Using XAMPP on my regular use PC

[lugosi]

Hello,
I am a complete newbie to setting up a web server and I just recently went to the Joomlah page that also talks a lot about XAMPP.

My question is this....Is there any reason (security or otherwise) why I shouldnt set up the XAMPP web server on my general use PC at home? I am running Windows XP, fully patched up to current. I have about a 3GHZ Processor with 2 MB of RAM and I use the Avast virus scanner (free version). I dont know if there are any other system specs that you would want to see......

How much disk space should I devote to XAMPP, Joomlah and other items that I might need to install?

Thank you for your help,

Jim

[Altrea]

Hi lugosi,

Is there any reason (security or otherwise) why I shouldnt set up the XAMPP web server on my general use PC at home?

If you don't make your XAMPP accessible from the internet, then no.
If you want to access it from the internet, then definetly yes, at least in default configuration.

How much disk space should I devote to XAMPP, Joomlah and other items that I might need to install?

That really depends.
In my current using System (WinXP - NTFS partition) XAMPP uses right after a fresh installation ~527MB. Most of this (around 60%) takes MySQL.
Joomla takes (with sample data) ~33MB on my system. I would think that 50-100MB is a good value to calculate for beginners for content. If you want to put high resolution photos, videos oder installation packaged there, then you have to calculate much more.

best wishes,
Altrea

[lugosi]

That sounds good to me. I dont see any reason why I would need to have my PC accessible from the internet as I dont plan to host any websites or anything like that. I just want to be able to build a website and have it be functional on a system similar to the one that it WOULD be hosted on eventually. Seeing as I am completely new to all of this, that will take a while, but I think it would be quite a feather in my cap just to set up a web server and get it functioning properly.

Thanks for your help

[Altrea]

I dont see any reason why I would need to have my PC accessible from the internet as I dont plan to host any websites or anything like that. I just want to be able to build a website and have it be functional on a system similar to the one that it WOULD be hosted on eventually.

Thats exactly what XAMPP is made for, a crossplatform, portable, "easy" to install, preconfigured local development and testing environment.

Seeing as I am completely new to all of this, that will take a while

Take your time, it's worth it. Everyone has started anywhere.
If you have any problems setting XAMPP up, this board here is the right place to ask

Good luck and all the best

[wilbahotty]

Some here thanks for the info. I was thinking I need to have it setup for accessible for the internet but it is not necessary. I just need it setup so I can bulid wordpress themes with it. Thanks also Altrea.

[Altrea]

You're welcome wilbahotty!

Have fun with XAMPP and all that stuff