Hosting Your Own Web Server

First of all, ive searched the topics and havent found one like this.

How do you host your own website from your computer? Ive seen on some web hosting companies
'hosted by quality dell computers or something like that, ive also heard people saying that they host themselves. How do you do it?

It entirely depends on whether you just want to host your website or offer hosting to a lot of different people. The basic steps are, in this order:

1. Set up Apache
2. Set up PHP
3. Set up MySQL

They are the complete basics, although you don't even need PHP or MySQL, they are just common elements. If you also want to use your PC for other stuff while also hosting a site, I would suggest not installing MySQL and using the version of SQLite included with PHP, as this conserves RAM.

You can also download installers which contain all 3 and set them up for you, simplifying the process. However, you are then not really used to anything but a GUI installer, so when it comes to changing something it's a bit more difficult.

Setting these up and configuring them will differ greatly depending on what you want to do with the web server, what OS you are running and whether you want the whole thing available to the outside world or just certain sections. I cna direct you to the relevant websites however, which offer more help for all sorts of different situations.

Apache Web Server
Php.net
MySQL.com

Most ISPs have restrictions about bandwidth and what you can host on your own server so you should probably check your agreement with them before making your server.

I also tried to set up a webserver on my work, but the newb that I am, I never got it to work.
I tried to install XaMPP but I dunno how it works.

What is the best software to set it up, wich isn't way over my head?

Thanks alot, especially about the ISP thing. Are there any guides on hosting your own server?

thank a lot.I am also very interesting in this problem.So I will try this .If I have any problem during try to make my own sever,I will ask you later.

I have a HTTP server and i can access my PC on any computer in my network, but i couldn't ever get it to work when its over the internet.

It seems to be the problem that every one is having, you can't access a webserver, unless it is connected dirrectly to the internet, otherwise IP addresses get messed up, which causes your path to your website to be wrong. There are ways to get around this with dynamic IP addresses, if you go to http://www.zoneedit.com/doc/dynamic.html?. That should help you.



However you must have a domain name registered, with a registar, and it has to be its own domain, not sub, otherwise it won't work, which was my problem, and which is why I host with Trap17. Also your computer will have to be on and running 24/7, otherwise the website will not be viewable.

Now for your webserving software, the best I have found is Appserv, it is a package of:

AppServ 2.4.5 Apache 1.3.34<li>PHP 4.4.1<li>MySQL 5.0.16<li>phpMyAdmin-2.5.7-pl1
To download it or just to check it out go to http://www.appservnetwork.com/


In my own opinion, if you want a website with 95+ percent of uptime then you should use someone elses computers, like Trap17. However you can have fun trying to get a webserver to work, just make sure you have a direct path to the server from the World Wide Web.

As far as I know you still need to register yourself/company as an internet service provider/hosting provider for tax reasons.

Hosting your own website on your own computer is actually really easy. like others have said you need to use a dynamic dns services like Dynamic DNS so that you have a website address that links to you actual IP address. Keep in mind that when you are setting this part up you will not be able to test it from within your own personal home network. Just get a friend to type it into their web browser and see if anything comes up. Before you do the Dynamic DNS install apache, mysql and php or whatever languages you use. If you are using asp, use IIS which comes with windows. An easy way to do this setup is to install xammp. Just start the 2 services (apache and mysql) and you will be on your way. From here you can test your dynamic dns and make sure that it displays the xampp setup page. If so, you are already hosting. Just add your files to the correct location which can be found in the http.conf file in the xampp directory and your site will be online.