Web server for Windows

[JohnW]

Hi All,

Basically, I'm looking for recomenedations for installing an Apache Web Server with PHP and MySqL to use for testing on my computer. I tried XAMP a few months ago and while it worked but didn't seem to run really well. It really hogged resources on my computer although an easy install.

Now, I just downloaded IBsever, which I found under the neato utilities on OSCDOX but it's using these older versions of software:
Apache WebServer 1.3.26
PHP Script Language 4.2.3
MySQL Database 3.23.52
phpMyAdmin Database Manager 2.3.0

So, does anyone have a better alternative. One that's not to difficult to install , but using more updated software, or is that not very important?

Any help is appreciated.

[michael_s]

Google apache2triad

[JohnW]

Thanks Mike, I thought you might have a good suggestion.

[jpf]

Google WAMP - will get you many options....EasyPHP is what I like....

[JohnW]

Thanks jpf, I'll give that one a try too. I downloaded and installed apache2triad and it's an amazing collection but is a bit more than I need, but it's very cool and I might just stick with it. Certainly, a lot to work with and learn from. Maybe one of these can be put under the downloads section here. It's a pain making certain changes and uploading to see the results and I'm hoping to get the live view to work better on Dreamweaver using localhost. I ran into snags with Xamp.

[michael_s]

I like apache2triad because it has openSSL included and you can fully test all the ssl features of osC as well. Actually, I like it for a lot of reasons, but it also has a built in mail server so you can test all the mailing features of osC as well.

[JohnW]

That makes a lot of sense and I wondered about the SSL feature, but I hadn't even considered the mail feature aspect. It seems to be a very well thought out and complete package. Some of it is a little intimidating but I imagine I can get the answers I need from the readme files.

One question though, are there any security risks to my computer that are not covered or obvious?

[michael_s]

No risks as long as you keep the ports behind a router and closed to the outside world.

The apache2triad forums are pretty good for answers too...