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).  .

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: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/wampserver/WampServer 2/WampServer 2.0/WampServer2.0i.exe?use_mirror=cdnetworks-us-1).

Go to http://perpetualads.blogspot.com/  to see steps

3. Download and Install Joomla

4. Showcase your Website from your Home Server to the World

5. Test your home web server using your DNS name

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