I would like to set up a web server in XP Pro so that I can host my personal web site and have it be accessible to the WWW. I thought that this was possible with IIS, but it appears that my site is only accessible within my local network (at http://computername). Is there a way to make my page accessible to WWW? Am I using the wrong server software? Any help is greatly appreciated since I am a newbie at this. Thanks.

How are you accessing your site? You should be able to address it via your public ip address (get it at www.whatismyip.com) if: 1. Your ISP allows it (mine doesn't) 2. You're not behind a router or a firewall, or you have opened up the appropriate ports on the firewall or forwarded the appropriate ports on the router (port 80 for http) 3. The IIS service is actually running 4. Probably some other stuff I've forgotten that other people will ridicule me for forgetting...But start with 1-3 and let us know if you've got them all. -SN

Ok, I got my ip address. The IIS is running. I am behind a router, so I tried to forward port 80. I think I did it right, but when I go to my ip, I get the Linksys setup page (for my router). Then, I tried removing the router and just working off my DSL connection, but it still won't work. When I type in my ip, I get page unavailable. What next? Thanks for any advice!

Since you can access your page via the LAN, it is unlikely you have IIS setup incorrectly. The most likely scenario at this point is that your ISP is either blocking port 80 (many ISPs do) or that they actually don't give you a public IP address (which I think is ridiculous but that is what my ISP does. You have to pay $10/month extra to get a public, non-static IP) Get into your router config page and see what the WAN IP is. Does it match the one from whatismyip.com? Call your ISP and see if either of these is the case. If they block port 80, you can setup IIS to listen for http: requests on a different port, then access your page from: http://pub.lic.ip.ad:port Good luck, -SN

Ok, the ip on my router and on the website are different. Is that because my ISP won't give me a public IP? Figures...Bellsouth is my ISP and they are the worst telecommunications company around, but they have a monopoly in my area as they are the only one! So, does this mean I can't set up my own web server? You see, the whole reason I wanted to set up a web server in the first place is my ISP wouldn't give me more than 10mb of personal web space unless I paid them an extra $25 a month. So, the whole ip blocking thing is a just a ploy to force me to use their outrageously expensive hosting!!! Argh!

$25/month is definitely outrageous. That is how much I pay for a reseller account with hostforweb.com with unlimited domains, loads of space and bandwidth, and all the extras. If I just needed one site, I wouldn't pay more than $8 or $9 per month. Check out powweb.com or any of the others recommended on this site. There is no such thing as a good telecommunications company. Good luck, -SN