Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Get MooPS, the Free Web Server


There are many options if you don’t already have a Web server. If you have Windows, your best choice is MooPS, a free Web server and DNS server preconfigured for use in this hack. You can download MooPS from
http://seamonkey420.techrecipes.com/psp/Wipeout_moops.html.
If you have Windows 2000 or XP Professional and are already running IIS, you can still use IIS as the Web server—you’ll just use MooPS for the DNS configuration. If you have a Mac or are running Linux, there’s already a free Web server included with your system—Apache. Let’s go over how to install each one.
If you’re on a Mac or you already have a PC Web server, you can skip this step. Macintoshes since Mac OS 8 have had a service called Personal Web Sharing. Windows XP Pro and Windows 2000 machines have IIS built-in.
Before setting up any sort of server, especially if you will make it public, make sure you have the latest security patches. The last thing you need is for it to get owned by a hacker. Before installing any server product, make sure your machine is behind a firewall and is not allowing any external traffic. Before you allow other people (even you) access to services you provide, make sure your system is fully updated before and after you install server software. In Windows you do this via Windows Update, and on the Mac it’s through Software Update. Linux and other operating systems have various update paths. Also make sure any third-party server software is fully up-to-date, as the built-in update mechanisms in operating systems only update the operating system components, not applications.

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