Web hosting is an essential aspect of building a website. It provides the necessary infrastructure for your website to be accessible online. However, not everyone can afford to pay for a web hosting service. In such cases, it’s possible to set up a free web hosting server using open-source software.
Introduction
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting refers to the service that allows individuals and organizations to store and manage their websites on remote servers. When someone visits your website, their browser sends a request to the server where your website files are stored, which then returns the requested content to the user’s browser.
Why do we need Web Hosting?
Web hosting is necessary because without it, your website would not be accessible online. If you were to host your website on your own computer, for example, your website could only be accessed from that computer or local network.
What are Free Web Hosting Services?
Free web hosting services provide users with free storage space and bandwidth to host their websites. They are often used by individuals who do not have the resources to pay for a paid web hosting service. However, free web hosting services typically come with limited features and have strict usage limits.
Setting Up a Free Web Hosting Server
Requirements
Before we begin, there are a few things you’ll need:
- A computer with Linux operating system installed (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian)
- A domain name (optional)
- A public IP address (if you have one, otherwise, use your router’s IP address)
- SSH client software (e.g., PuTTY for Windows, Terminal for Mac)
Step 1: Install Apache Web Server
The first step in creating a free web hosting server is to install the Apache web server. Apache is an open-source HTTP server that is widely used to serve websites.
To install Apache on Ubuntu, open a terminal window and run the following commands:
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sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2
Step 2: Configure Apache Web Server
Once Apache is installed, you’ll need to configure it to work with your domain name or IP address. Open the Apache configuration file in a text editor using the following command:
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sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Add the following lines to the end of the file to configure Apache to listen on your public IP address:
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Listen 80
ServerName example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
Replace example.com with your domain name or use your router’s IP address instead if you don’t have a domain name.
Step 3: Install MySQL Database Server
Next, we’ll need to install the MySQL database server. MySQL is an open-source relational database management system that is commonly used for web applications.
To install MySQL on Ubuntu, open a terminal window and run the following commands:
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sudo apt update
sudo apt install mysql-server
Step 4: Create a Database and User for your Web Application
Once MySQL is installed, we’ll need to create a database and user for our web application. Open the MySQL command line interface using the following command:
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mysql -u root -p
Enter your MySQL root password when prompted.
Create a new database and user for your web application using the following commands:
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CREATE DATABASE example;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON example.* TO ‘exampleuser’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘password’;
Replace example with your desired database name and exampleuser with your desired username. Choose a strong password for the user account.
Step 5: Install PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language that is commonly used to create dynamic web applications.
To install PHP on Ubuntu, open a terminal window and run the following commands:
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sudo apt update
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-common
Step 6: Configure Apache to use PHP
Once PHP is installed, we’ll need to configure Apache to work with it. Open the Apache configuration file in a text editor using the following command:
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sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/php7.conf
Add the following lines to the end of the file to enable PHP:
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LoadModule php7_module modules/libphp7.so
IncludeOptional conf.d/php.conf
Step 7: Install and Configure WordPress
Finally, we’ll need to install and configure WordPress, which is a popular content management system used for building websites.
Download the latest version of WordPress from and unzip it in your web application directory using the following command:
bash
tar -xzvf wordpress-x.x.xx.tgz -C /var/www/html/example/
Replace `wordpress-x.x.xx.tgz` with the name of your WordPress download file.
Next, we’ll need to create a new MySQL database and user for WordPress. Open the MySQL command line interface using the following command:
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mysql -u root -p
Enter your MySQL root password when prompted.
Create a new database and user for WordPress using the following commands:
sql
CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO ‘wordpressuser’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘password’;
Replace wordpress with your desired database name and wordpressuser with your desired username. Choose a strong password for the user account.
Finally, we’ll need to configure WordPress to use the MySQL database. Open the WordPress configuration file in a text editor using the following command:
bash
nano /var/www/html/example/wp-config.php
Add the following lines to the end of the file to configure WordPress to use the MySQL database:
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define( ‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’ );
define( ‘DB_USERNAME’, ‘wordpressuser’ );
define( ‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password’ );
define( ‘DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress’ );
Step 9: Access your WordPress Website
Now that everything is set up, you can access your WordPress website by navigating to `http://example.com` or `http://your-router-ip-address/wp-login.php`. Enter your WordPress username and password to log in to the WordPress dashboard.