Setting up a webserver

Hey guys,

I want to learn web server, and have setup a windows 2003 server with apache 2.0 running. I would like to setup a website like this one that has forums and news, downloads etc. what do I need to go about doing this

hi neo468

that's a great project on your hands... if you want to try and setup a webserver using Windows 2003 might i suggest you use IIS 6.0 as your web server instead of Apache. it is because IIS works better with Windows 2003 rather than Apache. You could check this site for info regarding setting up IIS 6 on Win2k3.

Apache works superior in Linux/Unix boxes. But you could install Apache on Windows.
just visit this site for more info.

also there are limitations to both web servers. IIS could run standard html and asp pages but cannot with php (i think) while Apache can interpret standard html, php, and asp(provided an app is installed like chillisoft to understand asp pages). so that you could weigh your options based on the things you want to serve.

if you want something similar to this site, i think f.cx runs on php using apache as the webserver.so you may start of by learning some web programming skills (html, asp, php) plus the added skill of database design and connection thru webpages. mysql comes in handy with this one.

i think this would be a good combo for a webserver. a linux box running apache serving php pages with mysql for database design, management and aministration.

also, you may want to secure your site so that you may prevent unwanted "visitors" from preying your site.

I agree that IIS 6.0 works better with Windows. Alternatively if you have access t o a Linux server or some cheap Linux hosting space, you may be better served going down that route as you will have access to more open-source software for your project.

In any case a good piece of software for your project is phpBB , an open source bulletin board package. And yes it will run on Windows Server/IIS or Linux/Apache. Another is PHP-Nuke which this site is based on. It can run on Windows/IIS but Linux/Apache is preferred.

What he said

thanks for the help guys, one thing; I am going to run this server from home, dsl with behind a netgear wireless router. The wan address of the router keeps changing, evidently the DSL service is hooked up to a DHCP server on their end. What can I do so that my webserver has a static wan ip address. I am using zoneedit.com for my dns.

well i think you should reapply your account to your isp with a static ip address...in that way administration would be easily managed or you could let your isp host your webpages...