In this article we will tell you how to turn your home computer into a web server in 2 minutes.. Here’s the complete procedure.
A web server is a kind of software which runs on your computer and let other computers to use it for downloading files. Web server allows you to host your website from your computer instead of using FTP and DNS servers free of cost and allow you to create and run dynamics web pages. Turning your personal computer into a web server will allow you or anyone with password details to access and share your data directly from internet.
A Windows personal computer
A broadband internet connection
Web server software
Install Apache Server
Before installing, stop all the firewalls, server software or instant messengers as these causes interruption in server installation. Then download the latest version of ‘Apache HTTP Server’ from its website. Use this mirror which says:
Click ‘Run’ when asked, accept the user license and start the installation. Enter the ‘server information’ when asked such as ‘network domain, server name and administrator’s email address’. Install the server program for all users on port 80 and select the typical server type installation. Choose ‘yes’ if your computer asks for administrator’s permission. Click on ‘finish’ once the server software is installed to complete the process.
Once finished, open your browser and type ‘localhost’ in your web address bar. If you see “if you can see this, it means that that the installation of the ‘Apace web server’ software on this system was successful” on the page, you have installed the web server properly.
Configure Apache Server
Once you have installed the web server, it’s time to share and access your files online. First of all, copy the address of the file or folder you want to access through internet for example C:UsersDocuments.
Now, open the ‘httpd.conf’ file located in the folder,
In this file, search for
and change it to
Also, search for
and replace it with
Now, look 20 lines beneath the above line for
and replace it with
Save your file as http.conf. Restart the Apache software from the taskbar by clicking on it. Again, open your web browser and type ‘localhost’ in the address bar. If everything goes right, you will see the list of your documents on the web browser page.
Set Password for your Documents
Always protect your documents with password so that no one else s able to access it without your permission. Open the command prompt by clicking on the start button and typing cmd in the search field. Change it to the directory of Apache bin by writing
Now, create the password by writing
Change the path to your newly created password file’s path which can be in any folder except the web server’s root folder. Replace user with any username. When asked, enter your desired password. Now, you have created the password file, you need to create a login/password ID to your directory. Open Notepad and write the following code:
Change the path folder to the actual path of your password file. Save this file as “.htaccess” in the root directory of the document of your web server which is C:UsersDocuments.
Now, open your browser again and type ‘localhost’ in your web address bar. The page will ask you to login. Type your newly created username and the password to access the files. Now, you have a web server running on your personal computer.