My roommate asked me to create a website for his upcoming wedding. Well, I decided it would be a good opportunity to attempt to host my own website. I didn’t know where to begin, but I knew what I had. I had an extra computer that had a 2.4 GHz processor, 512MB RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive running Windows XP Professional SP2. Now, you don’t need two computers to do this, but I had the luxury.
There is a little bit of leg work, but I promise that you will learn a ton; and it will be a very rewarding experience.
What Needs To Be Accomplished
Here is a list of items that needed to be taken care of in the scope of this project.
- Set up Apache, PHP, MySQL (my native design environment).
- Get a domain name and point it toward my box.
- I also need to configure FTP to do remote changes.
- Set-up e-mail.
Setting Up the Server Environment
I found a good tutorial at Lifehacker, but I need some additional information. To set up my Apache, PHP, and MySQL I needed a WAMP (WindowsApacheMySQLPHP). I tried many, but I found that WAMP5 was by far the easiest to use. While packages like XAMPP have more “stuff” I could never get it to work.
Go download WAMP5 and run the install. You can choose where to install it, but I would suggest on our C: (or maybe partition a drive just for this). You should then go to http://localhost/, and you should see the WAMP home page.
Here is where you should pause and create all of your content. Create a directory under [WAMP Path]/www/, and that is where you can create your application.
Configuring Your Router
Now that your application is ready to go online it’s time to get a domain name! First, we need to configure your router for port forwarding or else no one will get to it.
I use a Linksys router, but you can Google how to port forward on your router and firmware. I went to my router’s admin section which for Linksys was http://192.168.1.1/. I then went to “Applications & Gaming” and put in the following values for both HTTP and FTP.
The HTTP box is from port 80 to 80, and I assigned it the IP of the computer I want to forward to (to find your IP go to Start — Run — Type “cmd” (no quotes) — Enter — Type “ipconfig /all”). I also put in the values for FTP which is from port 21 to 21. Remember to check the “Enable” checkbox for both settings and save your changes.
Getting Your Personalized Domain Name
I would suggest going over to DynDNS to grab a domain name. You can get a free forwarding address, but if you want your own domain name you’ll have to pay for it (it’s worth it).
Create an account, and go to Services — Custom DNS. Go through their wizard to purchase your domain name. After your purchase goes through then we’ll need to point your domain name towards your local computer. Go to Services — My Zones and click on your domain name. When you get the options dialog then enter your external IP (get it the same way you get your local IP). If you’ve set your IP to be static or dynamic then choose accordingly (there is no reason to not use a dynamic IP, because DynDNS has an application to dynamically update your settings which I’ll show you).
Be sure to make sure that “Put Online” is selected in your WAMP menu (image above). After a few hours it will resolve, and you will see your website on the WWW! If you selected a dynamic IP then go grab the free IP update client for DynDNS and configure it.
Oh wait, there is one more important step! We need to add an alias on your Apache server to tell the server where to forward requests. Get the WAMP menu (right click on the taskbar icon), and go to Config Files — httpd.conf. This is where we will add an alias for your new domain. (I should tell you that you can get a GUI editor similar to IIS for Apache, but it is shareware.)
Scroll to the bottom to where you see the Virtual Host example. You will add the following information. This tells the server to listen on port 80 for requests made with a certain domain name, and when that condition is true it forwards it to a local directory on your server.
ServerName www.yourdomainname.com DocumentRoot [WAMP directory]\www\yourprojectfolder
FTP and E-mail
You’re doing good! Hang in there! You now have a working domain name, but you’ll want to add FTP capability and maybe e-mail as well. For the FTP simply download the FileZilla Server. In there you can create users and assign appropriate permissions.
As for e-mail, instead of trying to set up your own POP/SMTP server why not get Google to do it for you? Google has free apps for your domain that you can utilize. Simply sign up for a free account, and configure the Gmail section. There is a tutorial in there where you’ll have to add MX records in your DynDNS configuration panel, but it’s painless. Now you can set up accounts that have 2GB of storage and use the Gmail interface!
You’re Done!
Congrats! You are done! For only $40 you have your own server, personal domain, e-mail, and FTP! If you have questions be sure to provide plenty of information in the comments, and I’ll attempt to steer you straight.
great tut man, but what if you ISP (COX Comm. in my case) blocks common ports like (80,8080 etc)? unless you pay for business plan, which is way more then residental plans..
This explains how to get past routers and redirect the web traffic to the proper machine through the desired ports http://www.itutorblog.com/2011/04/setup-websitewindows/
Hi Dan! You can use DynDNS’ WebHop service to accomplish what you need. Let me know if you need more help.
hey Chis.. i just signed up for that account, how would i go about setting everything up? I have static dns set up that points IP to my box, what about port or anything else?
thanks in advance
oh, and i also have my own paid domain name with hosting server + another domain name (that i wanted to host from my box).. hope that helps
Dan: did you go through their wizard? In the redirect URL you can add the http://ipaddress:port/.
Let me know.
This is excellent. Just what I needed in order to test my web designs. I’ve been delaying it because I did not want to go through the hassle and expense of renewing my hosting account.
:)
i didn’t see this redirect option, awesome it works now with their subdomain.. can you help me out how would i use my own domain name.. i have one but with another company(dotster.com) that i prepaid for 2 years.. can i use it?
ps. i don’t have forwarding option with dotster.com
Dan: It looks like your provider does support forwarding.
