How do I download and install the Apache Web Server?
Author: Deron Eriksson
Description: This tutorial describes how to download and install the Apache web server.
Tutorial created using: Windows XP || Apache HTTP Server 2.2.4


Page:    1 2 >

At the time of this writing, the ApacheSW Web Server (ie, Apache Http Server), could be downloaded at http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi. On this page, you can typically find the Apache Web Server without SSL capabilities. If you'd like to download the Apache Web Server with SSL capabilities, you can drill down and find the Apache Web Server with SSL. At the time of this writing, for Windows this could be found at http://apache.mirrors.tds.net/httpd/binaries/win32/. On this page, the non-SSL Apache installer was called "apache_2.2.4-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi", and the SSL Apache installer (featuring OpenSSL) was called "apache_2.2.4-win32-x86-openssl-0.9.8d.msi". Before downloading the SSL Apache, you're supposed to read the Cryptographic Software Notice at http://apache.mirrors.tds.net/httpd/binaries/win32/#crypto.

I downloaded the "apache_2.2.4-win32-x86-openssl-0.9.8d.msi" file.

I've configured my computer to have an IP address on my local home network of 192.168.1.106, so when I set up Apache to run on my local machine, I can access it via either 'http://127.0.0.1' or 'http://192.168.1.106'. On my home network, I currently don't have a DNS server, but it would be nice to be able to type in a host name to access my Apache web server, too.

I can accomplish that my modifying my hosts file, located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. I set up my hosts file so that if I have Apache running locally, I can access it via 'http://cakelycakes.com' or 'http://www.cakelycakes.com' in addition to the previously mentioned 'http://127.0.0.1' and 'http://192.168.1.106'.

hosts file in Notepad

Apache has a great installer, so it's simple to set up. I double-clicked the Apache installer file that I downloaded, and saw the following greetings screen.

Apache Installation Wizard

After clicking through a couple screens, I got to the Server Information screen. I set my Network Domain to 'cakelycakes.com' and my Server Name to 'www.cakelycakes.com'. I also have a local email server running (covered in another tutorial ), so I entered an Administrator email address. I'm not sure what happens if you leave any of these fields blank, but you're welcome to try! I'd like Apache to run on port 80 for All Users, so I went with the default radio button setting shown below.

Apache Installation Wizard

On the next screen, I clicked the 'Custom' radio button since I don't want Apache to be installed in the default directory, which is fairly buried.

Apache Installation Wizard

On the Custom Setup screen, I clicked the Change button and changed the installation directory to be C:\Apache2.2.4\. It's handy to have the Apache version number included in the installation directory so that you can easily tell what version of Apache you have installed.

Apache Installation Wizard

(Continued on page 2)

Page:    1 2 >