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Hosting
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:22 am
by JRMannerz
I currently have XAMPP installed and running with an apache server. I also have a domain but no host and I was wondering if its possible to host my own PHP website via XAMPP and Apache? Thanks for any help in advance.
Re: Hosting
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 6:23 pm
by Doug G
XAMPP isn't recommended for public web hosting, refer to the xampp docs
To host your own website, the basics: Web server should have a static IP, firewall on host computer needs to be open, router port forwarding set to your web server machine if necessary, your isp must not block http, and your external ip needs to resolve properly in dns. If you don't have a static external IP you'll need some dynamic dns service.
Beyond the basics you should make sure your server is totally secure, that you have a backup/restore plan in place, that you have backup power, etc.
Re: Hosting
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 3:51 am
by JRMannerz
To be quite honest, I just wanted an easy way to show my friends what ive been doing without worrying too much about security and stuff at the moment. It wasnt intended to be a long term solution to hosting as I will probably pay for hosting when my website is good enough to be hosted 24/7.
Re: Hosting
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 10:39 am
by JRMannerz
Can anyone possibly guide me through setting up self hosting? I can handle portforwarding, I just need DNS help and anything else i may need to know
Re: Hosting
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 1:03 pm
by twinedev
For DNS, many routers (I prefer Netgear), have a setting in them to use services such as DynDNS which you can use to give an actual names address to point to your dynamic IP address. While you have to pay (not much) to use their server to actually use your own domain name, for hobby/testing they offer free subdomians off of some of their domains.
I ran my servers from home for a year using this, and never had a problem with it. (I had commercial grade broadband, paying $90/month, and didn't want to pay another $40/month for a static IP from them)
While you say you are not worrying about security at the moment, it needs to be said that security needs to be a concern from day one. There are scanners out there constantly scanner banks of IPs looking for open ports and servers running software that they know how to exploit. If you are on a University/College network, even more.
Also, like mentioned, your ISP may block traffic to key ports like 80 for apache, but the good news is you can easily in httpd.conf change what port apache listens on.
I still wouldn't run it off your main computer. Set up a spare system (heck for a experimental system, you can find a computer that will handle this for under $100 on craigslist usually if you don't have a spare) a sample of installing CentOS and Webmin can be found easily, here is one I just found (not sure how good it is)
http://jazzymarketing.com/main/lc/0805/ ... webmin-how
Good luck.
-Greg