what exatcly do i need to run my own server on a windows xp pro ?
like what would be the best server program to run on a windows xp pro for a begginer?

I'm not an expert in this area, but I think you might check out Windows Server 2003 (I think that's the latest version...)

Make sure you also have a high speed internet connection, that is always on. If your internet connection is off, then your website will be "down". Therefore you don't want to even attempt this over a dial up connection. Also the faster your connection, the faster people will be able to download your site, pictures, files, and anything else you may have on your site.

Most likely you will want a dedicated server, not one that you will also use for playing all the latest games coming out! This could mean buying another PC if you only have one, or just going ahead and buying a server.

You can use Windows XP as the OS for your server, all you have to do is install, and configure some type of Web Server software. I would suggest Apache. It is widely used by many companies, including Astahost. Their website is http://httpd.apache.org/.

Good Luck!!!

Hey clovis,

I recommend www.xampp.org XAMPP to run your own web server with features you can't go pass.

This would be your best method of getting everything you need. Otherwise my suggestion would be installing individual packages, which XAMPP has ready to be installed. I would also suggest ditching Windows XP, but go with XAMPP, it's an all in one package.


Cheers,


MC

wut exactly does apache do?
and wut if i don't really have a to fast dsl connection like i have a 1mb a sec connection, and if i want to run my own hosting site would i need some other programs or what?

Apache is web server software that handles all web requests from the net. It is the program that sends to the clients (web browsers) the pages they request to view.

IIS and miniHttpd are just a few of the other web server software you could come by, Apache is what we use here at astahost.

XAMPP is an all in one package, use to be known as LAMPP - Linux Apache MySQL Perl and PHP, but they introduced Windows to it as well which made it WAMPP too, so they decided on XAMPP as a way to name both packages.

Apache is web server software.
MySQL is database software, can be used for storing web related content, passwords, users, etc.
PERL is a scripting language mainly used on the web for CGI script programming, gives you the ability to make dynamic content for your web pages, etc.
PHP is a scripting language that can be embedded in HTML pages to give dynamic content, it's what these forums here at astahost use.

With that combination of software for a web server, you can't go wrong, but you can find other additional things you may want to have, check out XAMPP and you'll notice they give you other things like FTP servers to run your own FTP site, as well as other applications that help improve the performance of your web server.

You can run a web host off any internet connection, faster the better, as well as your computer specs, they should be at least reasonable to handle the processing of your web pages, especially if you're heavy in intensive scripts.

You may also like to look at having a static IP, if you don't have one, you may want to look at getting a DNS IP from the likes of no-ip.com or dyndns.org. They will give you a name you can use to hand out to people and that name will always point back to your computer, just like a domain name.

I know you'll have more questions to ask, and I'll try and get my tutorial out on setting up your own web server, although it's starting from basic installation and is done around a Linux computer, but some of the general configurations apply to whatever Operating System you use.


Cheers,


MC

If I run my own seb server using my computer, do I have any restrictions, like say disk space and bandwidth? Given that almost everything I need for my webserver can be downloaded and installed free, isn't it better to run my own webserver instead of using hosting from webhosts? My Internet connection is quite fast, though not 24/7 online.

Dear clovis and jcguy,


The first thing to do is to check the contract that you have with your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Not every ISP allows you to set up a web-server on your home machine.


And then there is the question of speed and bandwidth.

If you experience a good speed while surfing yourself, that is an indication that you have a good DOWNLOAD speed. However, when you run a web-server, it's the other surfers that are downloading from you. That means that your are UPLOADING... And the upload speed may well be many times slower than the download speed.

Concerning bandwith, again check the contract that you have with your ISP. Because you are uploading, check the monthly maximum amount of data that you are allowed to UPLOAD...


When you are considering to do some web-development, I strongly recommend to install a package like XAMP or EasyPHP. For the simple reason that it is easier to test your web-development locally, on your own local web-server. And after the tests, you can upload your error-free web-site to a professionally operated web-host, like astahost.com.... That's what I do.

what kind of server are you looking to run? I run an ftp server that I use to share my photos w/ my family. I use bulletproof ftp server software because its easily to setup.

If you want to run a webserver, like astahost for example, probably you will need the following features:

- HTTP Server (Apache recommended), for allowing users to view your webpages.
- FTP Server (there are many, I recommend you to use GuildFTPd on WinXP, to allow people to upload their websites)
- PHP (one of the most used Server Side languages on the internet, easy to write your own scripts in it, or to install free script, downloaded from internet, such as counters, forums, etc), also you can use Perl, Python, JSP and many others instead of this, or with this, but this is the one I like.
- MySQL (one of the most used relational databases on the internet, very useful when you have large amounts of data to store and deal with), PostGreSQL would be an alternative.

Useful links:
- http://httpd.apache.org
- http://www.guildftpd.com
- http://www.php.net
- http://www.mysql.com
- http://www.python.org
- http://www.pgsql.org
- http://www.cpan.org

I would recomend you to not use WindowsXP as a server. A Unix based operating system would be more recomandable and would gain you better functionality. You can use Linux (Fedora Core 3, Debian, SuSE, Slackware for advanced users), FreeBSD, Solaris and many others.

I hope this post would help you.