so i'm working on a website for some people that use xampp to host

so i built a site using it and i want to show them my progress, in a way better than sending them like my entire mysql and htdocs folders and telling them to run it themselves

SO MY QUESTION IS: how can i temporarily turn my computer into a public web server that can be accessed publicly with xampp (apache web server, php, mysql)
i'm not increadibly woried about security at the moment and i only want to turn it on for an 8 hour period or so so they can check out the page by going to my ip address or a domain i have purchased

so far i have tried a number of options but i cant get anything to work outside of localhost and spent hours googling and youtubing for a bunch of answers that dont actually make it work but just make the site look like it works from local host

I use a Netgear Nighthawk router so if there are some settings i need to change there please point me in the right direction, i know this is possible i'm just super stuck here


thanks for any help, if you can provide a solution I would be happy to throw you whats left of my fg

just launch an AWS instance for a week or so.

ya but if i launch the web server it doesnt make it to the outside, i'm assuming because of some router settings that i cant figure out or something in the apache config
i'm super new to this so idk but i promise you just clicking start on the web server doesnt work

You will have to port forward your services or add your computer to a DMZ.

Be aware adding your computer to a DMZ makes it completely visible to the internet rather than just a few ports.

i tried forwarding port 80 on my router to my computer but that didnt work either
i'll look into a DMZ

go to www.whatismyip.com, find your external IP address. That is the one your router currently has. Then port forward port 80 on your router to your local IP (192.168.xxx.xxx). Access the external IP found at the first address. Success.

Post your IP so I can get RCE on it. At that point I can help you.

and this http://www.howtogeek.com/66214/how-to-forward-ports-on-your-router/

2nd edit: Why are you using Apache if you're just using php/mysql? There is a really light weight program called lighttpd I like that you can use to serve files. Very simple and easy to configure.

This post was edited by waraholic on Nov 28 2016 08:05pm

as for the why it's because the client already has an xampp server running so they wanted something easy for them to support on their server
let me try this port forwarding thing one more time and i'll get back with you

alright so heres what happens

public ip 50.27.213.225



port forwarding set to go to my internal 192.168.1.3 which is the pc with apache running

but when i go to it with my phone i get 50.27.213.225 isn't working message after a minute or so

This post was edited by Ideophobe on Nov 28 2016 09:44pm

this thing seems to think port 80 is closed but i made an inbound rule to open it in windows firewall

I would check to see if your Apache config is done correctly now. Near the top there will be a line to tell it what interface/port to listen on. I haven't used Apache in some time but I believe setting it to 0.0.0.0 will make it listen on all interfaces (local host, internal LAN, etc).