Many people choose to pay for professional website hosting; however there are times when you may wish to do it yourself such as when you wish to develop and test a website that you may have hosted elsewhere. Below are the steps to guide you on how to setup a website on your PC:
Step 1
There are three common components used to host a website, Apache web server, MySQL, and PHP. All are offered free online. Just run a search on where to download each of them.
Step 2
Once you have downloaded the latest version of the programs needed, you will need to install the Apache first because that will be your web server. That will enable you host your website from your own PC. Just follow instructions on how to install it.
Step 3
Secondly, you may wish to install PHP if you want to embed PHP scripting into HTML to produce a dynamic website. Instructions are provided on the installation, so follow them carefully.
Step 4
Lastly, if you website uses a database you can install the MySQL, a popular open source database. Once done, you can download and install phpMyAdmin so that you can manage your databases easily rather than using the command prompt.
Step 5
Once you are done installing Apache, mySQL and PHP, you can test your web server by typing the word “localhost” or http://127.0.0.1 in the address bar of Internet Explorer or any other browser you are using. If Apache is set up properly the text “It Works!” will be displayed in your browser. Otherwise, you need to recheck your installation.
To test your PHP installation, open a notepad and type the following: <?php phpinfo ();?> and save the text document as phpinfo with .php as extension into the root directory of your Apache (htdocs). After that, call the document using your browser. For example type the http://localhost/phpinfo.php to display the PHP configuration.
Step 6
Now that everything is setup you can upload your website files to the htdocs directory. If you wish for other people to access your website further steps will be needed.
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