how do i host a website on my own pc

noobusinglinux · #1 11th September 2009, 12:11 AM

me and my friend "user: soaperi" are trying to set up a fedora 11 computer to host a web page we cant seem to find an easey program to move a simple html file into a host server and host the page can someone gude us through the process of setting up and hosting a web page

sidebrnz · #2 11th September 2009, 12:46 AM

Instead of going to all the trouble of setting up Apache and making sure that your box is up 24/7, why not just install gFTP and use that to move your files to a hosting service, as I do?

jpollard · #3 11th September 2009, 12:53 AM

well, first of all you will need a fixed IP number and not one dynamically assigned via dhcp.

Frequently, you will need a "commercial" connection (you might find out if Speakeasy is available as an ISP).
Commercial connections cost extra, and fixed IP numbers on top of that.

If you expect someone to connect with "www.yourhost.net" connection, you will need DNS delegation of your
IP number, or your ISP will need to provide such DNS support.

After that, all you need to do is have your web server running.

Usually, it is a bit too expensive (I ran one for 3 years- $300 per month). Rates have dropped, but not enough.

stevea · #4 11th September 2009, 01:10 AM

This forum isn't really the right place to ask for a detailed tutorial, tho' several good ones exist here.

There are several web server packages available
apache is the big industrial strength solution
Some lightweight alternatives are:
lighttpd, thttpd, httpd, tclhttpd.

I suggest you pick a package, and use google.com/linux searching for "howto packagename"

nix · #5 11th September 2009, 01:13 AM

You can use DYNDNS and ddclient for DNS service and its free. That way you can have a domain name like etch.homelinux.org. And of course you need to install and setup Apache. Be prepared to do some reading. I run mine over cable and it works fine for family to log in and see pictures, etc. But if you are expecting a lot of traffic, I don't think a home cable connection will do.

You can have your site hosted at a commercial service for like $10 a month. Webmasters is one place. Of course you would have to pay to register a domain name.

Hope that is of some assistance.

trigpoint · #6 11th September 2009, 08:48 PM

Does your ISP not provide web-space?

I use my ISP's web-space to host a website for a walking club that I am a member of. They even let me write my own PHP scripts.

As other posters have pointed out, using your home PC as a web-server is ok providing it is for personal use or a few friends and family to access.

As for deploying files to the apache server, just copy them to /var/www/html.

Once you go beyond that you start to need to think about keeping the PC running 24/7, what if there is a power cut, you start to need a UPS.

You could also, depending on your ISP, be breaking T's & C's. Here in the UK you certainly would be if you are on cable. Again if it a small scale thing for friends and family they would not bother, but once the traffic goes up they will. And if its an ADSL line the upload speed is only 512K, again making it not really suitable.

As for deploying a file to the apache server, just copy them to /var/www/html.