I was wonder how i could set up a website from my house. I have a old Dell with a P2 that has been acting as file server for the last year. It runs windows XP Pro, and already has a copy Apache installed on it. I don't know if this would make a difference, but it's got about one Terabyte worth of space on it's four disks. Thanks in advance.

If you have plenty of money and some technical help or can learn quickly here are a couple of links, but it is expensive and time consuming and involves legal issues and business matters.

ISP info
and this one also Your Own ISP

Good luck!

Hey Now we have an edit button, this is great.

This post has been edited by Houdini: Feb 28 2006, 08:35 PM

Well, of possible, I would like to run it out of my house, using my current T1 connection. My house network is all wireless, so I am not sure what i would have to do about that. Thanks for your time and help.

Things that you'll need:

Apache installed and configured
Router to forward all HTTP request to the correct computer. (Port Forwarding)
- OR -
Seperate IP Address for the Web server

Not Required but helpful:

MySQL
PHP
perl

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First, Install and configure Apache. I'd use the default configuration until you learn how to work with Apache. You'll need to set a few parameters in a few places to get things working correctly. Like where to find your web documents.

You'll need to route all incoming HTTP requests to the the server by either getting the server it's own IP address/modem/network or with a router that has port forwarding capabilities. Just forward all port 80 (HTTP) requests to the local IP address of the server.

That is all that you have to do but your website won't be very useful.

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perl, mySQL, and PHP are all availible to download and install for free. They should come with help files to explain how to configure Apache to use them correctly.

There are a lot of other free applications you'll need in order to get your server fully configured for typical use. Email and FTP to name a few applications you may want to add.

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You may want to consider using a Linux installation on your server since Windows has a lot of trouble producing a web server like the majority of us are used to using.
Most Linux distributions provide web server options out of the box and is also free. The down side is that you'll need to learn how to run a Linux system. There are a lot of places to find information about running a Linux server.

I run a simple web server on my home network to use for script testing and family photos which I set up to read directly from my local photo directory. It runs on Windows XP so I have a lot of trouble securing the server and running certain options.

Once I find myself with an extra system, I'll install Linux (probably Fedora Core) on it and set it up as a full web server. Of course, I'll need to learn how to administer Linux before then

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Anyway, I got all of my information for setting up a web server from a book:
PHP - Fast & Easy Web Development (2nd Edition)
By: Julie C. Meloni
ISBN: 1-931841-87-X

It included all of the information I needed to get a test server running. I use it to develope PHP scripts without having to wait for uploads after every change. Also saves me the bandwidth I would otherwise use by making so many uploads. Once a script is working correctly (as correctly as it can on my Windows setup), I upload it to the AstaHost server and make any required changes to get it working on the hosting server.

At the time I configured my local web server, I didn't have acces to mySQL, PHP, or perl so I couldn't learn how to create web applications. I learned all of the PHP I know as a result of setting up my own test server.

Not sure that I have given you the information you asked for but I hope it will open your eyes to the general setup and use of such a server.

vujsa

I'm not sure if I understood you well, enough, but here is something useful. If you want to put up a web site that would be available from everywhere in the world, and you want to do it for free, there are a few things you can do.

As vujsa already said, use Linux. It's much more secure and a big percent of web servers uses it.
The thing that I found interesting is this. I don't know if you have a static IP address, because i'm not into t1, but even if you don't you can setup a website that would be available every time when you are online.
Anyway, check this out. You can setup a free domain name (something.co.nr) and if your IP address changes, you can run a script everytime it does. A bit complicated to explain.

Firstly, and i forgeot to mention this, but i mostly use linux, and that the server is a multi-boot. Second, for the last year or so, i have been using or neighbor's internet, and she put a password on the settings page, and thus i can't access the ip forwarding. The only other internet in our house is dial-up, which i know for a fact i can't use.

The most easy away I know to Setu a Web Server is using Appserv. If you are a beginner AppServ is the bet you can use with time you will know other more complex applications like phpDev.

isnt there an easy way to run a webpage from your house?

Wow! One terabyte ! I'm pretty sure a lot of people here are interested sharing this disk space!

man u can take help from me mail me mine E-amil is saggi2@gmail.com i having a great expericne of seeting a web server with apace,perll,mysql,python,tomcat
i am not kiidng i have alot of experince u can just contact mei am sure u will find me sea of knowledge in this field