Host a Website from PC/Laptop

72

Today, in this article, we show how to Host a website from PC/Laptop. With the help of web hosting, companies and individuals can make their websites available on the Internet. A web host offers the facilities and services necessary for a website to work online.

You must spend money on your own domain name and web hosting if you want to launch a website. Have a website hosted on your computer or laptop it can be fascinating. Choose this only if you want a local development server, it is advisable. The main requirement for hosting a website on your Windows OS is a WAMP server.

The abbreviation WAMP stands for Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Therefore, a WAMP server simultaneously installs three separate applications. As they allow you to download and install all the essential software to host any web content, these servers are considered highly convenient. We have mentioned below the steps to host a website from PC/Laptop.

Steps to Host a PC/WebsiteLaptop

Step 1: Update and update packages

Use the following command to update current packages and update the package list after installing Ubuntu Server on your computer. On your macOS or Linux computer, we recommend that you enable SSH and use PuTTY or Terminal to connect to the server.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade –y

Step 2: install apache

WordPress sites are hosted by Apachea well-known open source web server that collaborates with PHP to support dynamic websites. Use the following command to install apache server after the update is complete.

sudo apt install apache2

When you see a prompt, press Y and then press Enter key to continue installation. You can check the status by running the following command.

systemctl status apache2

It should show active (running) status. To check, you can visit the IP yours laptop or localhost.

Step 3: Install MySQL server

MySQL is a database management system (DBMS) that helps to organize and provide access to the database to store the information. For install MySQL server, use the following command.

sudo apt install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client

Press Y and then Enter key to confirm and proceed with installation.

Next, secure MySQL installation running the following command.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Set root password? Press s and hit the Enter key. Enter a secure password and keep it secure.

Remove anonymous users? Press Y and then the Enter key.

Do not allow root login remotely? press Y and then the Enter key.

Remove the test database and access it. tighten s key followed by Enter Press the button.

Reload privilege tables now? tighten s key and then Enter.

Step 4: install PHP

PHP is needed to process code to display dynamic content, run scripts, connect to MySQL database and display the rendered content in the web browser. For install PHPrun the following command.

sudo apt install PHP PHP-MySQL

tighten s to confirm and proceed with the installation. Create a test.php file using the following command to confirm the installation.

sudo nano /var/www/html/test.php

Now, necklace the following code in the Nano editor.

Press CTRL+X Followed by s and the Enter key to save changes. Now, visit your IP laptop with /test.php in the URL. This should load the PHP info page, indicating that PHP is up and running.

Step 5: Create a MySQL Database and User

We need create a database and a user account with access to the database with full privileges. The commands are as follows:

sudo MySQL -u root -p

Enter the password (the one you created while securing the MySQL installation) and press the enter key. Then run the following commands in the order given to create a database and a user with full access to the database.

CREATE DATABASE mysite;CREATE USER ‘ravi’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘YourPassword’;GRANT EVERYTHING ON mysite.* TO ‘ravi’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘YourPassword’;RELEASE PRIVILEGES;EXIT;

This will create a database called “my site“with user”ravi” having access to the database. Of course, you can use whatever name you want.

You can now host a custom website based on HTML, PHP or CMS based websites like WordPress, PrestaShop, Joomlaetc. However, let’s to define up and host a WordPress site in our old laptop for this tutorial.

Step 6: Download and configure WordPress

Navigate to the /var/www/html and download the latest WordPress package.

cd /var/www/html/sudo wget “

To extract the package contents.

sudo tar xf latest.tar.gz

This will extract the wordpress directory in /var/www/html local. You can view the directory using the ls command. We will then give permission to www-data:www-data using the following command.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress

Once done, you can visit your IP laptop Followed by /wordpress. enter the Data base Name, User name and Password we created in Step 4. Let database host and table prefix to default. click in Submit.

Now click on run the installation.

Enter the site title. Also, create a new User name and Password to the WordPress backend (wp-admin) and click Install WordPress. This will install WordPress, after which you will be able to access the WordPress site at http://IPAddress/wordpress (Replace the IP address field with your computer’s IP).

Step 7: Download and install the Cloudflared service

Signal up and add your domain to your cloudflare take responsibility for start. After adding the domain, run the following commands to download and install the Cloudflared service on your old one laptop or PC-based web server.

sudo wget

sudo dpkg –I cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb

Step 8: I create Cloudflared Tunnel and Enable HTTPS

Follow the instructions and use the commands below to create a Cloudflared tunnel and enable a secure connection to your website.

Log in and authorize the domain you added to cloudflare.

Cloudflared Tunnel Login

Copy the displayed URL and Open in a web browser to authorize the domain.

Once successfully authorized, create a cloudy tunnel called “my site“. You can name anything, but remember that name.

Cloudflared tunnel create mysite

Copy the credential file path (JSON file path) and the tunnel ID. Keep them safe.

Now, create a configuration file using the command below.

sudo nano ~/.cloudflared/config.yml

Then paste the following code into it. be sure to replace tunnel id and credential file

tunnel: a2efc6dg1-2c75-45f8-b529d3eecredentials-file:/home/pi/.cloudflared/ a2efc6dg1-2c75-45f8-b529d3ee.jsoningress:– hostname: YourDomain.comservice: service: http_status:404

Press CTRL + X followed by Y and press Enter to save the changes.

Now create a DNS entry for the hostname. You can host your WordPress site on the main domain or subdomain based on your need. For this tutorial we will create a subdomain DNS entry host our WordPress site on the old laptop.

cloudflared DNS tunnel route

Once the input successfully createdyou can start the tunnel by running the following command.

Cloudflared tunnel run mysite

Final Words

We hope you like our article about how to Host a website for free from your PC and Laptop. Making decisions is a big part of starting a new website, including hosting. Figuring out how to Hosting a website can easily become difficult and daunting if you are new to website ownership. Fortunately, if you’re aware of your alternatives, figuring out what kind of hosting your site requires is a pretty straightforward process. Knowing the fundamentals should allow you to choose the type of hosting that will work best for you and your audience and make wise judgments.