Is this possible?

Can you use a personal computer as a server? If so, what are the benefits/downfalls?
Thanks

Yes you can; however, you are limited to 10 simultaneous connections. Any more connections and your users will receive a message like this:
No more connections can be made to this remote computer at this time because there are already as many connections as the computer can accept.
If you are willing to live with that for your site, then you can use it as a server.
There are many ppl that use their pc for a server, but if your application is critical and cannot afford such errors, then you're better off getting real OS like Windows 2003 server.
I forgot to mention that using your pc as a server can get you kicked out of your ISP so check with them if you still want to use your pc this way.
Hope this helps

as a server for what ? webserver, fileserver, terminal server, ....??on what ? intranet, internet ?? without being more sepecify we cant help you ...

lewy: I'm a bit confused over your post. the limit depends on the type of server you are trying to provide. i dont think this issue exists with running apache for example on windows xp. but unless the OP is a bit more clear on what he is refering to, its pointless trying to help him.
Besides he hasnt even clarified what OS his personal computer uses.


futher more the efficiency of a server setup, will depend on the hardware specs of his machine as well. my home pc, has enough hardware to act as a pretty decent server

Yep, apache will be fine, just limited by the RAM you can give it. Also, a lot of small sites are run of personal computers. They don't even have to be terribly powerful - Apache with a few hundred mb of RAM on a low spec machine, can easily saturate even a T1 connection with page serves. This will decrease, of course, if you're running a DB on the same machine, or processing a lot of dynamic content (php or perl or whatever).

--Simon

i think lewy is refering to the number of users a windows xp pro or home pc will allow to log on simultaneously.