PROBLOGGER

Wouldn't it be nice if you could have your PC at home function like a Web of FTP server ? You would be able to share your personal web pages and files with your friends, and what's more, you could do it all for free. All you need is some free web and FTP server software, and a broadband Internet connection with a live IP address.
You don't actually require a DNS name service to run a website or FTP server. A DNS is just a service ( it's not fee ) which matches the name of your website ( such as www.yourname.com) to its live IP address. So others who need to log on to your website don't have to remember the IP address, but just the name. Somilarly, instead of going through the headache of registering a name against the IP address and spending money for no actual reason, just host your own WEb server at home using your desktop computer and some freeware. All you have to then do is spread the news around that you have your own website and distribute the IP address link using email or a chat service. For example, if you would like to host your website and want others to access it, just ask them to type the address ( actually the IP address) directly into their web browsers' address bar ( for instance, 'http://xxx/xxx.xxx.xxx', where 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx' is your machine's live IP address, It can be accessed from anywhere around the world .)
The same procedure will work for the FTP server too. MTNL broadband in Mumbai and Delhi offers a live IP address with their broadband Internet service for a little as Rs 1,000 per year. Other Internet service providers such as Hathway, Reliance, Sify, etc also offer the service at different rates. So take advantage of this live IP service, creat you personal website and host it from your very own computer at home. The only possible drawback is that if you need your website to be accessible 24x7 you need to keep you computer switched on 24x7 .
Let's now proceed to what you will need to do to build this server and how to get it working. What you need for this workshop is a high-speed broadand connection with a live IP address and any old compute. We are going to use software that can run on Windows XP or 9x, but with similar software you can use Linux too. Let's start with the basics. You need and HTTP server ( web server ) program to host your website and an FTP server program for sharing your files if you need to. We have used Abyss Web Server X1 ( version 2.5. ) and Xlight fTP Server ( version 2. 835 ) for this workshop.

WEB SERVER INSTALLATION

To begin with, downloand Abyss Web server X1 fro free from http://www.aprelium.com/abyssws/download.php or find it on the CHIP DVD this month. Install the server software and choose the way you want to let it launch when Windows Starts up. You can find Abyss Web Server for other operating systems such as Mac OS X, Linux and Free BSD on the same website. After the Installation is done, You will immediately be asked to choose the language of your choice in your web borwwer for the configuration proceduresw. Choose English, then on the next page, enter your choice of user name and password for administrator login. This password will be required for making necessary changes to you server. The configuration page then starts up and you can tweak your server accordingly.

At this point, your web server is actually fully functional and running in the background. To access it, all you have to do is loand your Internet broweser and type thre URL http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and press ( Enter ) ( Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of your machine ) . The default web page of the Abyss Web server will appear stating that it is working and you can now change the web page of you server. Creat you rown web page using software like like Adbobe Dreamweaver ( which is commercial ), or free software such as Weborama, ASPMaker or Hapedit.
The simply copy the needed files to the folder C:\abyss web server\htdocs which is the Web server's document path. Your opening web page must benamed either index.htm or index.html or default, aspx' you can even change the order in which the server looks for these default files from the configuration page under ' Index Files ', you can even use the same configuration page to add other types of files that you have created. The settingsare now done, and your server is ready to host your very own website.
CONFIGURING YOUR SERVER

Abyss is quite a simple application to use. Right click on the Abyss Web Server icon in the system tray, click on ' Show Console ', and feed in the user name and password that you entered during installation, This will take yourto the default configuration page of your web server where you can customize it according to your needs. For examle, you caneven get your web server to function like an FTP server ( but you cannot uploan files here, only download them ) by using the Aliases' feature, set a name for your link and select the directory or driver you wish tobe displayed to remote people so that they can download files from your computer. For example, if you would like to share the files from the folder
on your computer and want your guests to access it, just let them type the URL http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/download . .
All you have to do is add the aliases using the virtual and real path names. Other options available are ' Users and Groups', Indem files ', Directory listing' ' Logging ', URL Rewriting ', and more. To know more about what each function can do just click on the ' Help ' link located in the top right corner of thge configuaration web page. You can also see statistics of how many hits you get on your Web page. errors, the amount of date downloaded, etc from the ' Statistics' link on the configuration page.
ProBlogger TIP: If you want your friends to access your Webpage using a name for your website, they can do so by tweaking the ' hosts' file in Windows - it's very simple. Let's take an example here - if you want them to use the name http://www.abcdxyz.com as the website address for your IP address http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx all they have to do is add a line http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.www.abcdxyz.com to the end of the page of the ' hosts ' file located at C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ by opening it in Notepad. So the next time they type www.abcdxyz.com in their browser, your web page will be located and loaded. This happens because whenever they type www.abcdxyz.com their system will look up this file first, find the IP address of your machine and directly log on to your web site located at that particular IP address - a mini DNS server located on each individual computer itself.

FTP SERVER INSTALLATION

Building your own FTP server has never been so simple. All you need to do is download a light, 426 KB application called ' Xlight FTP Server V2.835 ' from http://www.xftpserver.com/download and run it directly without installation. It is aportable FTP server which stays running in your system tray when loaded.

CONFIGURING YOUR SERVER

Start the software and click on the ' New Virtual Server ' icon on the top left corner of the window. Choose the iP address ( the network card you want the fTP server to work on ) and leave the port number set to ' 21 ' click on ' OK' and then right-click on the new server you just made and click on ' Start Server '.

Your server is now running and waiting for connections. But you need to specify which files can be downloaded by your friends and who can access these files. Foir this, you will need to first creat a use rname and a password for those who will be able to gain access to your FTP server and then define a home path for them to download files from, Click on the ' User list' icon and in the page that pops up clock' add user '. Here you can add the user names and passwords which they can use shen accessing your FTP server.

You may choose ' anonymous ' username and no password too if you wish, but then everyone will be able to access your FTP server. Then choose the ' Home Path ' which will be the location from where a user can start downloading files when he logs on.
Your may create folders for each user to serve individual files to individual users. Once this is done, your server is ready for use. Use the same principle as the Web server ti access the FTP server from the Internet or any intranet. Just type in ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.21 in the browser or use any FTP client application to access ther server.

You can pause, stop or view logs from the control icons in the fTP server window. Choose the server messages from the setting page, chose the IP addresses you need to allow or disallow from logging into your FTP server, or enable disk quotas for each user.
You can also control the speed limit of each user for downloading and set permissions for each user to upload files to your FT server. Just play around with the settings to finally set the fTP server. Get help on complete details on what each setting can do by clicking on the Help icon. Voila! You have just set up an fTP server of you own.
There are also other free aplications available on the Internet that can be similarly used as free web and FTP servers. Well, now that you have installed your very own servers, go ahead and launch your website and FTP server @ home.