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Setting Up A Localhost
Written by Jaymie1989


Program Name: XAMPP
Description: Setup your own localhost to test your board/blog/website and other items that you would use your web hosting for, Before it goes live.
Time To Setup: 5 Minutes

You can setup a demo board for phpBB or for a Website or a Blog or anything else that you would need a live webhosting for.
Please Note: This is not a free web host its stored on your own PC.

Setting up your own local test web server is surprisingly easy. Generally you can set it up in just a few minutes once you download the program. I'm going to show you how to install and use XAMPP (specifically XAMPP for Windows but it's available for other operating systems as well). I like XAMPP because it's available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux; it's easy to use; it has everything you need to use phpBB; and it's free and open source.

Most of the instructions are on the XAMPP site but I'll cover them here briefly for completeness. I've never had any problems installing or using XAMPP but if you do please ask for help on the Apache Friends board. Here we go.

1. Select your operating system version and download the latest version of XAMPP here.
2. Start the installation program and pick the folder where to install it. If you use Windows Vista you must install it outside your Program Files folder (i.e. in the C:\ folder). {img: xampp-install-location.png}
3. Next, review the options. Unless you want the servers running continuously, do not install them as a service. Click Install to continue. {img:xampp-install-options.png}
4. Wait for it to finish installing. It's normal for slower computers to take several minutes at least. {img:xampp-installing.php
5. When it's done installing, click Yes to start the XAMPP control panel. (You can always access it later by going to the Start menu -> Apache Friends -> XAMPP -> XAMPP Control Panel.)
6. Next, click the Start buttons next to Apache (the web server) and MySQL (database server). You will know they started successfully when the buttons change to Stop and the green Running shows next to them.
7. Now open up your web browser and go to http://localhost/ and you should see a nice XAMPP welcome screen. Click on the Security link on the left side and then click on the XAMPP security link in the new page. Be sure to enter a password for the MySQL server. You will need to restart the MySQL server by going back to the small control panel, clicking Stop next to MySQL, then clicking Start again to restart it. {img:xampp-security.png}
8. You're almost done! Go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ in your web browser, enter your username (root) and your password you just created and click the login button. Once phpMyAdmin loads, you can create a database for phpBB to use in the Create new database field (just remember to keep it short with no punctuation except for underscores -- something like phpbb_3 or phpbb_test is great).
9. Go to the Start menu -> Apache Friends -> XAMPP -> XAMPP httpdoc folder -> and create a new folder called phpbb where you will copy the uncompressed version of phpBB you downloaded.
10. Finally, go to http://localhost/phpbb/install/install.php and follow the instructions.
11. Enjoy using phpBB on your own computer. You can use it just like you would if it was installed on a "real" web server. Install MODs, styles, make tweaks, and more.
12. When you are done with XAMPP, go back to the control panel and click Stop next to Apache and MySQL and then click the Exit button to remove XAMPP from memory.

Again, if you have any problems installing or configuring XAMPP, please ask on the XAMPP support site.

FAQs: Need to ready for vista users
[spoiler]Q:When I go to http://localhost/security/ I cannot open the page (Error 404)
A:There is an issue with this file, Should be fixed in the next version
Here is what to do.

1) open the file "\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp.conf" in a texteditor
2) replace "Allow from localhost" with "Allow from 127.0.0.1" (2 times)
3) save the file
4) restart Apache

[/spoiler]

I've downloaded the xampp files and extracted them too, how do I start the installation?

I used zip instead or rar, as I haven't got rar installed.......

There should be a install program in the unzipped folder.

Is it a DOS file called 'setup_xampp' ?

You have downloaded : http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#641 ?

No I downloaded the one at the top of that page... I'm now downloading the xampp-win32-1.7.3.exe file.....

Is that the correct one?

yes is would say so

Ok the program is now installing..............

Great

let me know how it goes and i'll help you the best way i can. I have used xammp for a long time ago

I now clicked the icon on my desktop, and the xampp control panel came up what do I do now?