Setting up a server!

[RSkeens]

I agree, a virtual server may be a better option, especially if you want to learn the basics. Quick and easy to reload (OS reinstall) with little disk management for you.

 

[diabolus]

Oh and if you're interested in actually doing the Online virtual server in 15 minutes thing, here's the full tutorial starting right at the beginning at signing up for the service:

http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/...is-in-the-cloud-on-amazon-ec2-in-15-mins.aspx

And it is really 15 minutes . I noticed there's alot of Community Images available too [i.e. Ubuntu Servers / Gentoo etc etc]. The tutorial focus on a Windows Server and the proof in the pudding at the end is by remote desktop into it.

Just remember to shut it off when you're done, otherwise you're gonna pay !

Choices abound for those looking for a place to run Web applications on Windows. The purpose of this blog post is to show a quick walkthrough of how to setup your first Windows computer in the cloud on Amazon EC2. If you’re already familiar with hosting and the cloud, skip the next few paragraphs.

The traditional approach is to use a Windows hosting provider, like DiscountASP.NET, MaximumASP.com, CrystalTech.com, etc. These long-time Windows hosting providers offer a flat monthly fee for shared (Web site) and dedicated server (full server) offerings ranging from a few dollars a month to a few hundred dollars a month. This works great for anyone who wants to set up everything from a simple family or community Web site to a small business or low traffic corporate site that can run on one server. If your site really takes off, and you want to scale it out onto many servers, you can of course pay for additional servers, and for the consulting services of your hoster to setup load balancing and more advanced network topologies. Some Windows hosters will even help you with the management of your new Web farm, which ends up being a complex set of gymnastics to backup your data , balance traffic, and deploy and manage your Web site’s content and code across a set of distributed servers. The cost and complexity of running a Web site on more than one server goes up pretty quickly. And if the traffic to your site grows and shrinks based on events related to your business, you are usually stuck with the high cost of the number of servers required to host your peak load.

New to the game are “cloud hosting” services, including Microsoft’s own Windows Azure (currently available for free in beta form), Mosso’s Cloud Sites, and Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). These cloud computing offerings differ from traditional hosting in several ways. First, they offer a more ‘elastic’ capacity model that can grow and shrink on demand. You tell your hosting provider how much capacity you need, and they automatically ramp up or down the number of servers to meet the demand. The cost of the service is usually based on usage (like your electricity bill – which is why some often refer to this cloud computing as ‘utility computing’). Microsoft, Mosso and Amazon all do this in different ways, and offer a variety of capabilities and features that are unique to each. In some future post I may take the time to review the pros and cons of each, but for now you’ll want to read up on them yourself and decide which is the best for you.