What is a personal home web server?

-I have been thinking about setting up a home web server for a while. However, I do not know any information about this. I know I can access my home files and etc on other places. I also believe that it requires an always on internet connection, but, what does that mean? Should I leave my computer on all the time or does it mean keep my router/modem on and the internet flowing? Also, is a personal home web server free?



In addition, I have XAMPP control panel downloaded, will these two conflict with each other?PWS, an abbreviation for Personal Web Server, is Microsoft's version of a Web server program for individual PC users who want to share Web pages and other files from their hard drive. PWS is a scaled-down version of Microsoft's more robust Web server, Internet Information Server IIS. PWS can be used with a full-time Internet connection to serve Web pages for a Web site with limited traffic. It can also be used for testing a Web site offline or from a "staging" site before putting it on a main Web site that is exposed to larger traffic.



PWS can be used together with Microsoft's FrontPage, a Web site design product, to upload Web pages from a remote location or to the local hard drive; to check for dead links; to create directories; and to set permissions. PWS is frequently used as part of the trend toward peer-to-peer exchange and publishing.



The equivalent program for the Macintosh is called Personal Web Sharing.



For Installation you may refer the following link.



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libra鈥?/a>