Apache :: Totally new to everything

Pat-UK · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 2

Hi everyone,

Just a quick hello as I have just joined, Don't suppose i'll be much help to anyone for a while as I have NEVER had anything to do with seting up a web server so I will be trying to get as much info from your forum.

I am hoping to use a home based web server to host 4 personal websites that non profit making info sites with little traffic (maybe 100 hits a day), I current pay for a reseller account that allows me to do what I need including FTP, POP Mail, Web mail , CGI-BIN and everythig else a server should have

The price of this is about to go up in price as the service has been taken over by a new firm.

I have several redundent machines 2 of which are HP netservers with loads of storage, memory and Dual 1.2 ghz cpu which I think will make a great Web server given the right software,

So what I want to is set one of them up as a Home bassed web server that will work in the same way as the one I am paying for.

Any good pointers on where to start would be great, Personally I would prefer a Windows based OS, but am willing to learn anything new.

Many Thanks in advance and look forward to having lots of in depth chats on what i'm getting wrong.

glsmith

Well .. you'll get a hundred different opinions on what is the right software, but at least here, the web server itself will be Apache, since after all, that is what this site is about.

Win based, no problem unless you allow others access or unless those you give access to you trust. Otherwise, in that case Linux has better security with keeping people inside their own little section of the server.

Pretty much everything that server you are paying for has, you can have as well. As stated you will be given different software suggestions for the jobs depending on different peoples experience, so here are my suggestions for Win32.

FTP: FileZilla
SMTP/POP3/IMAP: Argosoft Mail Server
Activeperl is a good Perl for Win32
PHP is PHP
MySQL is MySQL

Is there anything specific you need? This will tell more what OS you are going to need to run.

restorator · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 1

My opinion on one of the hundreds of options:

I have been using Webdeveloper Server Suite from http://devside.net

It basically a "one click" (if anything is really ONE click) WAMP server (Apache, MySQL, and PHP, for Windows)

It is a real easy way to get started and everything works. You will of course have to do your individual configuration to go "live" and to lock it down as you need, but it works nice and is pretty easy to use.

Other one click solutions I have tried are apache2triad and xampp. Both are also and easy to use and setup.

I am running hmailserver with beemail for webmail access.

I reccomend the "one click" setups for beginners as you dont have to go crazy with most configuration issues right away. You can start playing in about ten minutes and then dive deeper into how it all works together and the more intricate configuration issues and tweaks.

If you are up to the challenge its all worth it and having the control you get from hosting your own server.

Good luck with it all

Pat-UK · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 2

Thanks for the help so far, i like the sound of ONE CLICK options, have downloaded Devsides offering and will have a play with that first.

At the moment, The paid for hosting I have uses cPanel WHM, mail POP/Imap, PHP, and FTP, That's all I use.

So as long as I have some form of control pannel to add and remove accounts, can FTP (for personal use only) Mail and PHP i'll be happy provided it is secure from the losers that hack and wipe out peoples work.

Many Thanks