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The easiest way to host your own web site is to use the free web space that comes with your own Internet access.
The problem with this sort of hosting is that actually it’s fine for very simple web sites that use noting more then basic HTML,
They are severely limited in terms of features, and they often also feature a banner advertising that you cannot remove,
Moving up the scale many people pay for more advanced hosting, providing more storage space, more traffic, Bandwidth, and often more features,
additional future may include databases, scripts, music and video streaming, blogs, those forums etc. even commercial web hosting accounts have their own drawbacks though,
Storage and hosting limits are generally much higher than those of free accounts,
but there will still be limits also, although scripts may be allowed, full access to servers for installing and writing may well be restricted. Step up further and you can rent your own virtual server or even an actual server, hosting and maintained for you and permanently connected to the Internet. That sounds great doesn’s it, but check out the cost of your own server and you will quickly be put off, but wait a moment you already have a server permanentiy connected to the Internet.
If you have a broadband connections and a computer you have all you need to host your own web server directly from your home. The best bit is that you will have full control over it. you can install what you like, install as much storage as you like, stream video, connect streaming web cams, and all for free.
Before you get too excited about it. there are a few cons with this approach, firstly not all broadband providers allow you to host a web server or provide the features that you will need, most importantly a static IP address, more on this and ways around it later, others may restrict traffic and even those who say they don’t will probably have a fair usage policy, you will also be fully responsible for your site this means that the administration terms that we take for granted working behind the scenes at our isp’s will eventually be you, if your site goes down in the early hours of the morning or while you’re at work, it’s likely to stay that way till you can sort it out. Like wise if you have the hardware fault. And also Remember that unless you are dedicating a server to the task your web server is likely to be your own PC, this means that if your site becomes busy, it will slow down what you are doing and vice versa if you are running something demanding. For these reasons, Although this way is not recommended for critical live sites, by the time your site becomes critical you should be making enough money to be able to host it professionally, for a personal or hobby site though, home hosting can be very rewarding.
What Will you need
First of all you’ll need a high speed broadband account
You’ll probably have everything you need to make your home web server but first check the terms and conditions to make sure your ISP actually allows you to run the server.
The computer doesn’t have to be a powerful computer has web servers do not usually have high demanding applications, some think like the Pentium three or above will be fine. It can also be the computer that you are running right now. running the server under windows does not mean you need to dedicate a computer to the task.
A router
You probably have a route already, but if you just have a broadband modem you can still host your own site but you will need to install a firewall, a router will gives you the option of having more than one PC connected at the same time and this offers more configurability.
Firewall
You must run a firewall if you’re hosting from home the firewall can either be built into the router, stand alone on your network or installed on your web server.
Domain names and DNS
With your IP address anyone on the Internet can connect to your web server by typing it into their browser, chances are though that you’ll want a domain name to link to it. Registering a domain name cost very little, so it makes sense to get one or more, to link the domain name to your IP address and your server, you will need a DNS ( domain name service ) this is a service run on two separate servers that translate the domain name to the IP address, actually you can host them yourself, this is something that is critical and often comes bundled in with the cost of the domain name for just a little money every year so I would strongly suggest leaving this to the professionals, buying todomin with the dns hosting, and link this to your IP address, alternatively you can use the free dns service like www. Zoneedit.com They provide free dns server hosting for five domain as long as you stay under their traffic limits.
We’ll need to enter dns entries for each service you will provide on your server, web, e-mail, etc.
Web server software
The server software is what it’s all about, so what does server software do, after you have linked your domain name to it.
Preparation
A little bit about TCP / IP you need to make sure that this is configured properly before installing apache, in most cases it already will be, if you intend to use your PC mainly as a web server it is advisable to disable the quality of service eg: QoS, network driver in your network settings because Apache does not support QoS extensions to the winsock API.
Apache will support windows 2000 xp server 2003 and vista, if you are still using windows 95 98 me or NT Apache may work but is not supported
Apache webserver for windows is available in both source codes (( needs compiling)) and binary ( ready to install ) versions. Unless you have A specific need to choose to the sourcs, the binary version is the simplest option.
Downloading and installing
Go to httpd.apache.org, and on the left hand side you will find the link to the documentation for the latest version, in the main content section under the section for the latest version click on download scroll down to the latest version and click other files > binaries > win 32 . Then scroll down and click on MSI installer package for the latest version of Apache, save it to disk then click on it windows will start to install Apache.
The installation will ask you for your server settings
Network domain
This is the dns domain for your server ie: that maintain without the first part for example mydomain.com,
Server name
This is the full dns name eg:
Administrator’s e-mail address self explanatory, this is your e-mail address ( this will be displayed to visitors along with error messages so choose it carefully,
When asked for whom the Apache install is for shoes the recommended option for all users, on port 80, as a service recommended. This means that Apache will run even if no one is logged in,
Select typical for installation type
The next select way you want to install Apache.
The default path is c:\ program files\apachesoftwarefoundationApache2.2
Then click install
Apache will take a few minutes to install them click finish
Apache will automatically begin running as a service and you will see a new symbol in the system tray the patchy feather logo. They should have a green play symbol over it indicating that Apache is running. You can click on this and open apache monitor, you can stop/ start/ reset Apache from here.
After installing Apache you may wish to edit the configuration files in the config subdirectory. The files will be configured during the installation so that Apache is ready to be run from the directory in which it was installed. Page for the web site will go in the sub directory htdocs under the installation directory, there are lots of other options that you can set to configure apache. but to get things started quickly, it will work with its install. The installation will place an index HTML Home page in the htdocs directory, with a simple message it works,
After installation, and your web server is fully configured and the web server service is running so you should be able to browse to of this page using a browser once the dns for your domain points to your server and you configure your router you will just need to put in your website address and this page will display however until this has been configured, the way to remove your site locally is to browse through the localhost with your browser.
This connects to the local web server service. All in well if you have typed in the local host into your browser you will see the default homepage and the words it works. Just type in http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/
OK now it’s time to configure your IP address and your router, so that your visitors will arrive at your PC you need to to have a web server application running on that PC listing port 80 ( the http port ) for requests for web pages. It then need to serve those web pages back to visitors. That’s it. Of course web servers a lot more than that basically they listen for a request for a web page then serve that webpage. Under windows, The web server will often run as a service just like any other service, this means that you can carry on using your computer for other tasks and the service will sit in the background keeping your visitors are happy, certain versions of windows come with web server applications built in, ( the may be an installed ) alternatively, you can install an third party product. One of the most popular is apavhe. Apache is open source software and is the software behind the majority of the world’s web sites not just home website that the world class sites. The ideal installation for Apache is to dedicate a linex server to it, if you have the necessary linex skills you don’t need to be an expert just be able to install linex and apache then creating a dedicated linex/apache server would be a very worth while project. And easier alternative for windows users is to install Apache for windows.
Apache is an extremely robust web server and don’t forget one of the most important requirement of the home server is a fixed IP address, so make sure before you start that you can obtain one.
Actually you can use a dynamic IP service because if you have a home network all computers behind your route We’ll use a different IP address. And you can Set this up so that all your visitors go directly to that IP address.
As soon as I have time available I will be going through the steps on installing the website. but until that time.
If you have any information you think will help, please e-mail me