[Cams]

I've built a few wordpress sites of my own and have always done it by uploading the files to my domain, so it's all happening live, in public. I'm now building a site for someone else and have to have the site completed before it goes online. I would like the client to be able to see the site as it progresses.

I have a server on my LAN, running Ubuntu Karmic Koala server (2.6.31-22). I just went through some instructions to make sure that PHP5 and Apache 2 are installed and up-to-date, which they are. I have a static IP from my ISP. How would I go about setting up a test server locally, so that the client could view the progress, then move the whole shebang to a domain when it's complete? If I log onto my server IP address at port 80 from my Windows browser, I get this message:

It works!

This is the default web page for this server.

The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet.

Can anyone advise please? My LAN is behind a NAT router, if that's important.

Thanks
Cams

[pat24]

Cams, on 15 March 2011 - 05:15 PM, said:

I've built a few wordpress sites of my own and have always done it by uploading the files to my domain, so it's all happening live, in public. I'm now building a site for someone else and have to have the site completed before it goes online. I would like the client to be able to see the site as it progresses.

I have a server on my LAN, running Ubuntu Karmic Koala server (2.6.31-22). I just went through some instructions to make sure that PHP5 and Apache 2 are installed and up-to-date, which they are. I have a static IP from my ISP. How would I go about setting up a test server locally, so that the client could view the progress, then move the whole shebang to a domain when it's complete? If I log onto my server IP address at port 80 from my Windows browser, I get this message:

It works!

This is the default web page for this server.

The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet.

Can anyone advise please? My LAN is behind a NAT router, if that's important.
Thanks
Cams

did you install apache and php seperately or did you use a bundled package like mamp, xammp

if seperate then in your apache directory their should be a folder called htdocs this is where you put your site.

[Renaissance-Design]

You need to forward Port 80 from your router to the local IP address of your test server.

This post has been edited by Renaissance-Design: 15 March 2011 - 07:22 PM

[iksol]

I've done this myself for a few clients.

If you're behind a NAT router, you'll need to forward port 80 to your server. Check out portforward.com for advice.

Once you've mastered that, anyone on the internet will then be able to connect to your webserver, so you'd better have a firewall present. They'll only be able to connect through your external IP address. So, to make it a bit more professional, you may want to consider registering a test domain, e.g. camstestwebs.co.uk. Would be good also to create subdomains for each customer, e.g. widgetinc.camstestwebs.co.uk. A domain/subdomain would also permit you to host multiple web sites from the one instance of Apache.

Your domain host will likely only allow you to use a nameserver, no IP address, so take a look at dnsexit.com to link the domain to your IP address.

Finally, you'll need to edit your Apache .conf files to support virtual addresses, linking subdomains to a dedicated folder, e.g. widgetinc.camstestwebs.co.uk ==> /var/www/widgetinc.camstestwebs.co.uk

Then you can copy a wordpress installation into that folder, create a DB, update the PHP config files, and bobs your uncle.