Host A Web Server on Your Home PC

If you want to make small site of your own and don’t want to pay for hosting prices, this article and exactly tell you how to do it.I had always wondered if I can host my blog or a small site on my laptop but well looking at traffic and security I can’t.

But if you want to make a website for friends and family this can be a good solution for u . You don’t have to pay any money for this. A friend was going through some magazine ( I am not sure which one ) and he told me about a software that really can help you hosting a web site on your own pc.I gave it a try and its really good.A small analysis and experience of this software in just 6 steps and its tested in Windows Xp, Vista you need to check

Step 1: Download and Run The Software

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Download the HFS or Http file server.It is free and open source and above all that its a standalone executable that requires no installation.

• When you run HFS you might be asked whether or not allow hfs.exe to connect to Internet.Unblock it.
• But if you have 3rd party firewall you will have to configure it accordingly.

Step 2: Configure the port

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By default HFS uses port 80.if you your firewall is blocking port 80, set HFS to some other port( for example to 8025 or which ever is free, as a precaution keep it above 1024 which is used my operating system itself.)

• To change the port number, click on Port Number menu and enter a new one.
• Also, if you are behind a router or firewall, you may in some rare cases, need to set up port forwarding. For all the help required for visit portfrward
• Port-forward can help you out to set up port forwarding.There you can choose the router type and choose a program you want to set up port forwarding for, which is in our case is HFS.

Step 3: Test HFS

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Now you need to test your settings before you start.Click the menu in HFS and choose self test.If the test completes successfully, your settings are correct and you are ready for next step, To point your web browser to your ip address.

Step 4: Register A domain

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For setting up a web site, you need to first assign it a domain name.Domain name are aother name for a computer ip address.For this, you will need to a DNS service running on your computer which can be mapped to particular ip address.

• Create a Create a new user at No-IP account.
• Login to the site with the account you created.On the left-sidebar click on “Hosts/Redirects”
• Click on Add.In the page that opens enter domain name of your choice e.g “myfamilypics” and It will create a sub-domain on its own server that will work on your ip.

• Your IP is recorded when you add the domain name.If you ISP is blocking port 80, you can choose a redirect given under same page.
• Click on “Create host” and you are ready to roll.
• Access the same from your own browser.You can add your file In HFS and access the same.

Trust me I have done it and it works.But i cant give the link of my url ( as it is hosted on my computer) here keeping in mind the security issues which I am not aware of. SO you also should share it among your friends.

Step 5. Install The dynamic update Client

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Skip this step if yo have a static ip.If you don’t, you will need a client software to take care of of your changing ip address.

• Download the No-Ip.com Dynamic DNS update client software.
• Install it and provide your login details.This program will sit in the system tray and automatically update your NoIp account when your external ip changes.

Step 6: Launch Your Website

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You can now decide what page will appear when someone access your site, like the default page.To change the default page,

• Open HFS and click on “You are in Easy Mode ” to turn it to advance mode.
• Right click on little house icon on VFS and click on “Bind Root to Real Folder”.
• Now you can add files and folder here which you want to make available in your website.
• Next is when your site is ready send the address which you created in NO-IP or step 4 to all your friends.
• You can even see what others are viewing in advanced mode of hfs

This helped me a lot to understand how things work when my blog is hosted and how do my hosting service works.This was a Small example on low scale basis for you to try and for people who want to run there host on there own system.Do tell me your experience when you try it.I will be glad.

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About The Author of this article: Ashish is one of the co-author of this blog and writes on various interesting softwares, PC tips and more. You can read more of his articles here.

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Tags: dynamic_dns_update, hfs_cnfiguration, setup_no_ip, site_hosting_pc

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68 Comments and Link-Backs to “Host A Web Server on Your Home PC”

68 Comments from Friends and Readers

• Tim, January 31, 2007:

  Nice summary. You should fix the mistyped URL to portfo(i)rword.com, though.

• Ashish Mohta, January 31, 2007:

  @Tim: Thanks a lot for passing by and the comment.I have fixed the link.

• Blogcrowds, February 1, 2007:

  Very nice guide, I’m puzzled though. Apache is by far the most widely used industrial standard free open-source server. I never heard of HFS and from the description its more of a file server rather than a web server. To add more expand the article maybe also go into bandwidth/ISP requirements etc.

• Ashish Mohta, February 1, 2007:

  @Blogcrowds: Hi thanks a lot for this comment.I will be updating my article today evening and will email you on that.

  Keep coming

• Open Source Web Server for Windows, February 2, 2007:

  If you are looking to run a local Web-Server, under Windows, use the WAMP Stack…
  Web-Developer Server Suite.

• vista, February 3, 2007:

  good information..

• Phalgun, February 3, 2007:

  Very nice info!

• Ashish Mohta, February 3, 2007:

  @Everybody: Great Response people.Thanks a lot.

