>John,
>
>Thank you for a detailed and helpful message.
>
>First, as I mentioned in another message, I don't plan to host this site for a long time, just for testing and learning experience. I actually am using DiscountAsp for hosting my web site.
>
>And since I am learning, I was wonering if I could ask you to clarify a couple of thing for me, please.
>
>>You'll need a fixed IP address. Then you need to set your >registrant's DNS name server/s to point your domain to the IP >address.
>
>Where in my IIS would I enter the fixed IP address assigned to me by ISP?
>
>>At which point you will become a target for hackers. Make sure you >have all the server security patches and get a hardware firewall >with NAT going before you hook up your server. Block all incoming >ports except those you actually need.
>
>1. What is hardware firewall? Would a router be considered a good firewall?
>
>2. What is NAT?
>
>3. How do you block incoming ports? And how do I know which ports are needed?
>
>Thank you.

If you are just doing this for a testing/learning experience, you don't need to set up a publicly-accessible web server.

If you want to set up a web server on a different computer, you could create a small network in your office using an inexpensive broadband router (which you may already have). Give the web server a fixed IP, like 192.168.1.10. On your workstation, you add a line to your local HOSTS file (typically C:\%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts):

192.168.1.10    yournewdomain.com

That way, anytime you want to go to yournewdomain.com from your workstation, you'll be directed to the web server on your local network.

Depending on your workstation OS, you can even install IIS on your local computer, and "host" your domain there. IOW, you don't even need a separate computer. In that case, in your HOSTS file you would put

127.0.0.1    yournewdomain.com

Both of these options give you internet-style access to a fully "hosted" domain. Functionally it's the same as what you'd get with a "real" web server, which is the whole idea.