By Lon Hosford
Static web pages can be loaded from your local hard drive and viewed in a web browser.
However to send and receive data from a web server such as in processing a form, you need to place your files on a web server. Actually you might find some plugins that require user authentication may require an http web browser address line. Placing your files on a web server allows you to test exactly using http urls and to use a server database.
However using a public web server like BlueHost is just that public. Generally this is your production version of your web site and you do not want to be experimenting with changes that could render your site unusable. You could create a practice domain and host it but still you have the inconvenience of having to FTP your file changes to the server each change you make. It is more convenient to see the changes as soon as you save them without the step to move them to the web server.
For beginners all you need is a private web server. When you are ready to go live, then you need a public web server such as BlueHost.
Popular web servers are called the LAMP stack or Linux web hosting. LAMP stands for Linux (Operating System), Apache, MySQL and PHP. You can install the AMP part of LAMP on most computers. They are generally intended for local development work and not for public web hosting. But security and performance is constantly improved making them useful for in house web servers. Here are popular free versions.
XAMPP (Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris)
XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. It has versions for Windows, MacOS Solaris and Linux. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start. Free of Charge. It comes with PHPMyAdmin and ProFTPD.
MAMP (Mac OS only)
MAMP installs a local server environment in a matter of seconds on your Mac OS X computer, be it MacBook or iMac. MAMP is free of charge however there is a PRO version that has a fee.
WampServer
WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with Apache2, PHP and a MySQL database. Alongside, PhpMyAdmin allows you to manage easily your databases.
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