How to setup home server?

I have an old desktop, laptop and a wireless router (Belkin).

My desktop's specifications are

512 MB RAM :p

320 GB Harddisk

OS: Windows XP

I would like to use my desktop as a home server and use it to

Host my web page (local)

Store some files on it

Can that be done on Windows XP Home edition?

blackjack

Posted 2010-06-21T04:34:15.737

Reputation: 149

3to those voting to close: this is about consumer-end setups, home networking, and home server setups. please do not migrate this to Server Fault. – quack quixote – 2010-06-21T04:59:58.997

2Is there any reason not to use Linux instead of Windows XP? – BloodPhilia – 2010-06-21T18:58:04.497

1is think XP is more user friendly :p – blackjack – 2010-06-22T06:07:11.473

2XP is not a Server OS tho. Plus using linux the user could learn a bit more, and have less headaches like with a windows server (hotfixes/reboots, fragmentation, etc and so on). – Jakub – 2010-07-30T17:48:29.647

Answers

Apache is your best bet. Any reason why you wouldn't want to try Ubuntu Linux? It is very simple and there are tons of step-by-step instructions online for setting up a web server with Ubuntu.

sxanness

Posted 2010-06-21T04:34:15.737

Reputation: 71

3+agreed... I really think Ubuntu would be a better way to go. Especially with the 512MB of RAM. And for the love of all that is holy, do not even think about using IIS :) – Robert S Ciaccio – 2010-07-30T15:27:04.863

Yes, you can use Apache as a web server (or may be wampserver if you need mysql/php) and you can store file and share them with windows sharing

radius

Posted 2010-06-21T04:34:15.737

Reputation: 1 301

I have a similar setup w/ XP Pro sharing a printer and a USB drive, which are accessed from 2 laptops. I have lots of problems with XP "forgetting" which IDs can access those shared resources. I'm getting tired of rebuilding the shares because of XP's idiosyncrasies. I will be replacing XP with Linux soon (probably Ubuntu.)

Tom

Posted 2010-06-21T04:34:15.737

Reputation: 1 321

try nginx, lighter than apache

Nasreddin.Hoca

Posted 2010-06-21T04:34:15.737

Reputation: 11