Datasheet

Book VIII
Chapter 1
Managing Your
Servers
873
Creating Your Own Server with XAMPP
XAMPP installation is pretty painless: Simply download the installer and
respond to all the default values.
If you use Vista or Windows 7, you may want to change where the package
is installed because the program files directory causes problems for some
users.
Running XAMPP
After you install XAMPP, you can manage your new tools with the XAMPP
Control Panel. Figure 1-1 shows this program in action.
Figure 1-1:
XAMPP
Control
Panel
allows
you to turn
features on
and off.
Some components of XAMPP (PHP, for example) run only when they’re
needed. Some other components (Apache and MySQL) are meant to run con-
stantly in the background. Before you start working with your server, you
need to ensure that it’s turned on.
You can choose to run Apache and MySQL as a service, which means that
the program is always running in the background. This arrangement is con-
venient, but it slightly reduces the performance of your machine. I generally
turn Apache on and off as I need it and leave MySQL running as a service
because I have a number of other programs that work with MySQL.
Leaving server programs open on your machine constitutes a security
hazard. Be sure to take adequate security precautions. See the section
“Setting the security level,” later in this chapter, for information on setting
up your security features.
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