Hosting your own site

Right off my PC

[thestarofdeath]

I want to know what i need to host one site off my PC for my self only, and do i need a domain or can i use my IP?
I have a program called <acromedia Contribute will it do the job

[mford]

Can be done quite easily, just need to install apache (or some other web server) and that's it. You can use a local host name to access it, or you can use your local IP address; a domain name is not necessary.

You will need to give some thought to security issues, depending on computer use / the nature of your site etc.

[thestarofdeath]

what do u mean by security, from people in my house or the WWW

[thestarofdeath]

I cant find the download for Apathe

[mford]

Keeping your computer secure, especial if it has a net connection, is an ongoing process.. and every extra service you introduce i.e. web server, means you have one more to keep up to date.

You need to make sure your web service is secured if you wish it to be internal and private only.. bots and search engines *will* find it.

Depending what you use your computer for, banking etc, you may want to consider using a second computer dedicated to hosting your site.

[httpd.apache.org...]

[thestarofdeath]

I have apathe, what services do i need?

[piskie]

In my opinion, the complications and security risks are not worth the very small financial savings.

[thestarofdeath]

yes...but what do i need?

[ncw164x]

do a search at google for "hosting your own server" or even "hosting your own server at home"

not worth going down this route in my opinion with the cost of hosting being so cheap

[onlineleben]

check your sticky mail.
have sent you an url where i got a lot of help (not affiliated).

[MatthewHSE]

Try XAMPP [sourceforge.net]. I wouldn't use a package like this for a production site, but if the server isn't going to be accessible from the web, XAMPP makes server setup extremely easy.

[kalos]

XAMPP is great if you just want the thing to run (and not learn how). It installs Apache 2, mod_perl, and PHP. The site has specifics.

If all you want to do is serve static pages to your house and possibly friends around the web just install the base Apache server and tell whatever WYSIWYG editor you're using to look in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs (for Apache 2, if you grab Apache 1.3.x remove the 2 I believe in the above) and you're golden. Download takes about 2 minutes on broadband and the install takes about the same. Even my first time editing the configuration file, http.conf, was easy as it is well commented. If you do decide to make changes just open a DOS window, change directories to your Apache bin (C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin in the above example) and type "apache -t" (minus quotes) to test your changes before restarting the service.

Although, there again, if all you are after is a simple server to send pages to friends and family the defaults will suffice fine.

-ben

[instinct]

Another vote here for XAMPP - it greatly simplified my testing server setup.

Also keep in mind that a lot of isp's these days are blocking outgoing port 80 (http port) for their residential broadband packages. At least they are here in my neck of the woods.

For $100 a year (or less) you can have good secure remote hosting. That is what I would recommend. You don't need the headaches.

[henry0]

Here you go
review my tutorial
Here in our Library [webmasterworld.com]

BTW Welcome ot WebMasterWorld

edit:added welcome /edit