How to host a website on any computer

Introduction | Things you will need | How to do it | Specs of this machine | Disclaimer | Contact | Summary | Digg effect

Web This site

1. Introduction

Okay, so my neighbor was moving out, and she wanted to sell some stuff. I went there for some furniture, and I noticed an ancient-looking desktop lying around. I enquired, and she said "it's a very old computer - I don't think it's capable of doing anything anymore. So I'll trash it." I believed I could make it work, so I asked for it. She happily handed over the machine to me, for free!

Now I had this lovely old legacy machine! It's an Acer Aspire, manufactured around the year 1997 (about nine years old now).

It came preloaded with windows 98 Second Edition. I erased windows 98 and installed Puppy Linux on it. I wasn't able to configure the built-in httpd webserver on puppy though. So I replaced it with Damn Small Linux, which "hanged" my machine once. So I finally went back to my old friend Ubuntu, but in server mode this time. Now I operate this machine only by passing few commands on a black screen. No GUI, no role for mouse and clicks.

Many people laughed at me when I expressed my desire to host websites from this old desktop. Not even a single person agreed that this old machine can be put to good use.

And the result is this page! This page is being hosted from the same old desktop machine that you see in the pic above, and it confirms that even ancient computers are capable of hosting websites!

I'm so amazed myself, and wouldn't like it at all if such legacy machines are thrown away just because they can't handle the heavy operating systems of current times. So I'm sharing my method of hosting website on such legacy computers.

This website intends to enable anyone with a computer and an average IQ to host websites from it.

2. Things you will need

• An old machine you want to revive, obviously
• Some computer components it may be lacking (e.g. ethernet card, USB card, CDROM drive)
• A light-weight operating system (e.g. Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux, Ubuntu Lite, Ubuntu Server or even windows 95/98 etc)
• An "always-on" "high speed" internet connection (DSL/Cable). Dialup is not recommended.
• An HTML editor (notepad, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, NVU etc)
• A picture editor (GIMP, MS Paint, Photoshop etc.) only if you need pictures on your website.
• Another working computer (to look for assistance on the internet while the old machine is being revived) - I do it frequently

Tips:

• A list of light Linux distros can be found here.
• Click here to search for free WYSISYG HTML editors

3. How to do it

A. Preparation and preliminary testing of the machine
B. Hardware needs
C. Loading an operating system
D. Installing the web server application
E. Configuring Apache for a basic website
F. Setting up your website on Apache
G. Starting Apache
H. Testing Apache
I. Registering an address on the internet for your site
J. Testing & advertising

A. Preparation of the machine

First, make sure the computer can be powered on. To do this, attach the mouse, keyboard and monitor to the back of the computer. Now plug in the power supply for the CPU as well as the monitor and switch both on. There should be a green LED light somewhere in the front of CPU that should light up. Also, the monitor LED should turn green and you should see something happening on the monitor.

Tips:

• If you're unable to power the machine on, check your power connections and electric sockets. Also check the power cables for wear-n-tear, and check both ends are inserted properly in their respective sockets.
• If nothing happens, this machine probably lacks a working power supply. Look for an appropriate power supply on pricegrabber or call your computer guru friend whichever you prefer.
• If only one LED lights up (e.g. only the CPU, not the monitor) then the other component may be faulty. If the monitor is not lighting up, look for a CRT monitor on pricegrabber after making sure the cables and electric socket are okay.
• If the keyboard and mouse plugs do not have an appropriately sized socket at the back of CPU, you probably need an adaptor (USB to PS/2 or vice versa). USB devices have a flat plug, PS/2 is round with several pins.

              

   PS/2 connector                          USB connector

B. Hardware needs

The computer may be lacking a CDROM drive, a USB or even an ethernet card. We might do away with USB, but we shall need an ethernet card (unless you plan to use dialup modem only) and a CDROM drive for sure. A CDROM drive will be used to load data and OS on this computer. The ethernet card will connect this machine to the internet in order to be able to host the website. Regarding USB, all USB devices may not work well with windows 95/98, so you probably won't invest money in buying a PCI USB card. However, if you intend to install Linux on this machine, you can go ahead with buying a supported PCI USB card.

Tips:

• Linux is plagued with driver issues, unfortunately. Before you buy the computer components (e.g. an ethernet card), make sure it's compatible with the distro you intend to intsall. To know which hardware is compatible, check with the wiki or forums or other documentation on the website of your linux distro. If in doubt, ask in linux forums.

C. Loading an operating system (OS)

Once you are able to get both the CPU and monitor working, and the machine boots up, you will most likely see either windows 98 or windows 95 preinstalled. I strongly suggest you try one of the lighter linuxes (puppy, damn small, feather or others) if you have some experience with Linux. If you do not have linux experience, and want to do things the "easy" way, then we shall use windows only.

Here you have two choices: Either to install a fresh OS, or to keep the existing OS.