  However I would update on this, that this might not be suitable for very high traffic.You can use it for light purpose.

• hongkiat, February 5, 2007:

  Nice article A.M
  But I wouldn’t personally recommend such implementation though, especially on a laptop; neither a PC. Putting all security, high traffic thingie aside, I too wouldn’t want my PC to get on fire

• Ashish Mohta, February 6, 2007:

  [quote comment="1607"]Nice article A.M
  But I wouldn’t personally recommend such implementation though, especially on a laptop; neither a PC. Putting all security, high traffic thingie aside, I too wouldn’t want my PC to get on fire :)[/quote]

  @hongkiat: I agree with you on this,It can be sued for personal use with friends.It might not handle the traffic and security issue.Thanks a lot for the comment.Keep visit

• abhishek bhatnagar, February 7, 2007:

  Hi ashish

  Gr8 article…really informative for as i have tried like this before but didnt knw abt the hfs thing only tried to do no-ip dynamic tool.
  nyways thanks

• Ashish Mohta, February 7, 2007:

  @Abhishek: Thanks Abhshek.This one can be good for people who want to host site to be sued just between friends.It can give them a chance to create too

• Masoom, July 25, 2007:

  hi

  I did exactly how it is mentioned…..But still its no working..When I type my ip address with the port number it times out…May be i am doing something wrong. Can anybody help me troubleshooting..Thanks….My email is masoommirage@gmail.com

• Ashish Mohta, July 27, 2007:

  @Masoom: If you don’t have static IP you need to use the second link I have given in the post. That might solve your problem

• Brown Baron, September 29, 2007:

  Very nice. I’m sure a lot of people are looking for information on this. Great job buddy.

• rony john, September 30, 2007:

  i know from where u go this article …reply with ur justification.

• Ashish Mohta, September 30, 2007:

  @Rony: With dew respect I dont think I need to give any justification but Well I got this from one of my friend who made a family hosting site on his computer. And he helped me out to make this article too. Hope that helps.

• ali, October 4, 2007:

  great article very nice and cool
  i will use it with my friend but is it anything more secure ?

  please help me
  thanks

• Ashish Mohta, October 6, 2007:

  @Ali: I would not recommend it for proffesional web hosting. If You do it for fun and family its good. Else you PC might be hacked.

• tejas, October 6, 2007:

  hi
  i did exatly as u hav mentioned in d steps .
  nw how can i make a database for this home based server.
  i am working on a project in my collage . its internet based home automation . i wanna know wil my website be browseable from mobile through gprs.
  waiting for your reply…..

• Ashish Mohta, October 6, 2007:

  Hi Tejas,

  1. Since you are hosting it on home computer, you can connect this to any local database which is running in the local machine. The above steps just redirects your created domain ot your computer ip.

  2. Search in google for “make mobile web page”. There are lot of links availble. You can use and see. If that doesnt work, I would suggest you to look around some books or online contents to look and search for

  Hope this helps

• suresh thati, October 13, 2007:

  I am try to have my own website . Its online streaming one. Lot of videos sharing. As having a dedicated server costs more. I am thinking of making my dell pc to web server. Can you guys suggest me . I live in Tokyo.

• Ashish Mohta, October 13, 2007:

  Hi Suresh,

  You have a good idea and I accept that histing is costly too. But are you making a website for commercial purpose or Freinds and family. This article is best if you want to do some online projects or make a family site. However for commercial purpose its not as your computer will not be secured. Do tell us your need

  Regards
  Ashish

• Orlando, October 20, 2007:

  Hi, as Suresh, I step in to this article looking for an option for a streaming video section for my site. What do you recomend for a connection DSL / Cable 256 or 512. How many user can be log at the same time, just an estimate. To have an idea. Don’t worry about security issues since the PC will be only for this purpose. No personal info inside.

  Please let me know your recomendations

• Ashish Mohta, October 20, 2007:

  @Orlando: If we can really keep the security aside I would really like to hear number of users. We did small project and were around 30 users it handled easily but it was a light weight application.

  There is one more person who is doing a project using this concept. I am waiting for his experience too.

  Lets see what Suresh comes up with ?

  Thanks Orlando

• Linux, November 6, 2007:

  This is a really awesome (looking) program!

  But, out of curiosity, would the Ubuntu Server work just as well? I am horrid with computer terms, so sorry if the answer blatantly obvious.

• Ashish Mohta, November 6, 2007:

  @Tat: It should work. Just get to know about security settings required by a server .

• Linux, November 6, 2007:

  One last question, does this mean I can have my own free .com? Or is it just so I don’t have to pay others for hosting memory?

