HP EX495 1.5TB Mediasmart Home Server ( Black)
Have you ever wondered about having your very own server and website in your closet, maybe in your den, or in you media niche, or where ever you see it fit? Well, if you’re like me, who’s always wondered how to get a home server up and running without reading forums after forums of tech-perts that only rant about how stupid newbies are, then you have serendipitously landed on this page! Go buy yourself a lottery ticket afterwards...you might just win! In this article, I will show you how simple it is now-a-days to get your home server configured and your webpage brought online, all from the hardware that you currently have.
Disclaimer: Please read this whole article in completion with complete understanding before starting any installations. If in doubt, do nothing. This article is for educational and testing purposes only . As such, it is understood that I or any persons, associates, or references are excluded from being indemnified from all and any monetary, software, hardware, personal or business lost from all or any attempts suggested by this article.
1. Use Your Laptop or Desktop PC
You should really use an old desktop PC that's reliable enough to run 24/7/365 days a year without your business or personal data on it. No,not your Grandpa’s PC (a mainframe). Get a Desktop PC with Pentium 3 or 4 Desktop CPU. Or use a laptop PC. It doesn't matter as long as it can run Window's 2000 or XP at least! If you're planing to use this for business, don't do it, because it has no redundancies. This article is for testing a non-production personal home server. I used a "headless" (no keyboard, mouse, or video terminal)Shuttle PC with XP Media Center SP3. Remember, a server is only a software. They only call a hardware a server because of its hardware assembly redundancies in which it can host a software that specifically designed to run services for that hardware, 24/7/365 days a year. Your PC with a server software becomes a server without the hardware redundancies, so please do not use it for business or production purposes unless you place redundancies for it. Now, if you’ve installed Linux on your PC, then you’re reading this article for entertainment value. Leave now or you'll think I am a newbie. If your PC has Windows OS installed, then I feel sorry for you. I'm joking! Let’s move on. Windows OS is okay, just as long as it's Windows 2000, XP, or Windows 7, (AVOID VISTA if you can). It is understood that you’re already connected to the Internet with a ubiquitous router and you're somewhat PC literate, but if not, take some courses on how to run a PC and get an ISP ASAP (if you're reading this article from a friend's computer, of-course). Basically, prep-up and come back here at http://perpetualads.blogspot.com/ when you're ready.
2. Download and install WAMP on your Windows PC
Back in the olden days, we had to install and configure the IIS, Apache, and the database software to make a web server work for a Win-tel platform. Now, all you have to do is download a package that will install and configure all of the for you for the Win-tel (Windows-Intel) machine. The package that can do this is called Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP or "WAMP". If you have Linux, you've already installed the LAMP ("L" stands for Linux instead of Windows). So, start downloading WAMP on your Windows machine. You can download WAMP here.
Watch this YouTube video on how to install WAMP from YouTube in HD now:
3. Download and Install Joomla
Once you've installed WAMP, you will have a sample welcome page or landing page called "index.html" from your Apache web server located in your WWW root directory under the folder WAMP. If you type "localhost" on your Internet Explorer's address field, you will see that it will take you to that welcome page. You basically have a full-pledged Web Server on your PC now. It is just not accessible from the world wide web or cyberspace. But before we get your Web Server ONLINE so cyberspace can see it, let's make it look good first. So, I will introduce to you a system called "Content Management System" or CMS. This system called CMS will help you customize your webpages for your web server more easily and professionally than ever before. No more ugly webpages from the 1990s that took forever to redesign and recode -HELLO! Joomla is one of those web page CMS's and it's total free with full backing and support from a growing community, so download it here for FREE. Install it on your WAMP server PC only after you've seen this instructional video from YouTube in HD. Remember to create your MySQL database first for your Joomla website and keep all Login Name and Passwords the same throughout your web development to minimize confusion and frustrations. You can do all WAMP configurations from the WAMP systems tray icon on the lower left hand of your Windows desktop. Also, if you want your website to come up automatically when typing localhost from your browser, you will need to unzip the Joomla files directly into the /WAMP/www root folder. Note: There are many ways to install Joomla faster than ever before, but if you want to know how it all works, do it manually like in this following video.
Watch this video on how to manually install and configure Joomla on your Windows PC with WAMP:
4. Showcase your Website from your Home Server to the World
Now that you've got your Test Home Server and Website up and running, you'll need to access it from outside your home or local LAN (Local Area Network). In order to do that, you'll need to access your home router to configure port forwarding to forward HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) requests to your home server and create a DNS or Domain Name Service to associate a Domain Name to your IP address of your home web server's router. First, find out what the login and password is of your router. If you don't know, then it should be the default login name and password for your specific brand of router. Click here for the default login name and password of your router. Write down the default information. Now open a CMD (command prompt) window by typing "CMD" in the Run window from the "Start" tab from your home server by clicking "Run" first. In the command prompt window, type: "ipconfig /all" and record the IP address of your web server and the default gateway's IP address. Then try to login to your router from your web browser by typing in the Gateway IP address in the address field. You should be prompted for a Login Name and Password and if you have not changed it, it should be the default login name and password. If you are able to login to your router, then the next thing you need is the IP address assigned by your Internet Service Provider or ISP for your router. It should NOT start with 192.x.x.x. Record this IP address because this is the IP address you'll need to input when applying for a domain name from DynDNS. Then you will need to go through the DynDNS's steps to get your web server or home server linked with a Static Domain Name for your router's ISP assigned IP address. With most routers, there is a reserved field for assigning DNS names from companies that provide Free DNS names such as DynDNS. See if you have that and configure accordingly in your router. Finally, you will need to forward the HTTP ports to your home server's local IP address from your router. Now, your home server's IP address should be statically assigned, but as long as the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server in your router assigns the same LAN IP address to your home server all the time, you should be fine. But just keep a note that this should be a static IP. If you would like to configure your home server's IP as a static IP, then you'll need to go to Start-Control Panel-Network and Internet Connections-Network Connections then right click "LAN Area Connection", highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", and click "Properties" from your Windows desktop. This will show you a window where you can assign the Dynamic IP address as a Static IP address by choosing and filling up "Use the following IP addresses" section with the same dynamic information. Here are the complete instructions for obtaining a DynDNS account and DNS name by clicking here.
Of-course, a video of this gibberish is worth a thousand words, so here it is:
5. Test your home web server using your DNS name
If everything works out right and Murphy's Law somehow never got to you during this process, then buy two lottery tickets, or drink a beer, or do something to rejoice because you're on your way to perpetuating yourself online forever! So, test this home server with your chosen FREE DNS name from DynDNS. Type in your DNS name which should be a sub-domain of any DynDNS domain name. Don't forget to type as such: http://yourdnsnamefromdyndns.whateverdyndnsdomainname.com. This name is now linked to your ISP's IP address of your home router which forwards the HTTP request from the outside world to your home server's local IP address, in turn, forwarding that to your Apache web server's index page of your home server which is enabled with PHP scripts and MySQL database for a complete Content Management System! Congratulations!...I think.
1. How to change the Joomla Logo to your logo
2. Make Joomla Administrator link secure from hackers
3. Download Joomla Templates for Free
4. Joomla forums
5. PHP forums
-CD Grecia
('
’) Serendipity
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