should start with Apache 1.3.34 first then move on to php and sql
they are steep learning curve apps
apache is the easyest to setup
do search on using port 8080 to access your server
don't run as service
it's all in the httpd. config setup

 

right. so i downloaded 1.3.34. installed it. I tried going to //localhost/ but nothing happens. how do i configure it?

 

You didn't say what operating system you're running on, but if you're using Windows, why not just install PHP as an ISAPI plugin for IIS?

http://www.phpbuddy.com/sub_articles.php?other_articles=4

 

I'm running windows xp home sp2...

 

forget IIs steeper learning curve
you may have problems using home edition
127.0.0.1 use this if you see it your running should show default apache page
make sure you have it running
black cmd prompt should be up cannot not use the local host yet as you have not configed the httpd config file
open this with notepad only do not use word

 

ok well i got apache server 2.0.55 and it works if i type 127.0.0.1. it comes up with the page that says its installed correctly. now what do i do?

 

go to http://httpd.apache.org/ and download 2.0.54 for win32. PHP is include and preconfigured.

btw: Apache is far more secure than IIS as it has a complete implementation
and only needs the TCP stack from the OS.

 

Best way to learn how to use apache is to read the help files on the apache website. They also have good forums. It's a lot to take in, but once you get it working its incredibly easy to customise. Good Luck

 

If your lazy...

If you want do everything the lazy way you can install a program called Xampp or lampp (same thing, two different names). This program automatically installs and configures Apache, MySQL, PHP, FTPserver, PHPmyAdmin. It only takes about 10 minutes but if you are wanting to learn how this stuff works then your better off doing it the hard way.

 

I haven't tried Xampp, but sounds just as easy as
http://www.easyphp.org/?lang=en

The hardest part is getting it in English. You might want to look into www.no-ip.com also, unless you have a domain name already. No-ip will allow people to access your website by a name instead of a number.

As for your current Apache install, since you have the default Apache page up, now you have to edit the httpd.conf file. You must do some reading on this. To start, edit the Document Root to be the path to the folder where all your web pages will be.