• Ashish Mohta, November 6, 2007:

  You cant, You will have to pay for domain name pricing and yearly charges

• abdulmajeed, November 29, 2007:

  i havent try it yet, but what would you recomend for community base website hosting for about 50,000 people

• Ashish Mohta, November 29, 2007:

  @abdulmajeed: It will depend all on your daily traffic ….How mich daily traffic you get for the community?

• Rabin, January 8, 2008:

  Thansk, very useful information..I have already registered my domain and I have One websited hosted and now it is in use.but my hosting company doesnot give me more space so I want to make my laptop as a webser verver. I want to just redirect my web site to my laptop. lets say somebody is liking my website then he/she clicks on myphoto links I wil redirect my page to my laptop with php(redirect) if i give me ip address of my laptop can my friend see my photos from my laptop..if no is there any way to do that…

• Ashish Mohta, January 8, 2008:

  @Rabin: By just IP address it wont work. You need to host it. So if you are using the tutorial above the site you crated on no IP will point to the site on your computer. Thus if you host your pics on the site in your laptop your friend will see it automatically, no need to give IP.

  How much you can afford on hosting ?

• Rabin, January 8, 2008:

  I mean I downloaded the HFS and I can host my photos on that. I have domain and it I have already host my page on hosting company so i want to use this host server but I want to just link my computer from that webserver. I dont know more about no ip so if i registered to no ip then can i redirect to my laptop..i dont want to redirect all my webpage to my laptop I just want to redirect some link to my laptop (like photos)…so I want to do new things..thank you very much..for your help..

• Rabin, January 9, 2008:

  I went through all the information and finally I did it. when we bind the root.it do nothing. I have to add all the files and folder one by one. Is this the way program runs or it is different. I thought when we add root folder then it should show all the files and folder under that root but it does not. Thank you for your help!

• rommel, January 16, 2008:

  i want to try this for my project..but is this also applicable even if your just using dial-up for internet connection?

• Ashish Mohta, January 20, 2008:

  @rommel: Yes it does. Even in dial up you get an IP but that can change as well. So dont forget to use IP tracker

• Dan, February 8, 2008:

  Just a comment.

  Would like to say that Abyss Web Server X1 is the best free web server made. Can be down loaded here:

  http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/download.php

  I use 2.5 it is awesome. Most steps above work the same with abyss. Thanks

• Ashish Mohta, February 8, 2008:

  Thanks Dan. I will take a look at it. If I like it proably make a post on it.

• CyberKnowHow, March 10, 2008:

  Great Information about the technical Know how about how to convert a home PC in to a web host computer. Thanks.

• Ashish Mohta, March 10, 2008:

  @cyberknowhow: Great !. How you are planning to use this ? Please share with us

• Vincent, March 30, 2008:

  Thanks for the amazing info, I can’t port forward thu on my linksys right now, I tried, i still fail the self test, but hsf is cool, it just like my FTP one, its a single .exe and you just click on it and thats it, you just type the ip on anything that has web acces in the world adn you have my whole hard drive. I love it, Hopefully i get this to work, but if its not a heavy duty one, then i have to host on a real server for all the trafiic, money money money!

• jason, April 3, 2008:

  how can i make it so other ppl can view it?
  email: jasonbay13@gmail.com

• Manit Aslot, April 5, 2008:

  hi thanks for this article…….

  i want to know that how much minimum RAM required for this i have 256mb and pentium 4 cpu is it sufficient for making server????

  and bytheway r u hosting this web “www.technospot.net” from your home server?and how can i got this domain “.net” ….???

• Ashish, April 5, 2008:

  @Manit: That should be sufficient enough. However I am not hosting my site on personal server but on a pro hosting service. If you want to get a domain name. I can suggest you some ways. Shoot me an email to me via contact form

• Manit Aslot, April 5, 2008:

  i don’t have static IP and i m using router at “portforward.com” they only ask for static ip check this link. and i dont want to buy static ip.my isp is bsnl data one.so any other method to do this????? plz help…….

  http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/UTStarcom/UT-300R2U/Http_File_Server-HFS.htm

• Ashish, April 5, 2008:

  I have told about a software in this software which you can use in case you dont have static ip.

• Manit Aslot, April 5, 2008:

  ya i know that but plz see that link they must want static ip for port forwarding

• Ashish, April 6, 2008:

  @Manit: If you are using BSNL iy wont require port forwarding. I also use bsnl data one and never used port forwarding ever Skip that step

• donarun, April 6, 2008:

  my net connection requires proxy authentication and thus hfs is not able to pass the self test…. wat do i do

• Manit Aslot, April 6, 2008:

  heyyyyyy thanks…… after portforwarding my server works succesfullyyyyyy and self test completed…….and server is started……..

• anonymous, April 13, 2008:

  greeting to everyone ,

  I tried the program and it works fine , but when i enter my site , it doesnt enter the index.html page , it shows all the files in that folder.Now visitors will have to search the index.html to see the site i designed.

