Article Discussion: Turning Your Windows PC Into An Apache Web Server

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The article makes all of this sound so simple. Not knowing much about the topic, I'm inclined to believe that it is. I just thought that Apache and a Windows machine was like apples and oranges. What benefits are there to setting up the configuration described in the article? IIS drives me nuts when trying to set up a testing environment for dynamic apps. Would this configuration put an end to my headaches? What about security issues? I simply have Windows 2000 Pro installed on a desktop pc - is this scenario one that can be accomplished successfully and such that Apache will now become my default development server?

Any replies would be much appreciated.

Confuxion,

You answered your own question in the second part of your post. That's exactly what will happen, Apache will become your default development server.

My suggestion would be to uninstall IIS, and setup Apache. I have Apache running on an XP system and another with Windows 2000. No problems on either machine!

Frankie,

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like I might just go ahead and do what you said. Is it fair to say that I will run into less configuration/compatibility issues with PHP-MySQL applications w/ Apache as my default server? Also, how would this scenario effect any of my applications that are ASP-Access or ASP-SQL Server based, from a development/testing aspect? Is there anything else I need to consider if I do away w/ IIS and use Apache solely? Thanks in advance for your help.

Confuxion,

If you're developing in ASP as well, my suggestion would be to keep IIS... I wasn't sure if you needed IIS for ASP.

As for Apache, you shouldn't run into any problems running it using PHP/MySQL...

I hope that clear up the Apache/IIS issue.

Yes it does. Thank you very much.

Frank,

Hey, have you used IIS much for development? If you have, how would you compare IIS to Apache in turns of performance, ease of use, and security? I use IIS on Win XP Pro and so far it is working well for PHP, but I am always interested in something better.

Hey Dave,
I use IIS and PHP on Win2k to develop and then port to Linux/Apache for production. As everyone knows, IIS security is pretty bad with new patches coming out nearly every week now. Apache has had a couple of bugs but nothing major like the IIS worms that have been floating around in the last 2 years.

We also run www.techbuy.com.au which runs on IIS on Win2k. You'll be amazed how many patches we've applied to the web server to keep them "hacker-free"... Using IIS in a production environment wasn't a good idea but I didnt know PHP back then so I guess there wasn't much that could be done

Hi, Frankie,

You said you running Apache on an XP system and don't have problem, could you tell me how can you do it.

Thanx a lot.

Really appreciate your help!



Weijie (james)

Jensenwwang@yahoo.com

I've haven't really used IIS much for my PHP development... I ran into some problems trying to do so originally, and I opted for Apache... Haven't looked back since... Since then I've set it up on all my development systems and have had no trouble at all!

Hey James!

Yeah, I run it on an XP box, as well as a W2K box... No trouble at all!

As for setting it up on your XP system (if that's what you're running), I would suggest, reading Ben's tutorial... It'll have you up in no time!

If you have any trouble, let us know!

Hi, Frankie,

I arealy read Ben's tutorial, it's a wonderful article, and follow the article, I successfully install MySQL database on my machine. I installed Apache 2.0.36(win32) couple months ago, it works fine. Ben's article is for Windows 2000.

But when I try to install PHP on my machine, so far no luck, even follow the instructions from the PHP readme.txt.

I have two operating systems, Windows 2000 on C drive, and Windows XP on D drive. Apache is on D drive.

Right now, seems the LoadModule php4_modul and
AddModule mod_php4.c doesn't work, if comment them out in the httpd.conf file, the Apache is working fine, but if not comment these two lines, can not run the Apache.

I don't know what else would be gone wrong.

Thanks for your big help.

James
Jensenwwang@yahoo.com

(Sorry for post twice)

James,

Okay... So it's PHP trouble, not Apache, right?

Where did you install PHP?

Also, did you add the PHP extension (.php) to your "httpd.conf" file in your apache setup?

AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml .php

Also, be sure to "uncomment" this line:

LoadModule php4_module c:/PHP/sapi/php4apache.dll

Replace "c:/php" with your PHP installation directory.


Let me know if this helps.

PHP4.2.3 on APACHE 2.0.40

Cannot launch Apache server after including lines as suggested by Ben's Article. "Installing Apache on Windows"

Here are his lines:
LoadModule php4_module c:/php/sapi/php4apache.dll
AddModule mod_php4.c
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php


DOES NOT WORK:

If I comment the above three lines. Apache server launches fine.


Any help will be appreciated.

Regards.
Vanna

I never done this before, but I have done some research. I found something that said that with Apache 2 you should use php4apache2.dll. Hope that works!

Cheers,
Joe of 4Life

Nevermind. I did get some answers from PHP.NET Q&A.

Here's the resolutions.

PHP4.2.3 & APACHE 2.0.40 on Windows 2000 ws

All you need are the following lines in httpd.conf:
LoadModule php4_module c:/php/sapi/php4apache2.dll
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php