Web server can refer to either hardware or software (of a computer) that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet. The most common use of web servers is to host web sites but there are other uses like data storage or for running enterprise applications.
Before getting into the actual process, let’s look at a couple of real-world situations that explain why you may want to turn your home computer into a web server
Situation 1. Say you have music MP3s, documents and other important files on the hard drive of your home computer. If you turn this home computer into a web server, you will be able to access all these files from office or any other Internet connected machine including your mobile phone.
Situation 2. You have some personal photographs that you want to share with other family members. You can either upload these pictures online to a site like Flickr or better still, just convert the computer into a web server. Now you can connect the camera to the computer, transfer the digital pictures to some designated folder and they’ll instantly become available to your friends and family anywhere in the world.
Situation 3. You want to host a website on the internet but the web hosting jargon like FTP, DNS, etc. is way too complex for you. The workaround therefore is that you setup a web server on your home computer (it’s easy) and then host a website in seconds without spending a single penny on external web hosting services.
Now if any of the above reasons look convincing enough, here’s how you can convert your Windows Machine Into a Web server
How to Turn Your Home Computer Into a Web Server
Things You Need
1. Xampp -XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.
You can Download Xampp From Here
Installation You can follow the video for the Installation process or you can follow the text tutorial From Here
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=U1NCjKme610&feature=player_embedded