How to Set Up a Raspberry Pi Web Server

The Raspberry Pi is a versatile tool, and one of its popular uses is as a local web server. This guide will walk you through setting up a web server on your Raspberry Pi, perfect for an intranet or small development server.

Requirements:

• Raspberry Pi connected to your local network
• Raspbian operating system (recent version)

Instructions:

1. Open the terminal:
   • On the Raspbian desktop, press CTRL+ALT+T.
   • Alternatively, connect remotely via SSH.
2. Update packages:
   • Type: sudo apt-get update
3. Install Apache web server:
   • Type: sudo apt-get install apache2 -y
4. Install PHP:
   • Type: sudo apt-get install php libapache2-mod-php -y
5. Install MariaDB database (optional):
   • Type: sudo apt-get install mariadb-server
   • After download, run: sudo mysql_secure_installation
   • Set a root password (optional).
6. Install PHP-MySQL connector:
   • Type: sudo apt install php-mysql
7. Restart Apache:
   • Type: sudo service apache2 restart
8. Test your server:
   • Open http://localhost on the Raspberry Pi itself (test page).
   • From another device on the network, try http://raspberrypi.local or http://raspberrypi (assuming the hostname is “raspberrypi”).
9. Build your website:
   • Place HTML or PHP files in the /var/www/html directory.

Changing the Hostname (Optional):

1. Open Raspberry Pi Configuration tool:
   • Type: sudo raspi-config (or navigate through menus).
2. Select “Network Options” -> “Hostname.”
3. Enter your desired hostname and confirm.
4. Reboot the Raspberry Pi (select “Finish” -> “Yes”).

Setting Up FTP (Optional):

1. Enable SSH:
   • Use raspi-config or navigate through menus.
2. Change permissions for /var/www/html:
   • Type: sudo chown pi /var/www/html
3. Use an SFTP client on your PC:
   • A popular option is Filezilla (free).
   • Username: “pi”, Password: “raspberry” (default).

Note: This guide provides a basic setup. You can customize it further based on your specific needs.