Hey Chris.. i got it all up and running, appriciate your help man, thanks again
No problem! Glad you got it working.
thanks man great tutorial …
what does it mean when the log file says:
[error] [client 192.168.1.1] client denied by server configuration c:/(my site)
just to add a little more info… when I try to access the page a get an 403 error in my webbrowser and the:
“[error] [client 192.168.1.1] client denied by server configuration c:/(my site)” in my errorlog
I’m running a router linksys and from what I gather I did sucessfully enable ports 21 and 80 so it can be forward to my pc.
I’m running the demo from ApacheConf and I set it up just like in their video… when I click “test configuration” (virtual host) I get: Syntax OK press any key to continue
I also tried to setup at DynDNS
Hostname Redirected: (my WebHop site ).dontexist.org
Redirect URL: http://(my Dynamic DNS site).gotdns.com/
Cloak Active: N
Cloak Title:
(I never saw any place that would talk about redirecting ports though…)
leo
@Leo: I am out of town right now, but I get back on Sun night. I’ll look more into your issue then.
Thanks Chris, I really appresiate!
more tests
I disconected my router and…
client denied by server configuration: C:/wamp/www/
[Fri Jun 15 21:00:17 2007] [error] [client xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] client denied by server configuration: C:/wamp/www/
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:04 2007] [notice] Apache/2.2.4 (Win32) PHP/5.2.3 configured — resuming normal operations
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:04 2007] [notice] Server built: Jan 9 2007 23:17:20
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:04 2007] [notice] Parent: Created child process 4024
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:04 2007] [notice] Child 4024: Child process is running
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:04 2007] [notice] Child 4024: Acquired the start mutex.
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:04 2007] [notice] Child 4024: Starting 250 worker threads.
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:04 2007] [notice] Child 4024: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Fri Jun 15 21:42:06 2007] [error] [client xx.xx.xx.xx] client denied by server configuration: C:/wamp/www/
@Leo: First off, are you able to successfully browse to http://localhost ? You should see the WAMP entry screen.
yes… http://localhost/ works fine :)
what’s next?
leo
Do you have DynDNS going to your external IP like I mentioned above? Where are you getting these error messages from?
when I go to my account in DynDNS it shows: that:
IP in Database/DNS = my external IP address… so my guess is yes.
I also tried to enter to the site using my external IP in my browser and it says error 403 (You are not authorized to view this page)
I’m getting my error message from the error.log
I’m connecting from “Comcast cable”
For future readers: ensure that you have all firewalls turned off (i.e. the Windows one). The router has one by default so your system won’t be left vulnerable.
If you’re getting “forbidden” errors then try this tutorial.
Thanks Chris that tutorial save my life :)
leo
about turning off Window’s Firewall… can i just open the 80 and 21 on the PC’s firewall. I would really like to leave it on. I hate the annoying warnings about the firewall being disabled (call me stubborn, but i dont want to disable the warnings either because i think they are a good thing at times). Great tutorial too. apache seemed a little too confusing to me at first but then i found this and now I am pretty confident. I haven’t set it up yet cause i need a little time, but i will soon. thanks in advance for any help.
@guitardude: Theoretically, yes that should work, but with Windows it’s always a guess.
Thanks. I installed everything, but when i go to the phpMyAdmin page, i get the following message at the bottom of the page:
Your configuration file contains settings (root with no password) that correspond to the default MySQL privileged account. Your MySQL server is running with this default, is open to intrusion, and you really should fix this security hole.
I tried setting up a password on the Privileges page in phpMyAdmin, but then it started blocking me from accessing it. I couldnt get fix it so i uninstalled, then reinstalled. How should i fix the problem it is talking about?
@guitardude: I never saw that until you pointed it out. Just be sure that any access you do with your database you do through a MySQL user account.
I am not really gonna be doing any database stuff, at least i dont think so. I just want to make a website that has some info about computer building and repair that i want to start doing. Will this pose any security problems to my computer?
You should be fine, but be sure to only allow port forwarding for port 80.
Thanks again. You have been a great help.
i have done everything you said.
i am using linksys wrt54gx
and comcast modem
the dyndns uri is just getting me to my reuters login which is not good what is up? anyhelp would be greatly apreciated.
thanks charlie
@Charlie: Did you do the port forwarding step?
I got my domain as godaddy, when i try and forward it to my dns service address which is psyion.ath.cx it tells me tehre is an error.
any ideas?
@James: First I need to know what error you’re receiving.
hi i have wamp running on my computer i am using no-ip with the server i have a website with a domain name how do i point my domain name at the wamp server so the site can be seen on the web thanks william
@W: Did you do my directions on DynDNS?
Just a note to let you know this tutorial is still being used, and there are a lot of grateful people. Thank you for sharing!
also, the link is not working for the WAMP5 download — here is a valid one: http://www.soft32.com/Download/Free/WAMP5/4–125296-1.html
[…] Poteet gives us a quick overview of FileZilla Server. Here the tutorial that Chris mentioned in the […]
You rock dude. Thanks.
Thanks very usefull !!!
This is excellent. Thanks. I installed everything, good tutorial very useful steps . Please post more information thanks.