how can i run my website off my own ftp server?

Question

I heard you need IIS (internet information something) is this true? if so where can I get it. I am running windows xp home edition service pack 2

Answer 1

First you might want to check with your internet service provider. Every provider I ever had forbade me (and any residential customer) from running a server. I did it anyway, for a couple of hours here and there, just to experiment. They might get upset, cut off your service and sue you if you ran a server continuously.

If you want to give it a try, you can use the free, and very popular Apache HTTP Server.

http://httpd.apache.org/

That's what I used for my experiment, and it was pretty easy. It's probably even easier now, because they developed installation packages. Be careful and read the documentation, especially about security. Running a server can make your computer much more vulnerable to security problems.

Answer 2

IF you are running Windows server, it is easy. Start the IIS services and you are set.

If you have XP or 2000, you can use web hosting services to host a page. But no you can't use FTP. It uses a differnet port, 20/21 and HTTP webpages use port 80.