Introduction to how you host our website for free
in a video i did about web hosting i
promised you i'll show you how to host
your website using
only your computer that's right turning
your own home computer
into a web hosting server completely
free of charge
so that day is today i'll show you how
to create a
wamp server don't worry that will make
sense later i'll also show you how to
install a wordpress instance on it
and how to publicly share that website
on the internet
and then i'll tell you why it's a
terrible idea
because it's really really dumb but you
wanted it so now you have it
Web hosting for free: step 1: software setup
let's get started
we will need some basic software to turn
your pc into a server
the app to do this in windows is called
wamp
or wamp for short it translates to
windows apache mysql and php
a very fancy name indeed click the link
in the description below and you'll
arrive at the download page
here select either the 32-bit or 64-bit
versions depending on your system
while this looks like a lot you don't
really need to register anything here
just click you can download it directly
finally click
download at the latest version and wait
until the download finishes
now just install the app by following
the instructions on screen
you don't need to change anything here
just ride
that next wave near the end you will be
prompted to choose
what browser to use by default it will
be an
internet explorer based browser but you
can just reset it to whatever you're
using by clicking yes
and just linking it to another browser
you can leave your default text editor
as notepad or change it to whatever you
want
after the installation click the wamp
icon on your desktop and your server
will be activated automatically
to test that just type in http
colon forward slash forward slash
localhost
forward slash if you see this window
that means that
everything is a-okay my dude if not try
running the app again
or restarting your pc the good old fix
it all hack
Web hosting for free: step 2: wordpress install
for this example let's set up a
wordpress website so click the link in
the description or just go to
wordpress.org and download it to your pc
go to your c drive and find wamp 64
or wamp 32 depending on your install
and yes i will say wamp every single
time because i find it super fun
you'll see a folder named www enter it
and create a folder there
name it whatever you want your site to
be
just don't leave any spaces here
now open the wordpress rar and extract
it into the newly created website folder
once that's done visit http colon
forward slash forward slash
localhost once more click phpmyadmin
at the bottom of this page by default
the admin username to your php
will be root type it in and leave the
password field completely empty
then click go once you're there click
databases type in the new database name
something like word as in wordpress and
select collation in the second
selection tab finally create the
database by clicking create
fascinating type in localhost and write
the name of the folder you created in
the www folder
in my case it would be test you'll see
the good old wordpress install screen
select your language go through these
setup steps and enter the database
name you just created for user name
add root and leave the password field
completely empty
next add in all of the regular wordpress
site information
like site name admin login and password
let
the installation do its thing and your
local website
will be live and you can go
nuts with this wordpress website you can
test different designs you can test
plugins you can test your code
you can see how different elements
interact with each other basically do
anything because it exists only on your
computer
so there's nothing to break really
Web hosting for free: step 3: Getting Your Site Online
now you might want to access your site
from different devices in your network
not just your local pc to do so go to
the
lamp icon click the left mouse button
select apache and click httpd
vhost.conf it will open a text editor
app
probably notepad so just copy this text
into the file
i'll leave it in the description or a
comment down below the install
dir to where your www folder is located
and change the server name if you have a
few different projects
change required to either allowed ap
addresses
or just all granted for anyone in your
local network to have access
and of course don't forget to save your
file
but even after all of that your website
is still
just a local website meaning it's
available only to your device
and the local network around you if you
want to put this website on the internet
you'll need to open up some ports open
up some connections and point your ip
address to the website or a domain name
and people will use the ip address or
domain name to access the website
it sounds complicated but it really
isn't well maybe it kinda is
don't worry i'll i'll just show you how
to do it
to find out your ip address just go to
google and type in what is my ip
or click the link in the description
down below it will give you your ip
address
that you need to copy now click your
wamp
icon and select apache from the drop
down menu select
httpd.conf and it will open a text
editor
find directory and change the value in
there
paste it before the directory tag closes
then we need to find listen00080
and change the numeric value to your ip
address
then find server name and add your ip
here
now you will need to turn off your
firewall or configure it anyway so it
would allow
incoming connections for this example
i'll just turn it off
next you have to access your router
look up its model then you can find your
modem administrator ip
by just googling the router's name
together with the word
login once you access the login page
most routers have either
a simple route name and password or it
might be on the back of your router
now to link a domain name to your ip
address you will first
have to have a domain name if you don't
already have one just grab one from
godaddy or hostinger or a free one from
freenom
i think there's no need for me to
explain how to get a website name
registered
once you have your name ready and you're
in your router's control panel
go to the port forwarding section and
create a rule
to forward port 80. also make sure that
your router allows incoming connections
through port 80. after that's done
restart your
wamp and type in your ip address on
another pc
it should link to your new website
what we basically did is store a bunch
of files on your computer
that allows incoming connections that
means it basically mimics a web hosting
server
problem is people can only connect your
website using an
ap address and ip addresses are not easy
to remember
Web hosting for free: step 4: Adding a Domain Name
so next i'll show you how to connect a
website name
to the ip address so they can use that
instead
to link your domain name to the ip
address you just have to change some dns
settings so i'm going to use hostinger
for this go to your dashboard and click
manage near your domain name find the
dns
zone tab and click on edit you'll need
to edit your a host record
here type in your ip address instead of
the one
that's here this way your website name
will link to
your ip address okay so what we did is
we basically created a website
that's hosted locally but can be
accessed by
a specific ip address or a domain name
pointed to that ip address or in other
words
Why You Shouldn't Do This
you just revealed your ip address to the
whole world
you disabled your firewall and then you
allowed incoming connections to your
computer without
any security yeah it's it's that dumb
and a huge security risk so please do
not do this
Get cheap web hosting instead
and i'm going to be completely honest
while going through this tutorial and
doing all of the steps
there was only one thing going through
my head
why would anyone want to do this because
it seems like a lot of work for a
super power level of quality when you
can get like a million
times better service for less than one
dollar a month
don't get me wrong when hosting was
super expensive doing it yourself
made sense but now with a specialized
hosting provider taking care of
everything for you
for just a couple of bucks a month it's
kind of obsolete
it's like farming you probably wouldn't
go through all of the efforts of
creating a farm
just to grow a single potato boy just go
to hostinger i'll leave the links in the
description
and get yourself a plan for less than
one
dollar a month here type in the code
image reviews and
boom additional 10 discount look at this
price
and you'll get security domain names
control panels email services ssl
certificates
without all of the hassle that you need
to do
in this manual method turning your old
computer into a storage
device might be a fun project but using
it for web hosting
i'm just not a big fan of it the effort
seems to outweigh the rewards that you
get
unless you have hours of free time to
maintain everything
ultimately it's going to be a lot more
trouble than just a
regular cheap web hosting provider but
anyways
this little guy is named emmett that
little guy is
hopefully named a future subscriber and
i'll see you in the next video
See also
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