How To Host A Web Site From Your Computer
September 11th, 2006In the following article I am going to show you how to host a web site from your own computer. Why would you want to do this you might ask? Well for one, it’s free. It’s also great for hosting small web sites or sharing large files with friends. However, if you are planning on running a site with high traffic I would not recommend this. Just follow these simple steps and you will have your own web server up and running in no time.
Step 1: Go to http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/?f=dl and download HFS (Http File Server).
Step 2: Double-click the hfs.exe file that you downloaded. If you have Windows Firewall enabled you will be prompted with a security warning. Click “Unblock” to allow HFS to pass through the firewall.
Step 3: This is the tricky part. The default port that HFS uses is port 80. If your ISP blocks port 80 then you will need to change it to something else. To change it you must turn HFS off. You can do so by clicking the “On” button in the upper left corner. When you are done, turn it back on. If you are behind a router or firewall then you will have to set up port forwarding. If you need help with this go to http://www.portforward.com/. Here you can choose the type of router you have and then choose the program you want to set up port forwarding for such as Http File Server-HFS. It will walk you through the exact steps to set up forwarding.
Step 4: Now you can test your settings to see if they work. Go to the menu and click “Self Test”. If it is successful then your settings are correct. You should now be able to point your web browser to your IP address to see files or pages you are sharing.
Step 5: Now I’m going to tell you how to assign a domain name for your web site. Since you don’t have a DNS server running on your computer, you will need to get DNS service from somewhere else. To do this, we are going to use a service called DynDNS. DynDNS offers a variety of subdomain names to use for free for your website. Go to https://www.dyndns.com/account/create.html to create a DynDNS account. Login with the account you have created and click on the services button. If you have a dynamic IP address that changes, click on “Dynamic DNS” and then “Add Dynamic DNS“. Choose a subdomain and domain name. Then add the host. Now you have a domain name that you can use and give out instead of your IP address. If you would like to use your own domain name, DynDNS offers a custom DNS service for this as well for a yearly fee.
Step 6: Now go to https://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/ to download the DynDNS Updater. This is to automatically update your Dynamic DNS account in case your external IP address ever changes.
Now you can host a web site from your computer. If you want to change the default page that comes up when you browse to your site, right click on the little icon that looks like a house in the Virtual File System. Click “Default file mask…” and type the name of the file that you want to be served when someone browses to your website such as index.html. If you would like HFS to start automatically when you log into Windows, put a shortcut to it under Start - Programs - Startup. Also be sure to save your Virtual File System settings so HFS will remember the files you are hosting next time you open it up. If you have any more questions check out HFS’s Frequently Asked Questions.
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December 30th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Hi there.. this guide is simple yet extremely good!! Please let me know anything more about hosting from home if possible.. I want to host a forum also.. please can you tell me how to do that? Also, how to make a professional File/Image Hosting websites like rapidshare.com and imageshack.us ? please do let me know.. mail me at pranav_s_2000@yahoo.com
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
Hello Pranav,
Thanks for the comment. I really appreciate your feedback. I have never attempted to host a forum or image hosting service from my computer but I’m sure it is possible. Let me see if I can find any articles on this and if so, I will email them to you. Just remember if you plan on having a lot of traffic you should look into using a professional hosting service because this could overwhelm your computer and bandwidth. This would especially be true with a forum or image hosting service.
February 1st, 2007 at 12:36 am
some one stole your content !
http://www.technospot.net/blogs/index.php/2007/01/31/host-a-web-server-on-your-home-pc/
March 26th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Hi Casey,
lovely website!
What risk is associated withopening up my computer to the access required to run a website?
March 26th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Hello Hans,
Thanks for your comment. Rejetto, the maker of HFS, has a writeup about this on his wiki. http://www.rejetto.com/wiki/index.php?title=HFS:_Secure_your_server I hope this answers your question.
March 28th, 2007 at 5:49 am
Thanks - my website is up and running
May 16th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Hi Casey,
I’am AyMaN From Egypt
Thnx For these lovely website
And Lovely articles
June 26th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Hi Casey
Thanks for your help. Your instructions were really easy to follow and have made my life a whole lot easier.
July 27th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Hello Casey
great article. Thier are a few that exsplain this and you sead it best. Thanks for the help and good luck to all
July 28th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Hey Casey
Is it possible to set this up when connect to a LAN?
July 28th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Hey Ryan,
Yes, as long as your router or ISP is not blocking the port you are trying to use.
July 28th, 2007 at 9:21 am
How do you find out what kind of router or what port to use?
July 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Hey Ryan
You have to log into your router to open ports. This means you will need to know your router’s address and its username and password. Your router’s address is usually the same as your default gateway address. Follow the instructions in Step 3 to help you configure your ports. Hope this helps.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:55 am
great! many thanks how do I install apache, php and mysql?
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:18 am
I found this one for web developers using WAMMP
WAMP-based [Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP]
http://www.devside.net/
August 6th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Hi Casey, I’m very glad I stumbled across your site this morning…excellent stuff!
Among a few other contributions I made this morning, here’s a little clarification about your comment above: “If you would like HFS to start automatically when Windows starts put a shortcut to it under Start - Programs - Startup.”
This is only 90% true as apps located in any Start + Programs + Startup only get launched when that user logs into Windows. To have an app start up when the machine starts, you need to either run it as a service or add a reference to the app into the registry for auto-startup. There are apps such as that found in Microsoft’s Resource Kits that allows you to run any desktop app as a service, too; most aren’t free, but some are.
August 6th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Hey Lloyd,
Very good point. I went ahead and corrected my wording based on your comment. Thanks!
August 12th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Hello Casey,
Thank you for the information! I don’t know too much about this yet, but here is my question: I currently have a dynamic IP, how big of a problem is this with running a website like this? The website is for a store, and should ideally be up 24/7, is there a script or something that can check and update the ip so that i dont have to manually do it and the webpage will be kept up todate?
Also I dont think we would receive high traffic, but any thoughts on how much traffic is too much for this kind of set up? I can see what kind of traffic we have had based on logs on our current site, and see if this would work for us.
Thank you very much! - Jason
August 12th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Sorry! I didn’t read the whole post and see that my first question is already completley answered!
Thank you!
However, if you still wanted to address my question about traffic I would appreciate it
Thank you - Jason
August 12th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Hi Jason,
I think the amount of traffic that your site will support depends on lots of different factors. For one, it depends on how much content is on the site itself. Another factor is the speed of your internet connection and the type of computer you are using to run it. If you are trying to run a business website, I definitely would not recommend using this. However, if it is just a personal website, something that you will be sharing with friends and family, I believe you will be ok. Hope this helps.
September 1st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Casey-great article,very cool info! I was able to easily setup as you describe. Question if I may? What about running an application? For example, if I wanted to run a media player to host an “internet radio station”, but for max of 3 connections (basically just for some friends). Would that be possible? I know of sites/utilities to do that specifically, but for a more “wide” audience and I would like to keep in this simple/low bandwidth vein.
Thanks very much!
September 10th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Nice!!! With this tutorial I was able to easily set up a server to host a website on. Thank you so much!!!!
September 28th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I love you!!! Casey, you rock!