Step-by-Step: Setting up Personal Web Server 4.0 in Windows 98

Remy_3D · Post time 23-2-2004 10:25 AM

Here's how to setup Personal Web Server 4.0 in Windows 98

Start -> settings -> control panel -> add remove programs -> windows setup tab

Click on "Internet Tools" and select "Personal Web Server"

Windows 98 will ask for your Windows 98 CD and install a very file that has instructions on how to install "Personal Web Server" (PWS)

Go to: Start -> programs -> accessories -> Internet tools -> personal webserver

This page tell you: "The Windows 98 CD includes Personal Web Server (PWS); however, PWS requires a separate setup step to be fully installed and configured. To install PWS, you will need the Windows 98 CD, and you will need to follow these steps:

Insert your Windows 98 CD in its drive.
Click Start and then click Run.
In the Run dialog box, type x:\add-ons\pws\setup.exe
Substitute the letter of your CD drive for x, and click OK.
Follow the directions in Personal Web Server setup."

At the first screen click "next"

Here click on "Typical" which gives us all the components we need

On this page you can specify what directory the WWW service will be installed. The default is "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot". We will use this since it is standard.

It will now install the personal web server files onto your computer.

After the files are all copied, you will have to restart your computer.

Say yes.

When your computer finishes rebooting, you'll notice a little icon in your system tray that says "Personal Webserver is running" and a desktop icon that says "Publish".

Double clicking on either one will get you to the Web Server Management page.

Notice the "http://cyrix-333"? I'm not actually running this site on a Cyrix (but I could), but used that computer to demonstrate this PWS installation.

The webserver comes with a default web page installed which you can view by clicking the URL following "Your home page is available at:" In my case it is "http://cyrix-333".

Another way of getting to your website is by entering "127.0.0.1" into the location bar of your web browser. The rest of the address will pop up by itself as the default web page loads.

Personal webserver includes several wizards to help you create a simple and fast home page. However, most people will want to create their own websites using something more advanced.

Setup a quick home page:

Publish your website:

Take a tour of PWS:

Now you are ready to put your own content on the web, but we should first go over a few things. Default web directory: "c:\Inetpub\wwwroot" but you can change this if you want in the "advanced section".

To see if this is going to work, create a small text file called "index.html" using notepad or download it here. By the way, "index.html" is the default page that UNIX webservers use when they are not specified a file, but instead a directory. For example, when you got to http://www.yahoo.com, it goes to http://www.yahoo.com/index.html. However, since we're using a Windows server, the default web pages are "Default.htm" and "Default.asp" But you can add your own default page under "Advanced". The order that you list the pages is going to determine which page is picked up in case you have more than one default webpage.

Here I added "index.html" as a default document and rearranged the order so that index.html gets picked up first.

Here is what the website looks like, so we know it works just fine. Go ahead and put your own content in the "c:\Inetpub\wwwroot" and you're set.