Topic: Really basic questions...

[JohnPain123]

Hi there all,

I'm really new to web development and know next to nothing about how to do all of this stuff! I'm interested in trying to set up websites and have downloaded Apache for Windows today.

I'm stuck at the first installation screen!

It asks for the following:

1. Network Domain. Enter the DNS domain in which your server is or will be registered in. For example, if your server's full DNS name is server.mydomain.net, you would type mydomain.net here.

2. Server Name. Your server's full DNS name. From the example above, you would type server.mydomain.net here.

3. Administrator's Email Address. Enter the server administrator's or webmaster's email address here. This address will be displayed along with error messages to the client by default.

The thing is that I don't fully understand how to set this stuff up on my laptop!

For point 1, I have called this "mydomain.net". I went to the hosts file and did this:

127.0.0.1 johnpain123.mydomain.net mydomain.net

I also went to Local Area Connection > Properties > Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) > Properties > Advanced > DNS tab > "Append these DNS suffixes (in order):" > and here I typed "mydomain.net"

For point 2, I have called this "johnpain123" and my computer name (My Computer > Properties > Computer Name) is also "johnpain123".

For point 3, I've realised that I must really be missing something because how do I set up an email account like this on my laptop that Apache can send emails to me?!!

So...

1. Have I got the configurations correct so far for points 1 & 2???

2. Is there anything more that I need to do for points 1 & 2?

3. Can anybody guide me as to what I need to do to set up point 3?


I'd really appreciate any help I can get because I'm really, really lost!

Thanks in advance,

John.

[alex.w474]

I use "localdomain" for "Network Domain", "localhost" for "Server Name" and "admin@localhost" for Administrator's Email.

Administrator's Email only displayed on the apache error page.
Network Domain and Server Name are used in logs and when server name is displayed on the maintenance/error pages.

Actually, for stand-alone Apache Web-server you can put into that fields any values you want. And definitely, you do not need to change "Local Area Connection" settings to make Apache works on your computer.

Regards,
Alex

[JohnPain123]

Thanks for your reply alex. I've used those values and it works! It's also useful to know that I can actually put in any values to get this working. I will change the LAN settings back to what they used to be!