Lately, with me talking about web hosting so much, I have been curious as to how to start your own personal web server using a spare desktop computer. If you consider everything that is needed, a web server is really a fairly simple machine. In fact, if you wanted to run your own WordPress blog off your own personal computer all that is needed is a high speed Internet connection, MySQL, PHP and Apache.
These three programs are totally free and can be downloaded and installed on your own personal computer. The problem I have is I just don’t quite have the knowledge to get everything configured correctly to do it. I have everything needed, but don’t quite see how to get it all set up. Maybe you can help me?
Here is what I got…
- Older desktop computer - 1.6 GHz processor, 1024 Megs of Ram, 20 Gig Hard Drive, 2x 10/100 Lan Cards, Running Windows XP. (I can install Linux if you like)
- High Speed Internet – Dynamic IP (hardly ever changes though and I can pay extra for static IP) The speed is 30 mbps download and 2.8 mbps upload. The upload speed is what we are concerned with here. T1 Line is 1.5 mbps, I have almost double that, so my service is perfect for running a blog off my own Internet connection.
- Linksys Router
- Copy of Apache, PERL, PHP, MySql, WordPress, Fedora Linux
So, if you know how to do all this , contact me or drop me a comment. If you write a tutorial up, I wil edit this post and include it here and give you credit and links back to your blog.
Did you enjoy reading this post? I want to invite you to subscribe to my blog so that you won't miss my next article. Subscribing to my blog is totaly free. Simply, enter your email address in subscription box below and immediately you will start to receive copies of my articles sent to you by email. Your email address is never shared and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Date/Time: 9-5-2008 10:55:45 Comment #21260
Hey Garry, while I don’t have a tutorial for you I do know how to setup a basic web server.
First things first, you need to check with your ISP and see if it is ok to host your own webserver. I know that with some they don’t allow it as it adds extra congestion and traffic to the network.
Second, is the CPU that you have just a single core? 1.6GHz is kind of low but then it depends on what you are going to be running as well. We all know that WordPress loves to use up the CPU and I am not sure how well an older processor would work under heavy traffic.
I saw that you have Apache,PERL,PHP,MySQL, are these all in a package or do you have them separate? If they aren’t in a package you can download a package called WAMPServer that will setup a whole server for you with Apache,PHP and MySQL configured and it takes about 10 minutes to get everything setup.
If you decide to go that route, you will need to go through and find a tutorial on security. WAMPServer out of the box isn’t made for hosting a real server, it is just meant as a test server. I use it to test out my sites and work with them before I actually upload them.
I don’t have any links to any security tutorials and what you need to do to make WAMP secure, but I am sure that with a quick Google search you should be able to find something.
Also, depending on the traffic home internet connections aren’t really made for high traffic. The connection and speeds are way too slow to handle any type of boost in traffic. It isn’t impossible to run your own home based web server, but those are a few things to think about.
Once you get WAMP configured, all it takes is setting up the right ports inside of your firewall, setting WAMP to live and your site will be live.