Backoff: Agreed on the fact it's not hard to set up a webserver yourself. However, a lot of ISPs don't allow users to run "servers", and some ISPs do actually block incoming traffic to port 80. Now, you could easily run a webserver on some other port, but it does lead to slightly more awkward URLs.

As for firewalls, if all you have is single box, you don't need a firewall if you have a properly configured OS. Don't run services listening to the outside world you don't need (and if you do need them, you have to make a hole in your firewall anyway). My boxes listen to, and accept traffic from, ports 22 (ssh), 25 (smtp), 53 (dns) and 80 (http). Nothing else. No firewall needed.