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  • Guide to Host Your website at home, 1

    Upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 2

    Microsoft has fixed problems in Windows XP that create issues for Apache. Use Windows Update to upgrade your Windows XP system to service pack 2. You have probably already done this. If not, you need to do it in any case to fix many important security problems that have nothing to do with Apache!

    Not sure if you have service pack 2? Do this: click on "Start," right-click on "My Computer," select "Properties" and look at the information presented under "System." You should see "Service Pack 2." If not, visit Microsoft's Windows Update site, using Interet Explorer, not Firefox... just this once! The Windows Update site uses special Active X controls to update your computer. Normally I don't encourage the use of Active X, but for upgrading Microsoft's own operating system from Microsoft's own website using Microsoft's own browser, it's OK!

    Downloading Apache

    Visit the Apache HTTP Server Project home page. In the column at left, locate "Download!" and click on "from a mirror." The download page will appear. Scroll down until you locate the link to download the "Win32 Binary (MSI Installer)" distribution of Apache, not the "Win32 Source." That's raw source code for programmers - probably not what you want!

    Click on the link for the "Win32 Binary (MSI Installer)" and wait for your browser to save the file to disk.

    Installing Apache

    Once the download is complete, you're ready to install the software. Double-click on the file you just downloaded on your desktop (for Firefox) or in your downloads folder (for Internet Explorer) to launch the installation program. The "Installation Wizard" window will appear.

    First you'll see the "Welcome to the Installation Wizard" page. Click "Next" to continue.

    Next, you'll see the Apache license agreement. The Apache license allows you to share the software freely, including the source code. Select "I accept the terms in the license agreement" and click "Next."

    The "Read This First" page appears. Currently this page doesn't offer much specific information for Windows users of Apache. Click "Next."

    The "Server Information" page should now appear. Be sure to enter the correct information:

    1. For "Network Domain," if you registered a hostname such as myname.is-a-geek.com with DynDNS, enter is-a-geek.com.

    2. For "Server Name," enter your full hostname, such as myname.is-a-geek.com.

    3. For "Administrator's Email Address," enter a real email address for you that actually works. Users will see this when things go wrong. Bear in mind that spammers might discover this address, so use an address that is already publicly known if possible.

    4. For "Install Apache HTTP Server 2.0 programs and shortcuts for..." select "for All Users, on Port 80, as a Service." This ensures that the software is always running, no matter who is sitting down at your computer. And a website that is not always running is not very useful! So pick this option and click "Next."

    The "Setup Type" page appears next. Select "Typical" and click "Next" to move on.

    You'll see the "Destination Folder" page. By default, Apache installs in the folder C:\Program Files\Apache Group, creating a sub-folder called C:\Program Files\Apache Group\htdocs to keep your web pages in. These are good choices, so click "Next." Don't click "Change..." unless you know exactly what you're doing.

    Finally, the "Ready to Install the Program" page appears. Click "Install" to kick off the installation process. The Apache server software will be copied into place and the Apache service will start up in the background. Along the way, a few Windows Command Prompt windows will flash up briefly. This is normal and you should let these windows do their thing and go away on their own!

    If you do receive error messages, the most frequent cause is that Internet Information Server or another web server is already installed and "listening" on port 80, the standard HTTP port. Disable the other web server software and reinstall Apache.

    The "Installation Wizard Completed" page should appear. Congratulations, you have a web server! Click on "Finish" to complete the process.

    Internet Information Server Quick-Start Guide

    You need either Apache or Internet Information Server (IIS). You do not want both.
    Microsoft's Internet Information Server is a solid choice, and it is included free with Windows XP Professional. If you don't have XP Professional, or one of the server-oriented versions of Windows like Windows Server 2003, then IIS is not an option for you.

    Installing Internet Information Server

    1. Make sure you have Windows XP Professional! Click "Start," then right-click "My Computer." Choose "Properties" from the menu that appears. The "General" tab will appear. Under "System:" you should see "Microsoft Windows XP Professional." If you see Windows XP Home, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 95, you will not be able to use IIS. Follow the Apache Quick-Start Guide instead.

    2. We're ready to install the IIS software. Select "Start," then "Control Panel," then "Add/Remove Programs." Select "Add/Remove Windows Components" from the left-hand column.

    A list of available Windows features appears. Check the box for "Internet Information Services (IIS)" and click "Next." If prompted, insert your Windows XP installation CD.

    That's all it takes! Installing IIS is very simple because it is a standard component of Windows XP Professional.

    Step Seven: Test Your Website From Your Own Computer

    Is the website working? Let's find out! The first test is to access your site from your own computer. On the same computer that is running the web server software, access the URL http://localhost/. You should see an example home page provided with your Apache or IIS web server software. If not, review the appropriate quick start guide above and figure out which step you skipped! If you received errors during installation, you need to resolve them before your website will work.

    Step Eight: Make Your Own Home Page

    You have a web server, but right now the "content" on the site is just the default home page that came with the server software. Time to fix that!

    All you have to do is move your own web pages to the appropriate folder. If you followed the Apache quick-start guide, your web pages belong in this folder:

    C:\Program Files\Apache Group\htdocs

    If you followed the IIS quick-start guide, your web pages belong here:

    C:\Inetpub\wwwroot

    First, remove the files that are already in those folders. It's not smart to leave "default" files lying around. What if a security problem was found with one of these common files? Then your website would be vulnerable.

    Next, copy your own web pages and images into the folder. The "home page" of your site should be called index.html (not index.htm). Both Apache and IIS are smart enough to know that when a user visits http://yourname.is-a-geek.com/, they should act as if the user asked for http://yourname.is-a-geek.com/index.html and do the right thing.

    Step Nine: Test Your Website From The Outside World

    We did a lot of work here to give our computer a hostname on the Internet and forward web traffic through the router and firewall. Did we do it right? Only one way to be sure! Access your website from a computer that is not on your home Internet connection, or have a friend try it. For example, if you registered the name myname.is-a-geek.com with DynDNS, your website's address is http://myname.is-a-geek.com/. Try that address from a computer outside your home and see what happens!

    If it works... great! If not, you probably made a mistake in dynamic DNS, port forwarding, firewall configuration or local static IP configuration.

    "I followed all the steps and I get my router's login page instead of my home page!"

    You are probably trying to access your website by name from behind your router (from one of your own PCs). With many routers, this does not work because the router automatically assumes any web connection to itself from inside your network is an attempt to log into the router's configuration interface. Test from outside your own network or have a friend do that for you. If you can access your home-hosted website from someone else's computer, you don't have a problem. If you want to access your site from a computer behind your router, you'll have to access it at its static local IP address instead of by name.

    Another possible cause of this problem: you may have turned on your router's "remote router access" feature by mistake. People turn this on by accident because they think it has something to do with hosting a website at home. It doesn't. Turn it off, it is dangerous! You don't want other people accessing your router and changing configuration settings.

    Congratulations! You have your own website on the Internet, hosted entirely in your own home. Just remember: your computer must remain on, and connected to the Internet, all the time. Without a web server, there's no website. That's why, if you choose to host at home, I recommend picking up an older computer off the curb, dusting it off, popping in at least 128MB of RAM and firing it up as a web server. Your own PC doesn't wear out, and if security problems are found in the web server, they are more likely to be confined to the less important computer.

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