1

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

My desktop's specifications are

  1. 512 MB RAM :p
  2. 320 GB Harddisk
  3. OS: Windows XP

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

  1. Host my web page (local)
  2. Store some files on it

Can that be done on Windows XP Home edition?

4
  • 3
    to those voting to close: this is about consumer-end setups, home networking, and home server setups. please do not migrate this to Server Fault. Jun 21, 2010 at 4:59
  • 2
    Is there any reason not to use Linux instead of Windows XP?
    – Pylsa
    Jun 21, 2010 at 18:58
  • 1
    is think XP is more user friendly :p
    – blackjack
    Jun 22, 2010 at 6:07
  • 2
    XP 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
    Jul 30, 2010 at 17:48

4 Answers 4

5

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.

1
  • 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 :) Jul 30, 2010 at 15:27
3

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

1

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.)

0

try nginx, lighter than apache

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .