I have just installed Apache on a Debian testing desktop box, It responds to http://127.0.0.1/ I have installed and hackep up apache before, but i want to know how to do it right this time. What i want to do is use Apache locally on my desktop computer to test dynamic web page content. What do i have to do in order to get my computer with Apache to respond to:

http://youknow.myboxname.com/
http://whatever.myboxname.com/
http://something.myboxname.com/

( three different test websites running locally )

I want these 3 testing sites to be located in my home directory at:

/home/myname/websites/youknow/
/home/myname/websites/whatever/
/home/myname/websites/something/

???

What i would like to do is properly configure virtual hosts. What settings do i have to alter with:

1) Apache config itself (i just put "allow all" for a hack)?
2) Virtual hosts config? (i think i can figure that one out)
3) DNS and computer settings to recognise domain name of my choosing (I'm not even sure what it really is)

I would really appreicate your help. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

Edit the httpd.conf file (it's called this in RH products, holds the configuration for Apache server) find a line called /var/www/ (it is usually the home directory of your websites. Change it to what you please... /home/username/websites/ for example...

Then copy all your files to your /home/username/websites/ for example directory. Then edit the /etc/hosts file and put into it

127.0.0.1/site1 www.mysite1.com
127.0.0.1/site2 www.mysite2.com
127.0.0.1/site3 www.mysite3.com

That way you should be able to get to the sites you want Not a great solution, but works though (only locally).

Good luck!

Peace!

How do i get my computer to recognise some arbitrary URL? like:

http://websitename.boxname.com/

What files control that sort of thing? I used to know how to do it in mandrake, but i'm now using Debian.

thanks

websitename.boxname.com needs to be resolvable.

If this is not resolvable via your DNS server, then an entry in your /etc/hosts file for websitename.boxname.com should work. If it doesn't you probably need to tweak /etc/nsswitch.conf to include a line that looks like:
hosts: files dns