i am thinking of moving my website to my own server and hosting it my self,
is it as esay as im led to belive,
also do i have to pay a company for a domain name or is there a way of serching for an unused domain name my self

Do you mean hosting it from home? If so it is generally not a very good idea unless it is a site that doesn't generate too much traffic.
You will still need to purchase a domain name from a third party.

You will find some information about starting a web server here:
http://www.dslwebserver.com/

I agree. Even then, it might not make economic sense to host from home. I don't know about you and your habits, but my computer is turned off 50% of the time. Keeping it on 24/7 would add up some costs, not to mention that I'd have the worry of managing the server too.

Surely, you have to buy a domain from a domain registration company. There are a lot of such web hosting companies nowadays but as for me I personally prefer Namecheap.com. Nice services.

i will buy a domain but just how do these companys own them in the first place?

A domain, as you get it, is actually a subdomain of a TLD (top level domain) such as com, net, us etc. You basically rent the right to use such a subdomain.

Right, you only rent the right to use a domain name. Unless you own the TLD itself, like Google and Yahoo! do.

As for hosting from home, if you have a small website, with small amounts of traffic, a line faster then DSL (High Speed DSL at the least, Cable, T1, etc.) and no large files hosted on the server (anything larger then an MP3 would probably cause a clog if more then a few people try to download. We're talking a few kb/s if that.

Your best bet, if you meet those specs, is to get an old laptop your not using, or an old PC in a closet. Set up remote desktop on them, stick it somewhere safe, and don't touch it. If you need to work on your site, use FTP and Remote Desktop as needed. But the less you mess with the server on a home setup, the better. Any little thing can cause a lot of users being lost.

Key Words: Always On.

I believe it is not a good idea to host from home.

Maintaining a server, electicity, fluctuating internet line speed. Too much to deal with for what hosting really cost nowadays.

i have a spare computer to use as a web server with a athlon 64 3000, 1gb ram & a 80gb sata harddrive
also my broadband connection is 4896 Kbps Downstream 448 Kbps Upstream would that be good enough?

I use a 768k upstream and a 1.5MB upstream. 448kbps will work, but not for larger documents. We're talking MAJOR image size reduction, no files larger then 5MB or so, and not huge amounts of traffic.

You'll also want to watch out for your ISP cutting you off. I know Comcast and a few other companies have been cutting off peoples internet for excess usage.

thanks all,
one last thing, what Operating system do you think would be best for my server

I'd advise you to use Linux. Cheap and usable.

Not only is it cheap, but it's free.

if you are hosting from home, Linux will be a bad idea, for someone whos not used to administrating Linux.

If you are going to get a shared hosting, Linux is good. Linux is good for a managed dedicated server too. But somehow if you are planning to manage a dedicated server and you do not know Linux basics(atleast) forget it!

I don't think hosting from the home is a good idea unless you get a bunch of traffic on your site...