Installing Apache Web Server

To my surprise, apache was very easy to install and configure. As a matter of fact, if you haven't already guessed, this particular web page was being hosted on a BYO Linux distribution that's running apache. I have a static ip for my dsl line and I just redirected you to my ip address. Anyways, on with the install.

Unpack the apache archive and type the following:

./configure --prefix=/usr/apache
make
make install

Next, create a new user on the system and assign him a password. Type the following:

useradd apache
passwd apache

You don't need to login as this user, you can run apache as root if you would like but you will need this name in the next step.

Edit /usr/apache/conf/httpd.conf

Find a line that says User nobody and change the nobody to apache or whatever user you just created above.

Scroll down a little farther and edit the line that says #ServerName *****. The asterics indicate whatever the name of your server is. You will need to uncomment this line and add the appropriate server name. In my case, I just put my static ip number in there.

That's really all there is to a basic configuration of apache.

Goto /usr/apache/bin and type apachectl start and you are now running a web server. To test it, if this machine is on a network, type it's ip address into your web browser and you should get a nice message on the screen from apache telling you it's working. If this is a stand-alone machine, if you installed kde2, you can use it's filemanager just like a web browser and put the loopback address in there, 127.0.0.1

Lastly, the /usr/apache/htdocs directory is where you put your webpages.