Do you want to host your website in your own home computer and make it available to world? I am going to describe the simple steps to set up your own web hosting server in your computer.

Here I am using WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) web server which is fully configured and easy to install. The steps listed here do not provide explanations in depth. I assume that you have technical knowledge about how to do which is required.

Step 1: Installing Web Server in your computer

• Click here to download WampServer. [WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database. It also comes with PHPMyAdmin and SQLiteManager to easily manage your databases.]
• Double click .EXE file and follow the instructions on the screen. The WampServer is installed automatically with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database.
• Now start WampServer from Start>All Programs>WampServer>Start WampServer if you did not select to start automatically while installation.
• You can put your web files inside www directory of WampServer installation directory. (Generally c:\wamp\www).
• To check your web server, type http://localhost in your web browser’s address bar. The hosted folders will be listed in your web browser. This shows that your web server is installed successfully and ready to run web files.

Step 2: Make Your Website Available to World

• Your new web server responses for incoming requests on port 80. If you have a software firewall or a NAT firewall (router), then these requests may be blocked. You will need to configure your firewall to allow incoming requests on port 80. If you’re having trouble configuring your firewall, check Software firewall configuration and Hardware firewall configuration.
• Now your web server is accessible from outside by browsing your IP address. You can know your IP address from WhatIsMyIP.com. But browsing your website using IP address is not reliable and practical. Next thing your IP address is always changing. So you have to get static IP for your webserver which is described in next point.
• Here I am using DynDNS.org which provides free URL that points to the IP address of your web server. Go to DynDNS.org and create your free account there.
• After creating your account, log in to their website and go to Dynamic DNS and click on Add Dynamic DNS. Choose your desired name (eg. MyWebServer) and select dyndns.org from the drop-down. Now your website URL will be http://mywebserver.dyndns.org.
• If the IP address field isn’t automatically filled in, enter your IP address. (Get your IP address at WhatIsMyIP.com) Then click on Add Host.
• After doing all these steps you have to install Dynamic DNS Updating Client which can be found in Support section of DynDNS.org. This will help to update your changing IP address to DynDNS.org.

Now you are done and ready to host your own website from your home computer. Did you find this tutorial helpful or useless? Have any comments and suggestions? Please do post them here.