Apache for windows

[dgwilliams]

This is a stupid question but i want to set up apache on my windows PC i was wondering if anyone can tell me of any good resources to guide me through. also warn me of any problems i am going to encounter.

I have broadband connection at home does that mean if i leave the broadband connection always on does that mean people will be able to view the webpages stored on my apache web server?

Cheers

p.s. i know how stupid i sound but in the past i have just relied on the apache server already being installed for me to work with.

 

[RhythmAce]

Some ISPs block port 80 which is the port http traffic uses. You can use a port scanner to check. You can download one for free at

http://www.portdetective.com

You may also have a dydnamic ip. That means that the ip address changes all the time and makes it hard to run a server since that is how the outside world finds you. If you have one or both of these problems, you may want to use a dns pointer service such as dns2go or dyndns. If your ip changes only once every few months, then you can use a service like zoneedit.com. That way if your ip changes, you can edit your dns records in just a minute or two. Although the pointer services provide a sub-domain name for free, it's always nice to have your own. You can get one for about $8 at

http://www.godaddy.com

 

[dgwilliams]

cheers for the advice ill remeber this when i got apache up and running

 

[RhythmAce]

For cryin' out loud - I forgot to answer your other question. If this is a project to help you learn, then in addition to apache, you will want to make your websites more interesting by allowing them to be more interactive. Just plain html isn't going to do that for you. You will want to add perl/cgi, php and mysql. All of them have versions that will work on the windoze platform and are free. I suggest you get one working before moving on to the next. Trust me, it's the best way to learn. If you just throw a bunch of stuff together, it could take years weeding out a problem. If you do things one step at a time, it's easy to remember what you just did to break it. However, if you're not the type to stay up late at night, ripping your lips outa their sockets, then there are a couple packages where all the work has been done for you. They can be found at:

http://www.devside.net

http://www.firepages.com.au

Good luck

 

[dgwilliams]

ok thats great.

i am left wondering one thing though how do people connect a webserver to the internet so it is always accesible and their IP number doesnt change

 

[RhythmAce]

That's what I was saying earlier. If you have an ip that changes, it is a dynamic ip. If it never changes, it is static. There is a small problem when running a webserver on a dynamic ip for the following reason. Plain and simple, dns points a name to a number just like when you dial 411. All public domain names have a dns "A" (address) record. This record associates your domain name with your ip. When someone types

http://www.yourdomain.com

in their browser, they get sent to xxx.xx.x.xx. Now, if this ip changes and nobody sets the dns servers around the world wise to this fact, they're gonna get a "wrong number". If you have a dynamic ip, you will need to use a dns pointer service. This is how they work. You will be given a small program that polls your machine for its current ip address. It then sends it to your pointer service where it updates the dns record for your domain name. If you don't own your own domain name, then they can provide a sub-domain of their domain such as yourdomain.tzo.com. Apache doesn't need to be configured at all for this unless your service requires your webserver to listen on a different port. By default, apache listens for all addresses on port 80.

 

[dgwilliams]

ok thats great i understand the technical side a lot more. So how would one go about getting a static IP address, i guess most businesses use static IP addresses.

 

[RhythmAce]

If your isp is your cable provider, you may have a problem because they frown on people using their bandwidth for running servers. The few that don't mind will give you a static ip for an additional monthly fee. You may also want to look into adsl. Providers are usually a lot more friendly about this and some even use it as a selling point. The draw back to this is that availability is limited to an area less than 3 miles from the phone company or its equipment. Businesses in general, don't bother with either of these. They will opt for T1 which can usually be leased from the same people that provide dsl.

 

[dgwilliams]

ok thanks for all the info and your patience with my dumb questions... it has fed some of my curiosity.

 

[aquayle]

Could I butt into this thread. I am a newbie trying to run Apache & PHP on a Windows XP PC. Most of the Apache stuff is greek to me! For example, I have been trying to build a page that uses cookies for a user to log in.. Apparently Apache has cookies turned off by default.
Their web page has the following info:-

If you use mod_usertrack with the default CookieName (ie, there is no CookieName directive in your config file), then you will encounter a bug in 2.0.48 and 1.3.29.

The patch that was added to these versions to help prevent false-positive matches of the CookieName did not take into account this case, and therefore the regular expression that is now used in the matching process will be NULL if no CookieName directive was encountered.

This problem will be fixed in both 2.0.49 and 1.3.30 when they are released. As a simple workaround in 2.0.48 and 1.3.29, simply add the line:

CookieName Apache

to your config file. While you're at it, you could pick a more meaningful cookie name than "Apache", but any cookie name will do.

For more details, please see PR#24483 in the bug database.


#######################

My question is:
how do you alter a module (I guess thats what the above means) or what config file are they talking about??
I cannot get my Web Server PC to send cookies

 

[aquayle]

I forgot to help out with hosting your own Web site on your server. I have a dynamic IP address - ISP moves it. You can use a dynamic host lookup service (free) to find your server.
Have a look at

http://www.zonedit.com

I have one running sometimes - what I did was:-
Bought a domain name
Edit the nameserver from the domain company to zonedit's
use a DNS updater - this sends you IP address (every n seconds) to Zonedit
that's it!
What happens, is the updater sends your new IP address, so that when someone types

http://WWW.FRED.CO.UK

then zonedit translates the address to your pc's IP address.

Easy!