Well, I have been on HostMySite for a few years now, and I just wasn’t liking it. I didn’t have control, and couldn’t do everything I wanted to. Last week I signed up with ServerBeach and I have my own dedicated server. I am running Windows 2003, IIS, SQL, MySQL, PHP, etc.
I changed for now my DNS to GoDaddy from Active-Domain, since GoDaddy has SPF records (for Google talk federation, etc). I might change that up here in the future as well.
Transferring a domain takes way to long! Took like 4 days overall. Also, I first went with EasyCGI , a VPS solution, but the box couldn’t get to the Internet! I put in tickets, etc, they just wouldn’t fix it, so I canceled and went to ServerBeach. I am liking them so far, they had the server provisioned in about 4 hours.
One thing I can do now as well, is write a site for myself and import all the log files (Firewall, SMTP, All the Sites, FTP, etc) and have a nice little reporting solution.
ServerBeach is good, very professional. If you want to sign up, use referrer code BW27Q37B6D (http://www.serverbeach.com/)
To get PHP/MySQL/WordPress, I loosely followed these three tutorials
How to Install PHP on IIS 6.0
How to Install MySQL On IIS 6.0
How to Install WordPress on IIS 6.0
For my ASP.NET Site, it was just copying over files and configuring IIS a little. For my blog, I used this dbbackup plugin (http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/) and then once I had my WordPress files over, and MySQL/PHP running, I connected to the instance of a DB I created and ran the SQL backup script, which created everything the way I needed it for WordPress.
For Mail, I use the built in SMTP in Windows 2003. I just had to turn on relaying, but yeah, spammers, so I just allowed the local server to send mail, and it works. Tested it using this (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323350) and it worked.
Other than that, its pretty much basic server admin stuff. Firewall, FTP, etc. Everything is running smooth… for now 🙂
I will just have to make sure I have backups!
Steve Novoselac's Blog 
2 replies on “Server Move: Hosting My Own Site(s)”
Is that a managed or unmanaged server? We run our servers at Server Intellect and love the level of support and attention we receive from the tech guys. Isn’t in nice to have your own server and never have to worry about someone hogging your resources!
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[…] – Moving to Media Temple (MT) Aug.25, 2008 in Blogging, Geeky/Programming A few months ago I decided to consolidate my hosting and sites to one server, and I went to Server Beach, and got my own Windows 2003 server. […]
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