Hi guys 'n' gals, a number of years ago I decided to make my own site yada yada yada... You know the story. However, it then crossed my mind that all of these hosting companys out there are nothing more than a few beefy PC's with fat Internet connections (not too different from mine...).

The challenge was on, to not only make a web site but to actually host it from home. Why I hear you ask! - Mainly cost, but also the knowledge I would gain from actually setting the whole thing up....

If you have a half decent PC and a broardband connection to the net then there is nothing stopping you hosting for FREE.

Now whizzing forwards to the present day, I offer you the chance to do the same thing for nothing! - Check out my 'Setting up your own Web Server' tutorial.

Hope you all like it and please, if you find it of use leave me some feedback.

Finally, this whole thing is actually only feasible if you have a broardband Internet connection, and even then it's a little sketchy. Some Internet Service Providers (ISP's) don't allow you to run a HTTP Server through their connection.

Which I'd suppose to be the case for many people out there.

That's a very good and well thought out tutorial Bri, well done

I do have a few points to make, however:

hosting companys out there are nothing more than a few beefy PC's with fat Internet connections

There is a LOT more to it then that such as power generators in case the power goes out, off server backups, constant security upgrades and maintenaince, climate controlled server environment, redundent connections to the internet (a lot faster then any broadband connection), technical staff to get things back up and running quickly in case something goes wrong. The list goes on.

Setting up a home web server is great for testing code, but that's it. I would not reccomend hosting your own site on your broadband connection. You do not want people accessing your computer unless you don't mind being hacked. Besides the fact that a typical cable/DSL connection will not be able to handle more then a handfull of visitors at one time.

Also, before setting up a server at home, check with your ISP's terms of service. Most do not allow a server of any kind to be on their network. You don't want your account to be shutdown.

All valid points and I agree with everything you guys are saying. However, a local server in my mind does everything that I want and more. For instance, to be able to test my code without going through the whole uploading process for one sells the whole concept right away

There are draw backs sure, but there are also a lot of plus sides to owning, configuring, and maintaining your own localhost as I am sure everyone will agree.

The reason I wrote the tutorial is simply because at the time no one else seemed to have come up with an easy to follow "cut 'n' paste" type of format that anyone could follow.

During those first few weeks trying to get Apache (and the rest) correctly configured was, if memory serves me, a knightmare!

Hopefully my 'little' tutorial will help someone else out there that is facing the very same problems that I did all those years ago.

Anyway, thanks for your comments thus far and I am sorry for the poor terminology in some areas but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

Thanks again, Bri

That is a nice turtorial, but as for myself I am to lazy to learn how to configure all that stuff myself so I found this autoinstaller for all of these. http://www.wampserver.com/en/index.php

Wamp works great for me.

Just thought I would share it

Hi Nobody, thats cool. Whatever works for you but how do you know how secure your web server is if you don't know how it works...

Wamp is a great thing and I will not say otherwise. My tutorial however, is for those that want to actually know how 'it works' rather simply double clicking on an .exe

My philosophy is if you know how stuff works you are much more able to fix it when things go wrong. This is also the same for when you may wish to add/remove new/existing features etc...

Thanks for your feedback and good luck with your new web server.

Bri

I also agree with you there, I usually leave securing a server to my buddies who enjoy messing with all that stuff. I was just showing wamp for people who want to have a test server on their computer without haveing to configure every little thing by themselves.

Fantastic tutorial!

Thanks for the feedback Veripare Star, real glad you liked it

If there is anything you would like to see added please do not hesitate to let me know.

Bri