Archive:Installing a web server
A web server allows one to host files and/or a website or web services. Generally webservers are dedicated computers, many of which run the GNU/Linux Operating System (OS). This guide will walk you through implementing a Debian GNU/Linux based webserver and then other operating systems of your choice.
Debian GNU/Linux
Installing the Apache2 web server requires a single command:
sudo apt-get install apache2
If you wish to make a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server you must install PHP and MySQL:
sudo apt-get install php mysql
Ubuntu Server Edition
During the installation, choose the option for a LAMP server. This will install Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. The 'htdocs' folder is located in '/var/www'
Installing the Apache2 web server requires a single command with working internet connection in Ubuntu too:
sudo apt-get install apache2
Windows Webserver with XAMPP
This is very straightforward, you simply search for XAMPP on the internet and download the windows installer. Permission problems for Vista have come up, but these are solved by choosing the root of C: drive as the install directory and should be handled for you. It would be beneficial to change it to C:\xampp drive if it isn't already for simplicity. It will also prompt for whether you want to install the Apache web server and mySQL database as services. If you select as a service, the software will be started during the boot; if not, you will need to manually start and stop them from the XAMPP control panel in the program listings every time you need them. Your choice should reflect how much memory and processing power you have. This software package is mainly for sandbox testing of web pages on personal computers, not actual web servers for security reasons.