Computersight -

In the flowing article I will tell you how to make a web server using apache for free. Woo Hoo FREE!

To do this you will need:

• A computer

• Internet (no brainier) (DSL)

• A child (age 10+)…… if you cant get your hands on a child, Google will work.

Step 1 Downloading and Installing the Apache web server

To get apache, just go to http://www.apache.org/on the left hand side of the page, you will a link that will say “HTTP Server” click this link. Next you must click download from a mirror. A page with the download links will come up. You need to click one of the “Win32 Binary” files. This will bring up a download dialog click “run or save” if save pick a place to save it to. Once the download has finished, if you picked save go to the place that the file was saved, or if you picked run the file will open straight away. Wile the installer in doing its thing it will ask you some questions. Once the install is done, the server will be running. You can check for yourself by opening your web browser and typing in the address bar “localhost or 127.0.0.1” if all has gone well a page will come up saying “It Works!”

Step 2 Port Forwarding

            Now you have a working web server but only you and anyone on your network can see it but none of the people on the internet can see it. For the outside world to see your site, you will need to port forward. Before you can port forward you need some info about your network. The info you require is your private ip, the ip of your gateway, and your WAN ip.

To get your gateway and private ip, you need to run ipconfig. To do this just follow these steps:

1.       Go to start and click “run”

2.       In the box that appears type “cmd”

3.       A black box will appear, in this box type “ipconfig /all”

4.       A lot of info will appear; you need to copy down on a piece of paper the default gateway and ip address.

5.       Next open you web browser and type in the address bar the default gateway you copied down before (eg. 192.167.0.1)

6.       A page with the name of your router will come up

7.       Go through all the options that are there and find “Port Forwarding” when you find Port Forwarding, type in the port you need to forward, in most cases this is port 80. This type in the ip you copied down before. Clicks apply. (not the same in all cases)

8.       Next go to http://www.whatismyip.comand copy down that ip, which is your WAN ip.

9.       Type your WAN ip in to the address bar and if all worked a page will come up that says “It Works!”