How To Setup Your Own Free Web Server

Setting up your own web server can be useful, fun, and best of all FREE! (assuming you have a computer, operating system, and internet service) Below are steps on how to host web sites using your home dsl or cable internet connection as well as a few other odds and ends.

What is a Web Server

A web server is just a computer that is connected to the internet and provides content, like web pages, to users.

Basic Steps

The basic steps listed below are covered in this tutorial.

1. Overcoming Dynamic IP Addresses
2. Router Settings
3. Web Server Software
4. Other Server Software
5. Using a Standard URL Web Address

Overcoming Dynamic IP Addresses

Every computer on the internet or a network needs an 'address' that can look something like this 151.162.18.202 and are called Internet Protocol Addresses. They are used when sending information between computers so it gets to the right place. The problem is many internet service providers (ISP's) don't give you the same numerical address each time you connect with them. When you get assigned a new address each time it is referred to as a Dynamic IP address.

For other computers to find your web server you will need to install some software to let the internet know what your current IP address is.

There are may free providers of this service:
no-ip.com
dnsexit.com
dns.widge.net
2mydns.com
dnsart.com
ddts.net
ipupdater.com
just to name a few

All you need to do is visit one of the sites above and sign up for Free Basic Dynamic DNS service. You will be able to choose a sub-domain when you sign up. This will be your web address on the internet and could look something like this www.joes-web-site.ddts.net. (If you don't like your address being part of someone else's that's ok, we'll fix that later) There will usually be a small software application to download and run on the server computer that updates the IP address when it changes. There may be some settings to start the program each time you turn your computer on or run it as a service in Windows 2000 or XP. The documentation for the specific version you download will guide you through this process.

Router Settings

If you type in your new web address, www.joes-web-site.ddts.net in our example above, you still may not be reaching your computer. If you use a hardware router between your computer and Cable or DSL modem it may have a firewall that will prevent others for accessing your server. Most routers have features that allow the firewall and web server to work in harmony. Here are the steps to take:

1. Log into your router - see documentation for your specific brand
2. Locate a page called 'Virtual Server' or 'Port Forwarding'
3. You should see a few categories. We will only deal with 'Port' and 'IP'. You need to set the IP to the address of your web server computer. This is a local IP address and is different than the Dynamic IP address we dealt with earlier. You can find your local IP on windows PC's by clicking Start>Run and type in "CMD" then press enter. Next type in "ipconfig" and press enter. Your ip address will be listed and should look like 192.168.xxx.xxx where the little x's are numbers. They may be one, two, or three digits in length.
4. Next you need to specify what 'Port' will be forwarded to that IP address. Ports are used to carry specific kinds of information over the internet. for web sites port 80 is used most often FTP uses port 21 and e-mail uses ports 25 and 110. If you plan on only serving web pages you need only put in 80. However you can repeat this for any port you wish.
5. Save changes and reboot if necessary, they you are ready for the next step.

Web Server Software

There are many free software choices for your web server. One of the most popular is Apache HTTP Server. Apache can be a little difficult to set up the first time because it is so flexible and offers many options. Luckily there are many online resources and forums that can help if you get stuck.

After you have Apache configured you should be able to find your computer on the internet using your Free DNS web address. You should just see a simple page that says your Apache installation was successful. Now you can replace the sample page with your own web pages!

YOUR ON THE INTERNET!

Other Server Software

In addition to web server software there are other programs you may find useful.

An FTP server allows you to transfer files to and from your computer. This is handy for updating your web site. One freeware ftp server is GuildFTP. It's easy to configure and use. Be sure to open port 21 on your router

If you have ever configured Outlook, Outlook Express, or another email client you know they requires pop3 and smtp servers. Now that your server is seen on the internet you can also use it as a mail server. ArGoSoft offers a freeware program that can handle many email server tasks. Be sure to open ports 25 and 110. Also, don't run open relays, spammers love them and will mooch off of your internet connection.

One last fun bit of software is VNC or Virtual Network Computing. This is great if you won't be using your server as a 'normal' computer very often and don't plan to have a monitor hooked up to it. It allows you to connect to your server from any computer with a web browser and see whatever is on the screen like your desktop or other windows, and use your mouse and keyboard to change settings, run updates, or anything. By default VNC uses port 5800.

Using a Standard URL Web Address

Accessing your computer or web site on the internet is fun and all, but it can get tiresome to type in www.joes-web-site.ddts.net each time. It would be much nicer to just use joe.com don't you think?

Well domain names don't come free but we can do it very inexpensively!

Godaddy.com offers domain names as low as $6.95 per year if you by 10 years at a time, or a respectable $8.95/yr for one year (as of 2003). These are some of the best prices I've found for an ICANN accredited registrar.

Next you need a way to connect your new domain, lets say joe.com to your current one www.joes-web-site.ddts.net. It steps ZoneEdit.com a free internet domain name management service. If you sign up you get 5 free 'Zones' you can use to point 5 domain names to different locations among other things. They do say that if you experience a excessive amount of DNS traffic it will cost you one zone. But this isn't site traffic, DNS queries are very small and it would be quite unusual for a average traffic web site to exceed the limit. Just don't try to run yahoo.com, or ebay.com expecting not to use up your 5 zones.

Enjoy!