How to Make your Computer (MAC) a Server and run a website from your Home

By installing a software and by doing small bits of configuration you will be able to start a Server and hosting your own website on it. This guide is for intermediate users who knows what is computer and how to open websites and download stuff. No great experience is required like making a website or blog. You can host anything on your server like photos, video, music files it just needs internet connection and you will be able to use all the stuff from anywhere.

so let’s start .. one golden rule “Follow the Steps”

How to configure a server on a home computer

  1. Go to xampp
  2. Download xampp for MAC
  3. Install xampp with all services when asked
  4. Open xampp control panel and start the server apacheScreen shot 2009-11-27 at 11.23.26 AM
  5. Confirm by going http://localhost if its not opening you may have done something wrong.

Configuring your router – static IP users don’t require this step

  1. Open http://192.168.1.1
  2. Go to NAT Settings
  3. Open Virtual Servers Setup and add port and server IP address see image belowScreen shot 2009-11-27 at 11.29.36 AM
  4. Server IP will be different as per you IP
  5. Save and reboot your modem/router

Making your Dynamic IP address into Static IP address

  1. Open DynDns website for converting you dynamic IP into static IP
  2. Create a account which is free.
  3. Log in to your account and go to Host ServicesScreen shot 2009-11-27 at 11.38.43 AM
  4. Add a name for your domain like shown in image below and press Use auto detected IP address. Screen shot 2009-11-27 at 11.41.03 AM
  5. Add it to cart, its free so don’t worry about cart or any payment.
  6. Now we to download DynDNS Update Clients for telling DynDns about our IP changing time to time
  7. Download it and configure it by entering your account details of DynDns website.
  8. Also add your host name you have made above
  9. Now you go to you internet browser and open your hostname that you have selected like mine is http://hiralove.homeip.net/
  10. now open your terminal and write “sudo nano /private/etc/hosts” for opening host fileScreen shot 2009-11-27 at 11.56.47 AM
  11. write you Server IP like 192.168.1.6 and with a space in between write your domain name like hiralove.homeip.net
  12. Keep in mind 192.168.1.6 is your computer ip provided from your router automatically or you have manually settled it up.
  13. Now go to your htto://hiralove.homeip.net domain name see if its working or not.
  14. Place anything in application/xampp/htdocs and that will appear on the webpage like in image below.Screen shot 2009-11-27 at 12.48.19 PM

that’s it .. i have tried to make is as small as possible and i know it require more stuff to be written i will improve this article as i get responses and questions about it… so start asking in comments don’t hesitate.

About Jaspal

Mechanical Engineer, Blogger and a Web Designer from Jaipur, The Pink city of India. You can follow him on Twitter & you can connect with him on Facebook
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20 Responses to How to Make your Computer (MAC) a Server and run a website from your Home

  1. Thanks for your useful article. By your article, i get a knowledge about tips for website server from my home. I will applied your tips..Thanks
    .-= Read Online Business Tips and Information¬¥s last article on his blog … Why Many Online Business Starter Failed =-.

  2. cllow says:

    Jaspal, Thanks for the share!

  3. helen says:

    Thank you! It`s really work=)

  4. Pavan Somu says:

    Great Tutorial.. Thanks buddy
    .-= Read Pavan Somu¬¥s last article on his blog … Digg Blogger Template =-.

  5. dustinwmr says:

    Today I learn how to make a server. great stuff.. :)

  6. James says:

    thanks,Jaspal
    It’s very clearly, thanks for the details help article :)

  7. Burt Hayes says:

    I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

  8. Molly Farrell says:

    Thanks for the informative info – I enjoyed reading it! I always enjoy browsing this blog. :)

  9. Molly Farrell says:

    Thanks for the useful information – I had fun reading it! I always love looking at your blog. :)

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    I must say that this page of yours is an excellent find for me. I was just surfing and discovered this. Thanks.

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    I hope you don’t mind if I link to this in my next post. Thank you for this excellent contribution.

  13. ms anti spyware says:

    awesome post. I’m totally looking forward to seeing more!!!

  14. Anyone says:

    “MAC” is the acronym for “Media Access Control address”, a unique identifier number assigned to most network adapters or network interface cards, which every computer has it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address

    On the other hand, “Mac” is related to Apple Inc.

    Well, it’s a common misspelling. Hope it helps.

  15. Lorna T. Gregory says:

    Hi,At last some interesting information. Bookmarked this one for sure. See You

  16. Arlie Kalt says:

    Cheers for this insightful content. Every now and then, the very best opinions originate from the places one wouldn’t expect. So far, I did not give whole lot thought to writing comments on blog page articles and have left responses even less. Viewing your good report, will definately motivate me to do this more regularly.

  17. Sometimes it is possible that router will be located on 192.168.0.1 not on 192.168.1.1.

  18. This will save me a lot of time.
    spanish verb conjugations´s last [type] ..Spanish Verb Conjugations updated Tue Jun 7 2011 1-39 pm CDT

  19. Umbrella says:

    Great advice will surely follow it. Thanks.Umbrella

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