy points for me... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif I was looking to create my own website, and the "free" ones all include pop-ups, and ad banners... They also don't let you FTP your own webpage (made in frontpage or dreamweaver etc) so are stuck using their cheesy pre-designed templates. You also can't have remote access to the pictures, which means you can't display the picture hosted on the website in a post on here, or in an ebay description. You have to upgrade to the "premium" versions for that, and I don't want to pay 20 bucks a month for website hosting!

Is it possible for me to purchase my own web server, and register my own domain name and then be free to do with it whatever I please? I would expect that personal web servers AREN'T cheap, but I can't even find anything like that for sale!! Any options/advice would be GREATLY appreaciated!!! Thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

-Allen

Also, to do this, would I have to learn something like Apache or some kind've server language? Thanks again!!

There are cheaper web servers on a monthly basis that will let you do pretty much whatever you want. You might check out www.ipowerweb.com and smartconsumers.infinology.com
They both offer web hosting for about 7 or 8$ a month with reasonable disk space and transfer with FTP access and a few other features. The biggest problem with running your own is having internet service with a static IP address, this is usually fairly pricey, and if you don't have a static IP then you would have to pay another monthly fee for a dynamic domain service...

One other thing to think about is some ISP's offer webspace as part of their package, I know mine includes 7 10MB web spaces as part of my cable modem service. No pop-ups, and I regularly ftp my pages to them and have refrenced pictures on them for ebay auctions.

Wow, thanks for your input! That iPowerWeb is MUCH more reasonable than the sites I've been looking at. I live in an Apartment Complex where the internet is provided or else I'd use my own ISPs...wait, my parents have road-runner...maybe I can use one of theirs! I know they have some include that they aren't using. Thanks again for the advice

-Allen

Godaddy.com will register your domain for $8.95 per year and will host a small web site (25 MB) for $3.95 per month.

My personal sites are with www.your-site.com which is $5.00 per month if you pay annually.

Oh, sorry I messed up the url for infinology
http://smartconsumers.infinology.com/