If you're setting your server up for a LAN connection only, this article is really irrelevant.
But if you intend on hosting a public server (one that's accessible over the internet), there's some factors you need to know about for your website to run smoothly.

ISPs (Internet Service Providers)

There can be many limitations imposed by your internet service provider.  There are many that prohibit having a web server of any sort hosted on your internet connection, so be sure to carefully check your T.O.S. (Terms of Service) agreement.  Just because they offer a really fast internet connection with plenty of bandwidth doesn't mean they will let you run your own server on it.

What many of them will also do is block the neccessary ports for your server to function properly, such as port 80.  I'll talk more about that in a minute.

Here's what I've discovered about a few companies here in the U.S.A in my market:

Comcast - This I've found is the best yet.  They don't block port 80 and VERY rarely change your IP which means you don't have to pay for a static IP.  They also offer a lot of bandwidth for a reasonable price.  I have heard they do have bandwidth usage limitations in some markets, so I'd check first.  In my location, they didn't and it was the best service.

AT&T

• DSL - This has become very affordable and the most common internet package AT&T customers have for broadband.  I verified with them first and they do not block port 80 either.  I was going to go with them as a cheaper solution, but they switch your IP about every 8 hours, meaning it's nearly impossible to keep up with.  The only solution is to buy a static IP, which ends up costing about twice the price and you'd be better off with Comcast if that's an option.  Secondly, the upstream speed is substantially slower than cable, so video streaming is pretty much out of the question if you're hosting your own video files.
• Uverse - The features of Uverse are very nice, especially considering that it's fiber optic.  Right now (at least in my market) I can only get it with the digital TV package, which ends up running me over $100/month for it all.  Very expensive and I'm willing to bet they also rotate IPs every 8 hours.

Verizon FIOS - I'm not sure if Verizon offers any other internet options, but when I researched this, they strickly prohibit you from having any sort of web server on the service.  It's in the TOS (Terms of Service) and they also block port 80.  You can have a web server if you buy a business package, but once again, it starts getting expensive, especially if you want nice bandwidth.

Bandwidth Usage Limitations

Some companies allow you only so many gigabytes per month and then charge you on any overages you occur.  A busy website hosted on your server can easily put you over your limit and end up being very expensive.  Paid hosting through a company like Godaddy.com  may be a better option in that case.

Blocked Ports

You need to have port 80 open for visitors to access your web pages.  There are ways to forward around port 80 and use another port, but in my experimentation with that, some of my php programs wouldn't function properly.  So check with your ISP and verify they don't block port 80.  If you can't get a connection on port 80, then it could also be your router closing that port as a safety measure.

Connection Bandwidth Ratings

I think one of the most common mis-conceptions comes when talking about the bandwidth rating.  When measuring your connection speed to see if it's adequate enough, you have to look at your upload or upstream speed, not your download or downstream speed.  For instance, most DSL packages start off with something like 6Mb/756Kb, which is 6 megabytes upload and 756 Kilobytes download.  Also notice I use the word bytes instead of bits.  There's a difference.  the smaller case "b" (bytes) is smaller in size than the upper case "B" (bits).  Google that for more information, but it's not 6 MB/sec download, meaning you will download a 6MB file in approx. 1 second.

Now, back to the bandwidth, when someone connects to your server over your connection, they are downloading that information from you, which means you are uploading it to them, therefore it's dependent on your upload speed.

This plays a big role in how long it takes web pages to load for them and often can make self-hosted streaming videos playback unreasonable.  The only way you can test it is get on another internet connection and then connect to your server to see what other people's experience may be like.  How far away from you they are will also play a factor.

To make it simple, a broadband connection is the very minimum connection I would recommend using for hosting my own public web server on and no less than at least a 2Mbps upstream connection for any sort of self-hosted videos.  (This excludes embedded videos hosted on Youtube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, etc. since they use their bandwidth and not yours.)

If you have any other questions regarding this, please leave a comment and I will add it to this in the future.

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