How to get apache to serve from a network address?

[amdalex]

I have Apache running on an old computer on my LAN and I would like to know how to make Apache serve form another computer's external hard drive on my LAN. The target to the folder on the other computer looks like this, \\Alex-desktop\Alex's Documents. But if I put that into the config file for the folder to serve from it doesn't work. How can I accomplish this? thanks

[Force Flow]

Apache won't run on UNC paths. You either have to use an IP address or hostname.

[amdalex]

How can I do that? All the computers on my LAN have static IP addresses.

[Force Flow]

Instead of referring to the computer name, use the IP address

http://192.x.x.x/

or whatever your IP addressing scheme would be.


But...you would have to have the apache service running on the computer that is hosting it. You can't just make a copy of an apache installation and expect it to run without an actually installation.

[amdalex]

I tried this path, http://192.168.0.104/Alex's Documents/HTDOCS, and Apache said it the document root folder needs to be a directory. I have Apache running on an old computer just for serving the web page and I am trying to get it to serve from an external hard drive on a different computer. Apache works and serves the web page when it is on the computer's C drive, I just would like to keep all the website data on my external hard drive because the serving computer has a small hard drive.

[Force Flow]

What's your root directory set to?

Chances are, you just need to go to http://192.168.0.104/

[amdalex]

Do you mean the folder where index.html is? It is in folder HTDOCS. I've tried everything I can think of and it still says document root must be a directory.

[Force Flow]

you can't access it as a server share. The document root is always the base address/url

What comes up when you go here:

http://192.168.0.104/

[amdalex]

Originally Posted by Force Flow http://192.168.0.104/

Do you mean if I put that into the document root line? When I do it says Document root must be a directory.

[Force Flow]

nono..when you visit the IP address of the computer hosting apache...what happens?

[amdalex]

It shows the web page that I set it to serve from the C drive for now on the host computer. The IP address of the computer running Apache is 192.168.0.105.

[Force Flow]

ok, if that's the computer hosting apache, then that's where the web files you want to host have to live.

[amdalex]

So I can't have files availible on the web from the other computer through the one running Apache?

[Lespaul20]

Originally Posted by amdalex So I can't have files availible on the web from the other computer through the one running Apache?

You could share the drive out and possibility set up an alias.


http://www.thewebhostinghero.com/tut...che-alias.html

[amdalex]

The drive is shared I just want the document root folder to be located on the shared drive, is that possible?

[Force Flow]

If it's possible, it probably won't be simple to implement. Why don't you just move the drive, copy over the files, or host apache on the computer with the external drive?

[amdalex]

Thanks for your help. I'll just find another hard drive for the computer hosting Apache.

[Force Flow]

It doesn't have to be on a seperate drive. You can set a directory as the root.

[amdalex]

I know, my web server has a small hard drive but it should be fine for a while, anyways I got my website up and running with no-ip free dns. Now I just need to build a nice website, lol.

[Force Flow]

If you're hosting for the public internet, you're better off using a cheap host, rather than your personal rig...security issues and the like.

I have a $6/mo account with surpasshosting.com, which would probably be more than enough for what you want to do.

[amdalex]

I have the web server running on a 8 year old Pentium 3 machine. I would never run a web server on my own PC for the obvious security reasons.