If you've got the time it's easy to host your own website on a superfast broadband connection such as this, to remove the fees associated with hosting on third-party sites and have complete control over the environment, and the need for advertising to support a revenue for bandwidth for a virtual server or complete host, for your website.
The things you need on a Windows platform, so content is easy to write and publish are; Internet Information Services (IIS) installed on the platform, and that is free. A database, I'd suggest MySQL, which is also free. The community phpBB forum system that is open source and that is also free. An add-on for IIS to support the PHP scripting language, and surprise, surprise that's also free of charge.
Install IIS first, then the PHP language compiler and manager, followed by MySQL and then the phpBB forum system. Create a database with MySQL with an empty schema using the MySQL Workbench. And then publish the site via IIS pointing it to the index.php file in the directory for phpBB. You'll need to register a domain name, but the cost of this is very reasonable, costing around £8 a year and point it at your IP address. Open port 80 in your router to point it at the private address of your web server in the home, and you’re up and running. The rest of the work is now done via phpBB and can be accomplished by using a standard browser.
DIY website hosting on superfast broadband connection.
Moderator: embleton