I host my 1.7.2 (and a bunch of other stuff) on a server in my own home. Important note though is that I'm in a very small guild, so I've rarely got multiple people browsing the site at the same time.
I use the XAMPP server package (Apache, mysql, php, phpmyadmin, filezilla file server, mercury mail server) from
http://apachefriends.org . It's a good free option, but there's a couple of things to pay attention to if you want to host yourself.
- I really advice using xampp or a similar package. It takes a lot of time to properly get apache, php, and mysql to work together on your own.
- You'll need a PC that's always on to run it on. I've personally not had problems running my webserver and wow at the same time on one machine
- You'll need enough upload bandwidth. How much depends on the amount of users, maybe someone else can enlighten us on how much bandwidth per user is needed on a webserver.
- And of course your ISP has to allow you to run a webserver, including allowing incoming port 80 traffic.