Any recommended hosts for JSP, SQL and PHP?

Well, im thinking about designing a community, with quite alot of content, but i'm stuck as to wether buying a RL server, off Dell or whatever, or getting hosted by someone.
I don't really know if i bought a RL server, if i would need special software installed on it or anything like that.
And if i got hosted, i need them to be JSP, SQL and PHP compatable, any ideas?

What you probobly want is shared hosting. Its a good (and cheap) place to start. Dedicated and virtual servers are also possabilitys, but they require more setup and money. Theres dozens of shared hosting companys out there, so do your reasearch before you enter into a contract. A good number of them are shite. Also gotta read TOS agreements carefully. Most shared hosting companys offer allot of features, PHP and MYSQL being rather standard. Not too sure about finding one with JSP, tho.

As for buying a server youself, odds are you would not want it in your own house, so theres a fee to have it on a rack somewhere. As well as, of course, replacement parts and power fees. (whereas by leasing a server, you get rid of allot of those annoyances.)

You could use a decent comp you don't use as a web server, as long as you don't expect loads of traffic, which is the most realistic thing it will happen.

Then just install apache (tomcat for jsp) and php and mysql.

And for offline testing, get something like wamp.

starter packages for commerical shared hosting cost only about 60$ a year. (american) And don't require things like: part of your internet connection, a static IP, ALLOT of setup, responability for replacing damaged parts, responsability for backups, ext ext ext.

as for local testing, there's XAMPP. ;)

Hmm.
Thanks guys, helped quite a bit.
I'm still stuck as to what to do though, i could use one of my old computers and use it as a server, but i've never done it before and wouldnt know what to install (yeah i know i would need Apache, tomcat or w/e), but i wouldnt know how to set it up, the Apache website (apache.org) doesnt help me at all.
And i don't know wether to just get hosted, seems a pretty simple choice and doesnt take up much effort. I saw a site (here) that looks pretty decent, i need some time to think it over.

Try one of those all in one packages, like WAMP or XAMPP, they usually come bundled with preconfigured apache+php+mysql (nd even some php mysql managers, like phpmyadmin). They are pretty easy to install to start practicing and such.

Doing it on your own, which is what I did on the beginning, isn't that hard either. Juts get apache http server from http://httpd.apache.org/, php v5 server from http://www.php.net/downloads.php#v5, and mysql server from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#downloads

Install 'em, read the instructions on readme files and such and config 'em all!

There are plenty of pages on the web dedicated for tech support on installation issues and the like.

Wow, thanks alot.
But are they just for local use or can actually run the server?
I tried XAMPP but not sure if its just for local use.

They can do both, but you might need to make a deal with your isp for making it part of the world.wide.web, for you might need a bigger bandwidth.

Still, I'd recommend to use those just for training. Your understandable lack of expertise with apache and such lead to loads of security gaps, incapability of handling overhead, and others. For anything in a slightly bigger scale, you may want to host your page somewhere, like dreamhost and such (do note however that apparently there has been issues with dreamhost customer support as of late).

The amount of bandwith i use at home isnt a problem, the service i use now gives us unlimited bandwith.
But i surpose security would be a problem.
I dunno, i might get a old computer and install the software, and see how it goes.
I wouldnt know how to interact with the server though.
I'm on a router so i don't know how this could work, if somebody would request say, the index of the site, they would have to connect to the router then to the server.
I think im just going to get hosted using whatever i can find on the net.

EDIT: Got a host now, its here
But it doesnt support JSP, servlets, its just PHP.
So need to learn a bit of PHP.

1 problem i forgot about hosting a server yourself: Allot of ISPs disallow it and will cut off your service for hosting almost any kind of server.

Already indirectly stated by myself before. -.-