(a) Installing fresh OS

Reboot the computer and enter it's BIOS to set first boot device as CDROM. Then use the bootable windows or linux CD to install the OS. If you can't get into BIOS, look at the tips below.

(b) Keeping the existing OS

The computer may have come loaded with many applications and files, and we should get rid of many of them to give it a fresh start. You can probably do several things on the existing machine to make it more "fresh". Some of the things you can do are:

• Uninstall unneeded applications (e.g. games etc)
• Remove unneeded windows components (e.g. fax programs, outlook express, desktop themes, disk compression etc.)
• Delete user files from "my documents" folder (windows) or "home" folder (linux). Also see tips below.

  Tips:

  • While deleting files from "my documents" folder, it's advisable to contact the person from whom you got the computer. He/she may have stored valuable data on it years ago, and may have forgotten about it. Call him/her before deleting my documents folder. If the files are small enough, you may consider zipping them up and sending the zip file to the previous owner by email.
  • You will get into the computer's BIOS by pressing some key(s) and set first boot device to Floppy if you boot from floppy, or CDROM if you have a windows/linux bootable CD. If you cant' get into BIOS, you can download smart boot manager and make a bootable floppy - and then use this floppy to boot from the device of your choice.
  • When you start fresh copy of windows for the first time, it may ask you for drivers. If you don't have CD/floppies of drivers, go back to your primary machine (the other working computer) and search for drivers on the internet. Then transfer them to the old computer via floppy or CD and install them. Linux may auto-detect and install drivers for the newest and oldest devices, but if it doesn't - you should use google to look for information on the specific hardware+distro combo.
  • The best place to look for linux drivers on the internet for specific hardwares are: Hardware manufacturer's website, your distro's forums/wiki, and Google.
  • In Linux, the folder similar to windows' my documents is the Home folder (~). Actually the home folder is much more than that, but we assume it to be the linux equivalent of windows' my documents right now. Look for any files that you may find in the home folder of the pre-installed Linux, and contact the original owner of the machine before deleting those files. NEVER DELETE THE HOME FOLDER! If you do so, you may not be able to log back in with the same username and password in a linux machine. You may want to delete selected files from the home folder (e.g. photos, music, word documents) to free up some valuable space.

D. Installing the web server application

Now that you have set up the operating system and the drivers, let's install the web server application.

The most popular program to host websites is called Apache. It is an open source project at sourceforge, originally made for unix-like operating systems, but later made available for windows too. You can download Apache from this page.

In linux, apache installation is simple. You should simply fire up your package manager (apt-get, dpkg, synaptic, YaST or whatever) and search for apache and install it from there. However, the installation directory may differ according to the distro you are using. Check your distro documentation, wiki or forums for this information. Further, components of apache may be installed in different directories (e.g. binaries in /usr/bin directory and HTML documents containing directory in /var/www). Search on forums of your linux distro and you'll find answers there.

If you are on windows, look for Win32 Binary on that page and download the .msi or .exe file for windows. Once you have downloaded that file, you should double click the downloaded file's icon to start the installation. Installation is fairly simple. If you do not understand something during the installation of Apache on windows, just keep pressing "next" button and you'll be absolutely fine! During the installation, be sure to note the location where you are installing Apache. The default installation goes to "c:\program files\Apache group\Apache2\", and program groups are made in your windows start menu.

Tips:

• Technically speaking, we are downloading Apache2 rather than Apache, but I have referred to this program as Apache only on this page for easier referencing.
• Apache has problems with Zone Alarm firewall (windows98) during my testing. At first, the firewall blocks apache even after giving appropriate permissions. But a reinstall of OS and the firewall now allows apache! You can try other firewalls, and let me know which ones worked fine. I shall update this page with your results.
• Running the web server without a firewall is not recommended at all!

E. Configuring Apache for a basic website

Configuring Apache is actually very easy at the basic level. If all you want to do is to host a single, simple website, you don't need to configure it at all! The default installation of Apache is 100% functional without needing any tweaking whatsoever! In windows, the web server directory is located in "htdocs" folder in Apache install folder. In Linux, it'll most likely be /var/www OR the /~/httpd directory. Whoever opens your website by its domain address (e.g. www.example.org) will see the index.html page first. Apache comes with an example page in different languages. You can cut and paste all these pages in some other directory because you might want to read them sometime later.

You can check out the windows program menu for Apache - there are several useful tools out there (e.g. server monitor, configuration files and help). Linux users can find the documentation in man pages, and again on forums, wiki etc.

Tips:

• You can use several softwares to make your website pages. If you have HTML knowledge, you can start with a simple text editor (e.g. notepad, gedit, vim or nano). If you don't like writing the code by hand, you can use some easy to use graphical editors (What You See Is What You Get or WYSIWYG editors) - search for such free WYSIWYG editors on download.com. You can also use professional softwares such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Frontpage if you can spare the money to make your work easy. For beginners, I recommend NVU.

