Very basic www server/host

[yellowwax]

I’m not sure if this is possible but I’ll ask any way. I want to build a web site and host it myself. I want to do this on a Linux PC. Could someone please tell me the basics of doing this. I would assume I need to register a domain name first. Then build the site. Now is where I get lost. How do I set up the rest? I don’t imagine there will be more than say 25 hits a week. How does my PC have to be set up so when someone types the WWW of my site into there browser that they end up at my site? If there are online articles about this could you please list them.
Thanks
:confused:

[mychl]

Basically, it goes like this.

You need to set up your web server, most likely Apache. It's fairly easy to set it up to run. Once this is done you can access your web site from anywhere by typing your IP address in a browser.

Good idea to have a static IP, but not necessary, do a search for dns2go.

Anyway, I always used register.com to register my domain name, and I use their DNS servers. The DNS servers are what point to your IP address and associate it with www.yourdomain.com. (http://www.yourdomain.com.)

So you would need to have a DNS server set up so that www.yourdomain.com (http://www.yourdomain.com) -> your IP address. Once you do that, it will take a day or two to populate other DNS servers... then you can type mydomain.com in your browser and it will take you to your IP address where your web server is running.

YOu could also set up your own DNS server on your linux machine, but there are plenty of free ones....

HTH

[netx]

Please ignore if this is too basic.

Here is the catch. If you are wanting to host it on your dial-up, cable,.....etc anything with a dynamic IP address, it presents an obstacle. It is comparable to trying to have your mail delivered to an address that changes every day. If you are still wanting to do this, check out a service like DNS2go from Deerfield, http://www.deerfield.com (http://www.deerfield.com.) . This redirects traffic to you, by having a client running on your PC that constantly sends updates concerning your current IP. Therefore, the address always references your current IP address. It's a very nice service for those of us cursed with a dynamic IP. They offer a free non-commercial license. For my webserver at home, this is what I use.

[ 20 May 2002: Message edited by: netx ]

[yellowwax]

Thanks for the help. Where do I register a domain name? Also can this be done on a 486 PC? Of course it would be slow but would it work?

[FoBoT]

there are a lot of places to register a domain name

i use www.dotster.com (http://www.dotster.com)
there are a few a little cheaper

a 486 will run a small web site that doesn't get many hits, especially if its static content, if you try to run dynamic scripts , then it would bog down fast

[John MacEwan]

I have a Pentium 200Mhz with 48MB Ram and a 2.5gig HDD and have Red Hat 7.2 installed. I want to serve web pages from it as well and have it connected to a very large pipe since I work for a company that is part owner of an ISP. The trouble is, I know absolutely nothing about setting up apache, php, or mySQL. I will need the mySQL for a member database that I have hosted elsewhere right now. The reason I am attempting to do this myself is to learn Linux a little and especially to learn how to serve web sites. So far I just have the OS installed and the updates downloaded and installed for Red Hat 7.2. I now need to know what my next few steps are so i can try to research the details. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The guys who own the ISP are just way too busy so I am trying not to bug them. After all, they gave me a static I.P. and all the bandwidth I will ever need so I dont want to press my luck.

Thanks in advance, John

[mychl]

John, you will be surprised... go to /etc/init.d and type ./httpd start

Then open your browser and go to your ipaddress. You will probably be serving a generic page.

You can use /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf to set up the server the way you want...

That'll be your first step...