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If you’re planning to launch a website but don’t want to pay recurring monthly or annual hosting fees, you can use any old laptop or desktop PC to host a website for free. It’s a great way to utilize your old system instead of throwing it away.
In this guide, we will install and set up services on our 10-year-old laptop to host a WordPress, Joomla, or custom HTML or PHP-based website with a free SSL certificate.
Things You Will Need to Host a Website
Following are the pre-requisites to host a website for free from home with just your computer:
An old laptop or PC running Ubuntu Server. A registered domain name for your website Ethernet cable to connect the laptop or PC to router for reliable and fast connection
Step 1: Update and Upgrade the Packages
After installing Ubuntu Server on your computer, execute the following command to update the package list and upgrade existing packages. We recommend you enable SSH and access the server via Terminal or PuTTY on your macOS or Linux PC.
sudo apt update && Sudo apt upgrade –y
This may take a while to finish. So, sit back and relax until the process completes.
Step 2: Install Apache
Apache is a popular open-source web server that works with PHP to host dynamic websites, including WordPress sites. Once the update is complete, execute the following command to install the Apache server.
sudo apt install apache2
When you see a prompt, press Y and then hit the Enter key to continue the installation. You can check the status by running the following command.
systemctl status apache2
It should show active (running) status. To verify, you can visit the IP of your laptop or localhost.
Step 3: Install MySQL Server
MySQL is a database management system (DBMS) that helps organize and provide access to the database for storing the information. To install the MySQL Server, use the following command.
sudo apt install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client
Press Y and…
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