Do I need more than my router?

[nazareneisrael]

I apologize for asking such a noob question, but due to budget we have to close out our dedicated webserver, and put in a budget webserver for our home office (to save funds). It will be running Windows Server 2008 (R2).

We presently use a D-Link DIR655 router and a D-link switch for our home network. On all of my user boxes I have ATT/McAfee Internet Security Suite. However, I do not know that it will even install on Windows Server 2008.

Do I need a hardware or software firewall in addition to my router?

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

As long as you do not web surf from the server you do not need much protection, but it would not hurt to install virus protection. There are some that are free and will install on Windows servers, just look.

I am more concerned whether you can really run a server from your home, and if you realize the full implications. For 4 years I also ran a web server from my home office to save money. I had DSL, and my ISP did not block servers as most do now. That is your first hurdle: does your ISP block servers?

I got my server set up fairly easily and switched over, but then the fun began. I quickly found out that even though the web server was using my upload bandwidth, sometimes my web browsing came to a crawl. You see, a TCP connection to download web pages requires small acknowledgments to be sent back to keep the connection flowing. So, when my web server was busy and using all my upload bandwidth, my acknowledgement messages would be dropped, slowing my download to a crawl even through I had plenty of download bandwidth available.

The solution was to throttle my web server to about 90% of my upload bandwidth, and everything worked fine.

 

[nazareneisrael]

Best answer selected by nazareneisrael.

 

[nazareneisrael]

Thanks, Phil. ATT will support home servers. They will give 6GBps down and 768KBps up for $70.00 a month, with 5 static ip addresses.

How do I limit my server to 90% of my upload bandwidth?

 

[PhilFrisbie]

The web server you are using will determine that. For IIS it is a simple setting. For Apache you need an add-on module.

 

[nazareneisrael]

OK. Now we just need to order in the parts, and build the box. Then we will have more questions (haha).

 

[nazareneisrael]

Phil, with a webserver, is it possible to have Windows Server 2008 OS on C:\, and then have the server app and data on D:\?

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Yes, when you configure your web server you have the choice where to put the root of the website. It will likely default to someplace on C:, but just change it.