1 Choose a computer that's suitable to be a web server.

1. The computer should be able to store a lot of information. The processor is not very important. If you have a router, the computer should be directly connected to that router and not wireless to minimize server downtime.

2 Get good web server software.

1. This program runs the web server so it is very important. If possible, find a program that can run in the background without making your computer unusable. One of the more popular web servers is Apache.

3 Configure your web server.

1. After installing, you'll have to set up your web server. Normally the web server program has a guide on how to do this.

4 Create a basic main page to test the server.

1. The test page should be in the web server's document path. Give the file a name that ends with the ".html" extension.

5 Check that you can see the website from http://127.0.0.1/.

1. If you see the site continue to the next step. If your server does not run on port 80 then test your site on http://127.0.0.1:portnumber/. You may need to reconfigure your web server if you can't see this site at all.

6 Get a friend to test your site on http://yourWANip/.

1. If he/she sees the site then continue on. If not, check some of the tips.

7 Purchase a domain and set it to your WAN IP.

1. A static IP address will work best. If you have a dynamic IP, make sure that the domain registrar has dynamic DNS services.

8 Create your website.

1. Now you can design your dream website. If you want to use server-side scripting you will need to install those applications and configure them in your server.