Computer geeks. Want to set up a...

nicklouse

PC as wwweb server.

So I can host my pics share stuff etc etc. I have the PC and it will be a wipe and start again.

Any tips. Links to how toos. What software etc......

I do have windows 7 ultimate if that is a starting point.

craker

You'll be wanting to install iis [= Internet Information Service] on your computer
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/iis-7-installation-on-windows-7-ultimate/8b69bea7-2f97-43c3-8ea1-375dc35ef5c2

Then you'll be wanting to configure your firewall to allow two way access on the relevent ports, and you'll need to configure your router to forward all ip traffic on those ports to your computer. It may be useful to give your computer a static ip address on your local network.

If you want to share your web server with folk on the internet they'll need to know your public ip address - does your ISP provide one (UK ones tend to charge for such things)?. Or sign up for an ip forwarding service like no-ip which makes it look like you've got a static address.

Yacoby

There is also WAMP: http://www.wampserver.com/en/ as an alternative to IIS.

(I run nginx on a vps, because it is easier (and not that much more expensive) to pay someone £5 a month to deal with hardware than have a computer sitting running 24/7)

rorym

One way would be to use something like Tonido
http://www.tonido.com/

They've got iPad, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry Kindle and Android apps so you can access your files from your mobile too.

I think this could be one of the easier options. It's free so probably worth a try.


Rory

butcher of bakersfield

For the cost of running a server in your own home 24/7, you could get your own hosting elsewhere, not have to lift a finger, get support, etc... That might be worth thinking about? There's plenty of people who do it for as little as £1 a month.

But, if you want to go down the DIY route, the common setups would be something like, Windows Server + Internet Information Services or Apache. Or Linux and Apache.

That would be enough to host some basic HTML sites on. If you want databases and the functionality to control them (for example storing and retrieving images), MySQL and PHP....probably not much use to you starting with these from scratch if you don't know what you're doing, but there's a lot of off the shelf packages can make good use of them whilst remaining fairly user friendly.....Wordpress for example.