I'm glad I've got my own thing going as far as my server and blog software goes. Blogspot seems to be down this morning, so most of the blogs I like to read are inaccessible. I'm still going though.
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No Comments “Blogspot Woes”
I am able to get to most blogspot sites, except my own. Things are very slow though pulling in.
I’m seriously considering doing the same thing, myself, just because blogspot is so unreliable. But, free is so hard to beat. I’m just cheap, I guess.
If you’ve got any advise on striking out on your own blog-wise, it would be gladly received.
What I do is run my own server. I get relatively little traffic, so I get by just fine with a Linux box connected to the internet via a standard cable modem.
It’s not super easy to get started, but I was fortunate enough to have a friend who knows Linux well who could get me started. You could use Windows too, but I recommend not using Microsoft’s IIS, as it is far less secure than Apache, which is available on all platforms. I would definitely recommend using a dedicated box either way though. You don’t want to open up your main computer to internet traffic for security reasons.
I use Movable Type, which has a free version available. The current free version is considerably limited compared to the older 2.x versions. If you were to look into it, I suggest digging around on the web to find version 2.661 if you can.
Because I have a dynamic IP address, I use DynDNS to handle my URL. My computer updates the service whenever my IP changes so that traffic is routed to the right place. DynDNS is a free service.
That method costs you nothing if you already have a permanent, always-on connection to the web and don’t get high volumes of traffic (I’m capped at 256 KB Upload). Another route to take would be to sign up with a service provider that will give you a website for less than $10/month. If I ever end up getting more traffic than my cable modem can handle, I will switch to that route.
If you decide to try that out, make sure your internet provider (whether it’s cable or DSL) doesn’t block port 80, as a lot of them do.