Hi, I want to start a website.
I have Apache and PHP, and I can make pages and they work fine... I just don't know how I can get my stuff onto the WWW?

You have to register (buy) a web domain (yourdomainname.com). When you do this (or immediately after this, depending on the registrar), you will be asked the IP address to which the domain should be 'attached'. If you just want to make your pages available to your friends, just give them your IP address, and they will be able to see your site by typing the address field of their browser http://1.1.1.1 (where 1.1.1.1 is a placeholder for your address). Of course, your IP address should be visible to the Internet (i.e. it should be not an intranet IP address).

Another option - put your pages on somebody else's server (google for "web hosting").

Great website

And NO i am not his pal/lover/bp or so ..

first of all if you want to start a business website you will need a static IP address (one that does not change. contact your ISP.)

If your making a recreational website than it can be done using dynamic IP addressing which is used for most home broadband services. You can use www.no-ip.com to register for a free IP directing domain.

You may have to gain access to your firewall whether it be on Linux or your modem if you need to redirect port 80 traffic to another port.

Thank you, DrNeil!

Well thanks...
I wanted to host my own site because I wasn't happy with the free hosts out there and I don't want to pay for one. But, I just found out yesterday that my ISP won't let me do that. Bah.
So what's the best free one? I want no ads, (except popup ads - they don't matter because now even IE can block them)... lots of space, MySQL, real PHP support (I have seen some that say they have PHP support, but they don't support common commands). I don't care about site builders but it would be nice if it had a web-based thing for setting up MySQL stuff.

you could try xammp it got both php mysql apache ftp server and so on
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

You can get a service from web-site launching service organization. They will give you space and charge you annual basis. These charges depends whether the space you are getting in a windows box
or the linux box. If you are opting for a space in a linux box, then it will be almost half that of
the windows one which i found in most providers here in India.
(you can google "web-hoisting services", find your local web-site hoisting service organization
and you can contact them if you wish)

Pros: *No need of maintaining personal web-server machine and no network connectivity hassles.
*Uptime, to certain extent guaranteed.
*U'll get also FTP, infact email facilities, etc, etc for your web-site
*No ADs will be displayed, since its your private paid space.
*U can register any un-used web-site name or the DNS registration.
for which u have to pay a little bit extra.
*In-fact the content development and maintenance u can outsource to them. which will be a
value added service for you


Cons: *When your site has enough hit-rate, i dont know how will be the performance w.r.t load.
*Package prices will depend on the disk quota and services they provide you.


Rgds, Kiran. K (Author: Traffic Squeezer) http://trafficsqueezer.sourceforge.net