  Is there a way to tell hfs to open the “main page” = index.html automatically

  thanks .

• Ashish, April 15, 2008:

  Hi Max, I would suggest you to post a topic in our forum. We can further analyse there

• Ashish, April 15, 2008:

  Hi Max, I would suggest you to post a topic in our forum. We can further analyze there

• Naveen, April 21, 2008:

  Nice article. I just want to know is there a way in Linux to implement the same.
  basically, I want to control my home appliances with Linux.

  Which technologies i need to use to make two way communication between server and clinet, inmycase
  my embedded device need to take in put data from web browser( client).

  Thanks
  Naveen

• Ramesh, May 14, 2008:

  This was interesting.

  I’ve saved your page to my favorites and would like to find out more about how I can build my own website.

  Thank you for sharing.

  Ramesh.

• sudhakar, July 1, 2008:

  Very usefull info. Appreciated your efforts and time.
  I am planing to host a small website for commercial purpose, but not online payments by credit cards etc., It is just hosting for information sharing. I have Airtel DSL broadband connection. I am also planing to have my own domain like xyz.com. I am planing to register my domain using dotdnr.com, but I would like to use my own PC for hosting. Please suggest/assist me to host my website on my PC. Also let me know how to get static IP for my PC?

  Thanks in advance

• Manthan, July 2, 2008:

  Thanks for these useful info
  But I cant come out from 2nd steep i e port test help me what to do i am using MTNL D LINK 502 T
  —MTNL Mumbai
  —Window Vista

  Waiting for your reply else give me your contact no if posible so that i contact u to help me out from these steep

  Once again Thanks

• vAssan, July 3, 2008:

  Ashish:

  Thanks for an easy to understand article .

  I’ve a doubt and I’m seeking your opinion .

  Its related to a personal blog based on Wordpress.

  I’ve my blog in a domain registered with 1and1.com. It costs me
  $6.99 per year for the annual domain regitration fee.
  If I use 1and1.com as my host it will cost an additional
  $48.00 per year, which I’m trying to avoid!

  I was wondering, ” if I go to the admin page of my domain
  @ 1and1.com & edit the advanced DNS to redirect or point
  it to my personal PC by using my IP’s static IP”, Will it work..?

  thanks in advance.

• Ashish Mohta, July 3, 2008:

  That might work but I though have some doubts. Your IP should be globally acessble. You saying that its static so possibly yes. Go ahead and try it. I tried pinging the IP address which is noticed when you make comment here. It pings. Sp just give it a try and see if it works

• Swagat, July 6, 2008:

  hey ashish,
  m using mtnl broadband service, and my self test is never successful, pls help

• Singh Ajay, August 11, 2008:

  An other solt. is abbys web server with http://www.dyndns.com

• Ashish Mohta, August 11, 2008:

  Thanks Ajay. People can use this who are looking for dynamic Ip along with the one we did mentioned.

• baran, August 25, 2008:

  hi!

  i wonder if i can use this hfs to get access to my files, stored on my home pc, from work for instance?
  thx!

• AmazingAngel, September 3, 2008:

  Yo! great!! but, could anyone tell me- is it possible to create a real server on home pc for big traffic and other stuff? I can’t find any good info about it… I wana make my home pc to real server pc to put there large amount of my own web pages.. what special programs do i need and mabey i need any other special computer parts to make it…

• Ashish Mohta, September 3, 2008:

  Hi Amazing Angel, This is on behalf of Ajay I am putting his comment here. He mailed me on this

  HI ashish;
  IT NOT DIFFICULT MAKE UR OWN SERVER BUT U NEED FRIST ALL GOOD PC WITH LARGE AMOUNT OF RAM AND HDD,AND LEARN MORE ABOUT TCIP AND UDP ACTUALLY I HAME NOT LOT OF TIME MAKE MY OWN SERVER BUT I THINK I WILL DO NEXT YEAR , THIS ONE JUST BECOUSE I GIVEN EXAM.I CAN SEND U BOOKS THESE BOOK ONLY IN RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IF U CAN UNDERSTAND JUST VIST ON http://WWW.INTUIT.RU

  THANK AJAY

  PS: Ajay you might get this as a new comment.

• Jagadish, September 3, 2008:

  Hi i followed all the steps in this article but when i type ip address in the browser its asking for username and password,which username i should use for this authorization …….

• fourpx, September 7, 2008:

  Hi,

  I am trying to host a website in my home PC. I do have a static IP, which i bought from BSNL recently. The Modem i use is ADSL modem. My Problem: When i ran a self test in HFS software, it is responding as “Test Failed” and it is commenting it as “You are behind your router. Ensure it to port forward to your computer”. I currently know how to login to the BSNL’s URL and i have familiarized with the interface. Where in need to configure the port forwarding in BSNL Modem’s server page……

  FourPx