Home Web Server w/dynamic IP

[emetib]

Hi!

This student in class was explaining how he set up a home web server on his on his desktop that has a dynamic qwest dsl IP in less than 2 hours and it only cost him a few bucks for the DNS registration.

He mentioned a software package or two that he used ... think the name of it started with the letter "A" and it installed Apache, php and a few other programs for him to quickly create a home Web-server, File-server, and probably Mail-server. It may also automatically switch a dynamic IP to a static IP so it is possible to host your own DNS from home. OR maybe this requires two different software packages.

I want to know the name or names of software and software installation bundles which will assist me in setting up a home web server ASAP.

He said he registered a DNS at GoDaddy and then set up a FreeBSD, Apache, PHP, MySQL Web/File/Mail server in less than 2 hours with this installation software.

I'd ask him what installation software he used but won't see him again till class starts back up after the holidays.

Thanks in advance

 

[RhythmAce]

The software bundles you use would depend on the OS you plan to use. If you have a spare machine, the best way to go is with the linux OS. All distros come with everything you need to run web, ftp and mail servers. If you opt for a Windows based server, you would want to check out a good WAMP bundle. There are many good ones out there. One that comes to mind is WAMP5. These have apache, MySQL and php already configured to work together on a Windows box. There are some good mail servers for Windows but most of them cost several hundred dollars. There are a couple free mail servers out there but I can't name them off the top of my head. If you have a dynamic ip, you will need to use a pointer service such as dyndns or dns2go. Basically these services give you a program that reports your current ip at a given interval so that you can have your domain name point to it. They also offer a free service where you use a sub-domain something like mydomain.dyndns.com.