ME: did you install xampp?
ME: and, in the xampp control panel, did you start apache?
ME: and, in a browser, did you go to http://localhost
ME: and, once, there, did you see a xampp welcome message?
SOMEGUY: yes, yes and yes
ME: when you go to http://www.whatismyip.com what does it say for your ip address?
SOMEGUY: [address ]
ME: is that computer running microsoft’s firewall? if so, can you shut it off?
SOMEGUY: ok
ME: are you using a local router/firewall? if so, you need to let/forward port 80 through to that “server”
ME: the point is that port 80 is not responding externally, so we need to fix it. to get into your router, you just need to know your default gateway.
ME: start->run
ME: type “cmd”
ME: then type “ipconfig” (no quotes) and press enter
ME: you’re looking for the Default Gateway IP address
SOMEGUY: it is 192.168.1.1
ME: ok. go to that in a browser
ME: if you use default linksys settings, there will be no username and the password is admin
ME: ok, so there should be some provision for forwarding ports.
ME: sometimes it’s under firewall->single port forwarding
ME: you’ll need to forward port 80 to the ip address of that server computer
ME: it says prot range forward
ME: yeah, so you can forward 80 to 80 to the ip of the server at 80 to 80
ME: you can find the ip of that server by doing the start->run, cmd, ipconfig command again
ME: go to http://www.[sitename].com/ (i set up DNS for you)
ME: does it work for you?
SOMEGUY: it brings up xampp for windows
ME: yup, that means it’s working
ME: ok, now we need to edit us some files
ME: step 1
ME: in that folder create a file called index.html, and in that file put “hello world”
ME: you could use notepad to create a new text file, but when you save it, be sure it doesn’t append a .txt to the end of index.html
SOMEGUY: can i use word
ME: if word allows you save in plain text format, then yes
ME: again, make sure the file name is index.html and not index.html.txt
ME: when you browse that folder (c:\xampp\htdocs\[sitename]) can you now see a little browser file icon called index, and if you double click it, does ie open a window with the text you typed in?
SOMEGUY: yes
ME: now time to edit another file
ME: go to: C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra
ME: and use notepad to edit httpd-vhosts.conf
ME: delete everything out of that file, and paste in the following:
ME: NameVirtualHost *:80

DocumentRoot “C:\xampp\htdocs\[sitename]“
ServerName *.[sitename].com

ME: then save that file
ME: and then stop and start xampp
ME: from the control panel
ME: start and stop apache, i mean, from the control panel
ME: go to http://www.[sitename].com/
SOMEGUY: i stopped it and started it
ME: what do you see?
SOMEGUY: HELLO WORLD
ME: that’s what I see, too. you’re hosting a webpage now for the ENTIRE WORLD!!!
ME: you’ll probably need dreamweaver (which you can get a trial version free download) to start pimping out your site
ME: the point is that anything you place in c:\xampp\htdocs\[sitename] will be accessable to the world on www.[sitename].com
ME: so, if you had an mp3 called “mysong.mp3″ and you copied it into c:\xampp\htdocs\[sitename] your friends could download it by going to http://www.[sitename].com/mysong.mp3
ME: the html files are for your webpages, but the server will serve up any file you place in that folder
SOMEGUY: how do i make links
ME: dreamweaver is a good editor and you can get lots of cool templates free.
ME: in dreamweaver it’s easy. if you’re editing raw html text, a link looks like this
SOMEGUY: i now have an mp3 in that folder
ME: obviously, you don’t want the mpaa to know you’re hosting mp3s. it’s illegal and all. i was just providing you an example
ME: that index file is the root file that apache/xampp will serve up if the filename is not explicited stated in the URL. you should just point dreamweaver to that file to edit it.
ME: you can, obviously, add more files to that folder, for other pages on your site. maybe a songs.html, for a list of your songs. then you just link to songs.html from your index.html
ME: as well, because apache/xampp uses index.html as the default name, if you wanted www.[sitename].com/songs to work (instead of songs.html), you simply need to create a subfolder in c:\xampp\htdocs\[sitename] called songs and put an index.html file in that subfolder with your song list