Convert your PC into a web server

When I was new to computers and the internet, I used to wonder how websites were available. And once I knew that sites are hosted by web servers, I wanted to have one of my own to host my own site. I thought it would be difficult to have a web server but now i know it’s not that difficult. It’s really easy to have a small web server on your own PC.

What do you need to convert your Windows PC into a web server ?

• Web server application like Apache and Windows Server
• Database server [optional]
• Mail server [optional]
• FTP server [optional]
• Broadband internet

Get a web server application

The web server that’s very popular is Apache. But handling it on your own can be a bit tricky. Instead, we would like to use pre-configured packages which will gives us Apache, My SQL (database server) , a mail server and a FTP server.

NetServer: It is the most easy-to-use server package that I have come across. It’s controls are very indicative and can be easily tweaked to create your own aliases [domain names]. It also has My SQL database server, FileZilla FTP server and a mail server. The only minus point– you won’t get the latest applications as the package has not been improved since years. But this will not be a problem for us.

It does not require installation. Just unzip the package and run the server by clicking the NetServer icon. This works with Windows NT/2000/XP. It should work with Vista as well. [Freeware]

XAMPP: It a more popular server package. But I found it difficult to configure and handle. It is also free and does not require installation. It is available forWindows, Linux and Solaris.

WAMP: It is also a Windows freeware but requires installation.

Now you need to configure the server. I will tell here just about NetServer which I feel is the easiest to handle for enthusiasts like us.

Save the self-extractor NetServer package to the folder you wish to have your server. Say, I want the server to be in “MyServer” folder then I will save theNetServer extractor package in “MyServer” folder and double click it to extract it there.

Once the ZIP is extracted, you have you server installed on your computer. Now you can start the NetServer console and go to”Manage Server” tab to install desired servers. If you wish to host static html sites or PHP sites, you just need to install Apache. If yo wish to host dynamic sites that use database, like WordPress and Joomla, you will also need to install My SQL.

Once you have installed Apache and My SQL, it’s time to secure up things. First, you need to secure My SQL which is susceptible to access from outside. By default the username for SQL server is “root” without any password. Go to phpMyAdmin via Shortcuts, and enter “root” as user and click go. Now go to “change password”in phpMyAdmin page and give a password to avoid ay unautorised access to the server control pages.

Now go to “WWW” folder in you server folder and delete its content. The WWW folder is where your server will point by default. Now create a webpage and save it as “index” in the WWW folder. Now when you will type “localhost” in your browser the server will give you the “index” page. If you want to host a blog and a forum on your server, you can create separate folders with desired names, say “blog” and “forum”. Now if you type “localhost/blog” you will be directed to the index page of the “blog” folder. If your folder is not in the WWW folder, you can still access it through your server by creating aliases. You can also create your aliases like “localhost/blog” and point them to any folder on your local computer.

Don’t forget to read “Read Me” files for better information.

Get a static IP address or a domain name

Now your server is up and running. Anyone can access your server if your PC is connected with the internet, provided the person knows your IP address. check your IP address at IP Chicken.

This can be difficult for you if you do not have a static IP address, which is more likely. If you have a dynamic IP address, you can still allow people to access your server by getting a “Dynamic DNS” or a URL like “myipaddress.com/mycomp”. This can be easily done by registering on “Dynamic DNS” site which offers free domain names.

A dynamic DNS service is a constantly updated database of IP addresses and domain names. DynDNS.com is one provider of this service. [Read more about assigning a domain name to your home server on LifeHacker.]

Now that you have your server with a domain name, just go ahead and use it the way you like — host sites, blogs, forums, wiki, or music sharing jukebox. This server comes to you with lot of limitations, including slow processing, less bandwidth, capacity to handle very few request at a time. But it comes with loads and loads of fun.

You may also like to read more about installing a web server at LifeHacker.

If you want to learn about HTML for webpage designing, I recommend HTML Dog.