Next, open the test page in a web browser with an HTTP request by 

entering the following URL in your web browser:

http://localhost/~your_user_name/myTestFile.html

NO

By default the Apache server runs on port 80.

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If the browser displays your page, the web server is running normally. If the 

browser fails to display the page, make sure the web server is started by 

opening System Preferences and looking at the Sharing preference panel. 

The Personal Web Sharing option should be enabled.

Your Apache web server won't work with PHP by default; you must 

configure it before you can use PHP. For more information, see 

 Configuring your system (PHP)  on page 302

.

Web server basics

A web server is software that serves web pages in response to requests from 

web browsers. A web server is sometimes called an HTTP server.

Suppose you use IIS to develop web applications. The default name of your 

web server is the name of your computer. You can change the server name 

by changing the name of your computer. If your computer has no name, 

the server uses the word localhost. 

The server name corresponds to the server's root folder, which (on a 

Windows computer) is most likely C:\Inetpub\wwwroot. You can open 

any web page stored in the root folder by entering the following URL in a 

browser running on your computer:

http://your_server_name/your_file_name 

For example, if the server name is mer_noire and a web page called 

soleil.html is stored in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\, you can open the page by 

entering the following URL in a browser running on the local computer:

http://mer_noire/soleil.html

NO

Remember to use forward slashes, not backslashes, in URLs.

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234 Installing a Web Server