F. Setting up your website on Apache

For a simple website you made using your HTML editor, just place all your files (with index.html page) in the htdocs folder in windows (/var/www directory for Ubuntu linux). For setting up additional server technologies like php and perl, please consult Apache documentation.

G. Starting Apache

In Windows, click start button, go to programs menu, point to Apache group Control Apache Server Start Apache in Console. To start Apache everytime your computer boots up, you can add a shortcut to apache in your startup folder. To do this, right click on "Start apache in Console" in windows start menu, click copy. Then point to "startup" in windows start menu, right click on "startup" and click paste. When you do this, Apache will start every time your computer starts.

In Linux, simply type apache2 in your terminal and press enter. If that doesn't work, try typing apache and press enter. More information can be found at your linux distro forums, including how to make apache open at system startup.

H. Testing Apache

Open this link: http://localhost/ in your browser. You should see the web page you made in Apache. If you dont' see this page, check if there is an index.html or index.htm file in "htdocs" folder in Apache installation folder under "program files" (or /var/www directory in linux) . If the files exist, check if Apache is running (visible in windows taskbar with MS DOS icon). Also check apache configuration files - it's unlikely they're messed up in the default install. If you're sure Apache is configured correctly, check your firewall settings - you must allow access to and from local network.

Tip: If Apache is running and you're sure your file is in the htdocs folder, check httpd.conf or apache2.conf file in the apache installation directory and look for which directory is defined as the HTTP directory. Also check the firewall configuration.

I. Registering an address on the internet for your site

Once you can see your site on your computer, you should plan to host it to the world through internet. To do this, you will need an internet address where people can find your site. You can buy a domain from godaddy, or yahoo small business. Or you can get one for free from dyndns or no-ip. In the paid domains approach, you should call the customer care to guide you about binding your IP address to the domain name. In the free services, you can find a link "add dynamic dns" somewhere in the page, and they will automatically detect your IP and bind it to an internet address of your choice. (Note that free .tk domains can only redirect your site to an already existing site). You will have to create an account on the free services. In case you're using an internet service with dynamic IP addressing (most likely if you're a home user), your IP will change every time you reset your modem or restart your computer. In such a case, check if the free service provider has a software that can automatically update your IP. no-ip has one.

J. Testing & advertising

You must test your newly functional website with a friend who is sitting at a remote location. For example, I called my friends in Maryland, Texas and New Delhi to do the testing for me. They all could access my website without troubles - so I then sent the link to many of my friends to show off my new stuff (this page, actually)!!!

4. Specs of this machine

Make: Acer Aspire (1997)
Intel Pentium 166 MHz
72MB SIMM RAM
1GB Fujitsu Hard Drive
8x CD-ROM drive
Floppy Drive
Ethernet Card - D-Link DFE 530TX+ (added later)
Startech 2-port PCI USB card (added later)
64kBps upload speed DSL internet

It also had a 32-bit sound card (SoundBlaster AWE 64) and some Modem with motorola chip - I have taken off both these to free up two PCI slots for the ethernet and USB cards.

Ubuntu Dapper Drake LTS server edition
Apache2
OpenSSH for remote file management
Site made using Nano text editor
Site edited using Dreamweaver for Mac
This machine is 100% Micro$oft free!

               

5. Warnings & disclaimers

• Be careful while buying hardware for an old computer. Check the compatibility with motherboard and with the OS (windows/Linux) before you invest money. Don't buy latest hi-fi stuff. Go for compatible hardware, which is often cheaper.
• Apache exposes your computer to the internet, which might be unsafe. The internet is unsafe even otherwise, but having a website gives you publicity, and you're more likely to dig up in a hacker's hitlist. Prepare well for security - don't ask me how! Use google.
• This is an article for enhancement of your technological knowlege and experience. Use this technology for a good cause.
• Read about zombies, antiviruses and firewalls and this.
• I am not responsible for any damage that occurs to you or your equipment as a result of following this article. Use your own discretion.
• My sincerest apologies to anyone who may be hurt in any way by reading this article.

6. Contact me

anil_robo AT yahoo DOT com

My other websites:

http://anil-kumar.net (incomplete - hosted on paid server)
http://nixtechnica.blogspot.com (my blog)
http://nutrition.myftp.org (partially complete - hosted on the same server)
http://geocities.com/anil_robo (outdated - hosted on free yahoo server)

7. The Digg Effect

This site was posted by a fan at Digg.com recently, and experienced a heavy traffic. It survived the onslaught, but was crawling painfully for eight hours. It could have done better if

• I was informed before posting at digg.com
• I had faster internet connection (currently 64kBps upload DSL)

Apache and Ubuntu survived the digg effect, and the site remains up. I had set up a mirror earlier... and it proved handy in these times.

Thank you all for digging/undigging the story!

Page last modified: March 27, 2007