[GRaduns340]

There are 3 big things to worry about with running your own server:

1) Security - When you open a computer to the Internet you are guaranteed to get hack attempts on it. DON'T leave such a computer running on a shared network, or you're asking for trouble with the whole system. The more possible points of attack, the more likely you are to be hacked. Even something as simple as a Telnet PUT and you could be ruined.

2) Speed - As the last post said, most home connections don't run on a very high bandwidth, relative to web hosting services. If you want good connections from farther than around the block, you should have a T1.

3) Legal - Some ISP's slip something into the contract restricting you from hosting to the web, just as a way to make more money off their higher packages. You can get a connection for a business account or something along those lines that normally allows hosting, but otherwise they can charge pretty outrageous fines for that.

Running Apache isn't a bad idea, but make sure you do it right. There are other ways about it, as well. I run IIS across the network and use the router firewall to limit web access to that computer.