Installing Apache on Windows

Installing Apache on Windows, why? Because let's face it Windows is easy, and well Apache sure beats using IIS. This tutorial is meant for the person who would like to set up there own little web server. It's not meant for the IT Person running a fortune 500 company. But hey if you want go ahead.

Instalation:

First thing you need is to download the webserver. Now for windows users your gonna want to go download the .exe . The apache website is www.apache.org Your gonna wanna head to the apache binaries sections for Win32 I believe it is at http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/win32/There you will be able to download a version of apache.

Now before you download it you gonna want to make a folder. This folder is where your gonna server your root directory. Now if you don't want to do this it's ok. You can use the default path if you want. Put usually this helps in setting up other things like php, and MySQL. Most people do is they create a folder in the C:\ directory called WWW or somthin. You can name it whatever you want.

Ok so have downloaded the Apache Web Server. Your ready to go with the setup. No the version I have downloaded was apache_2.0.36-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi Thiswas a newer version and supposedly supposed to be more secure. The first screen you get when your in the setup is The welcome screen we don't care much about that but owell so hit next. The next screen is the terms and service. And yes your going to agree to the terms duh. The next screen is some documentation. I never really read it but if you want go ahead and do it. Once your done
hit next again. Know we see a screen that says enter a network domain. Erase what is ever in there and type localhost.

Now the next box says Servername, erace what is ever in the box and put in localhost. The next is Administrators e-mail address. Go ahead and fill that in. But make sure to change it. Now there are 2 little radio buttons. Pick the one that best suites your needs. Now that we got that all filled out. Hit Next and you'll go to a screen that asks you which type of install you want to do. Then hit next.

If you wanted to server out of your one special folder. Change the file location of were your gonna install apache. Or just leave it at the default path. Click install and it should be on it's way. Once it's done installing hit the finish button.

The test:
First were gonna check to see if Apache installed correctly. This is how we do it. Open up Internet Explorer and type in " http://localhost" . If everything went smooth then you should
be seeing a message that looks like this" Seeing this instead of the website you expected?" Yippee!!! Apache is working. See now wasnt' that really simple. Ok now were gonna do some fun stuff.

Alright now that we got or test done lets move on to changing some of this stuff that apache did on default. In Internet Explorer if you installed on the deafult path. Make your way to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2 This is your Main Apache Directory were you can find everything. If you want take a short break and run around. There are some cool things there. Don't worry if you don't understand what's in these files just yet.

Break Time:
Go take a leak, get some pepsi and somthin to eat. If you got smokes light
them up in your new found glory. Alright so now you've got apache installed and your about to start dishing out your web pages that you took so much time on to build. Head to the folder called htdocs, this is your main folder. There should be a whole bunch of pages What i do
is i select them all and move them to another folder. The htdocs folder is the best folder in the world. It's gonna be one of the places you spend most of your time dishing out content for the world. Ok so get rid of all that stuff that is in your htdocs folder. And move all your great content inside replacing it.

Alright so now once we moved all are content inside the htdocs folder and we tested it to make
sure it was there. http://localhost remember. Now let's get out of there. Go to Apache's main directory. Now just to be aware of what is going on and get a good example of how Apache Functions head off to a folder called "conf" This is the configuration files Apache Uses. If you ever wanted to install php and other server side scripting languages this is where you would do it. Now you get 2 copys Use 1 as a backup and never edit it at all.

Go ahead and open the folder and open "httpd.conf" Read it very carefully cause in this tutorial were not gonna read about it. I just want you to know it's there. Anytime you edit the httpd.conf file you must re-start apache in order for it to work. Another good tip for you new people to apache is you may notice the log files. Yes there great and make sure to make backups of the logs they will come in handy. As security precautions. I also recommend getting a firewall set up. There are lots of great security features that apache has but this is a tutorial to installing apache.

Alright so now you've got your wbpages up. But the only way people will be able to view your pages is my typing in your ip address. This is a bumper. Lets look at some free re-directories. www.n2v.net, This is a cool one. You sign up put your ip adress of your new webserver in and whalla your done. Type in www. .n2v.net and it goes to your server and brings up your super nice webpages. Now if you go to google and search for free domain names or re-directors you should come up with alot. Many People already know about the www.dot.tk one of the coolest things in the world. Free .tk very simple That's all you need. It works perfect for my webserver and I've got around 3,000 hits so it's working good. If you don't wanna do it you don't have to. But it just makes it simple.

Alright that comes to the conclusion of installing Apache Win32 for WINDOWS users. Very easy. One last thing Please Read more of the Apache Documentation either on there website or in your Apache2 directory. If you liked reading this tutorial on how to setup Apache check my website for others at www.bonfire.tk . Yes there will be follow ups. I'll be writing another apache tutorail soon so you can set up PHP. The most awesome scripting language ever built. And also another on how to secure Apache and yes ALL FOR WINDOWS!! .