I know that all want to opt for a free hosting company especially AstaHost but equally many people want to host their own website, totally free of cost with all sort of supports and software support like "ASP", "FTP", "phpMyAdmin", "MySQL", "phpBB" etc etc, and they simply do not know how to do it so they opt for a free web hosting company which displays irritating ads on the limited web space with a freehostingdomain.freehostingcompany.com/freemembers/you and also do not give you almost any support, now forget all that , you can host your own site on your own computer.

Requirements:
1. High speed internet connection (atleast a broadband)
2. Respectable computer (you will surely not need an itanium or xenon server, but atleast a P4 with 512B RAM)

You will have to:
1. keep your pc 24 hours on (after all you are the server and its your responsblility to maintain uptime, a few hours downtime does not matter if you are just hosting a very small site for your friends)
2. dedicate the computer to hosting ( you cannot play games and expect people to view your site simultaneously)

well you got every thing then lets go

step 1: web server
you will need a web serving software to listen to the HTTP ports and serve the pages to requests

i recommend a simple software like Abyss and i will demonstrate this tutorial with it.

1. download abyss from here http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/download.php

2. install it (its very easy and self explanatory)

3. now you will see a blue colored icon in you system tray right click and click console, you will be asked for username and password, enter the credentials you gave when abyss was getting installed.

4. your hosting directory will be %abyss path&\htdocs
eg if you choose the default option it will be C:\Program Files\Abyss\htdocs

5. paste your site files and all the directory structure here. (it should have atleast one index.html page)

6. now to view you page wich is hosted on your computer you have to enter your ip (not 127.0.0.1, its your localhost ip, and you cannot view pages over the net with this ip, so do not go around giving this ip to your friends.)
see the http://www.abyssunderground.co.uk/beginner-accessing.php page for more info

7. go to http://www.abyssunderground.co.uk/ip.php to find out your ip now copy paste the real ip in you browser and voila you have your website ready

8. now to give some respectable name go to freedomain.co.nr and register so that you have some site such as you.co.nr

9. now enter you.co.nr and you will be serving pages, should your ip change go the member page on freedomain.co.nr and get the dynamic ip update link

step 2: installation of server support

1. go to http://www.abyssunderground.co.uk/tutorials.php and install all the available support through the self explanatory tutorials.

2. remember to do this step after installing php
http://www.abyssunderground.co.uk/aw...ysql_extension

3. you now have PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, Ruby, Perl, Python, FTP, phpBB, and ASP support for you site

you can enhance you site to the max and the the capability of enhancement are high,

opt for an more professional web server like Apache if you plan to serve better pages...

work on Linux servers they are more secure and useful.

*** MODS PLEASE DELETE THIS THREAD IF YOU FEEL ITS USELESS, SORRY FOR THE EXTERNAL LINKS THEY WERE NECESSARY *** [External links are not a problem, provided they go to legitimate sites. Thanks for the tutorial!
docduke]

You should also make sure your contract with your ISP allows this before trying it; my little brother's friend attempted to set up a web server and they automatically switched his basic/personal type plan to a business one (he was doing this just for fun, out of his house) and the bill was huge.

May I ask what his ISP was. Because I'm using Optimum Online right now and they have a business plan as well but currently I'm only using a personal connection. So if I were to host my site on this computer then would they automatically switch the service to business?

Abyss is great, I use it, because then I added Php and SQL myself, even though php doesn't actually work, just ends up as not knowing anything.

I'd suggest linking to Xxamp, it is very simple and installs a bunch of stuff in one go.

I am not allowed to install or maintain a web server under my contract with my ISP. I emailed them and asked. They responded: If you are on a residential package, you cannot run a web server. If you need to run a web server, we can upgrade you to a business package.

Any unusual activity (traffic) on port 80 and my connection is terminated!

My ISP is Shaw Cablesystems.

I prefer to use Trap17 for my hosting needs, I feel comfortable using the forum.

Last year i have the oportunity to test the abyss server but please tell me something, does the abyss webserver is good enough to install as a production server or as only a development server?

best regards,

I'm not sure, but going through the instructions in my head, I think it won't work.

Ehh this stuff is so confusing. I think that if you want a webhost, just use Astahost. Hahahhahaha. (Yes, how ironic.) I'm pretty sure that using your computer as a server increases your chances of getting hacked.

You can download anything to get MySQL/PHP enabled on your computer (not exactly sure what these sort of programs are meant to be called, though). I personally use EasyPHP. This is just to test your file or make an offline website (can turn into Intranet, but I'm not sure how).

It sounds very sucky regarding the ISP plans (personal, business...).

This post has been edited by Vue: Apr 15 2007, 10:13 AM

For those of you who still read this Thread i have some important notice from Virgin Media (Blueyonder) (NTL) that they do not allow this as i have emailed them and they said i could when i done so i got a bill through saying that i was using a business plan so i have now taken it further and have got Business plan on residential plan

I just signed up to say that they DO allow this because Ive been running websites on my VirginMedia (NTL) connection for 2 1/2 years now but recently switched to a dedicated server running Abyss for most of my sites because I needed more bandwidth (and yes I run AbyssUnderground.co.uk as stated above which was also run on this connection). A friend of mine also on VirginMedia (NTL) runs his websites from his residential connection and has done for just over a year now and still does.

Just a heads up from someone with experience.

Andy.

127.0.0.1 and co.nr isn't respectable.