local apache web server

[hermes]

At the moment I am using "easyphp" on my computer to test my php code. However, I would like to get a little more advanced and replicate an apache server on my home computer. Such that I can build a website using .htaccess on my home computer. I can build it at home, then upload it all nice and finished to an apache server. Does anyone know where I can get an apache server for my home computer? A kind of local host for apache?

Also, I would like an IMAP email client on my server and to have some PHP code that is able to "read"/parse my incoming emails. Open them up - "read" them by looking for keywords - then delete them etc.
To do this I am going to use the IMAP functions in PHP.

Does anyone know an IMAP email client that I can put on my local host apache server? Configuring the PHP of the local host apache server for IMAP functions (these are not default functions in PHP) - would this be quite straightforward?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[encyclo]

You can download the Apache and PHP installation programs or source code and compile them yourself, but you're probably best off if you can get hold of a second computer and install Linux or FreeBSD (which most Apache installs run on). You don't need anything particularly powerful: I've a test server running on a 133MHz Pentium 1 with 72Mb of RAM, which you can often pick up for next to nothing.

If you are developing a site to run on a particular hosting company's server, use the same or similar Linux distribution (although they all will do the job just fine). Once installed, you can connect to the test server via telnet or ssh (as you would on a live server) so you don't even need a separate screen or keyboard.

[IamStang]

I recomend doing as encyclo said above (as for using the same operating system as your host). But if you need something for a Windows machine, you might try AppServ (http://www.appservnetwork.com/). It installs everything you need for running a server on a windows machine.

DO NOT, unless you are very efficient with "locking" down a server, use the IIS server that comes with some of the windows packages. There are way too many ways for a hacker to get into it.

Just my $0.02 worth.

[MamaDawg]

Another good free Apache/php/MySQL install for Windows is Xampp - easy to install, comes in a regular and "lite" version...

[killroy]

I have been running apache and php and mysql on several windows XP boxes for years. durring upgrade many have even run two instances of each. My main server is currently on Apache 2 PHP 5 and has both MySQL 3.26 and MySQL 5 on it. Never had any issues. This server does a couple of 100s of 1000s of pageviews per day.

Also, after struggling with all the "nice and neat" packages I eventually installed it by hand, copying only the fiesl I needed from the installation directory with a minimum config. My Apache 2+ PHP5 is only a dozend fiels or so including a bunch of extensions. This way it's also fully portable, I just copy the folder and run the executable and I got another server up and running without installation nightmares.

I highly recommend such a setup.

SN

[hermes]

Thanks guys. I really like the look of XAMPP.

1) "using the same operating system as your host"

I may look into this. At the moment I am using windows XP, but may set up a dual boot so that I can have a flavor of UNix (probably red hat Linux) that I can put the apache on.

Actually thinking about it now I will need to use UNIX anyway as I want to use cron jobs - only available with UNIX.

2) Does anyone know an IMAP email client/mailbox that I can put on my local host apache server? This is really the outstanding issue for me now.

All the best

[encyclo]

If your host is using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can use the debadged RHEL clone distribution Centos [centos.org], either version 3 or 4 depending on what version of RHEL your host is running. The advantage of Centos is that it should be 100% binary compatible with RHEL, but without the price-tag.

For the IMAP, you can use the RHEL/Centos default available services of Apache, MySQL and courier-imap or CyrusIMAPD. You shouldn't even need to recompile to get things working to start with, just install the packages out of the standard repositories.

If your host is using Red Hat Fedora, you can download that for free: [fedora.redhat.com...] .

[hermes]

Thanks mate ever so much. As far as

Red Hat Vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux

If I was just to run my apache server on Red Hat (because it is free) - could I then run into problems when I try to transfer this to a server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Of course you have already mentioned that i can get around this by using one of the free Red Hat Enterprise Linux emulators. Just wondering how stuck i would be/could get if i just used red hat.