Need help with website

Setting up your computer as a web server is usually a complicated process - and as far as I know, your computer has to be turned on (with a 24/7 reliable internet connection) whenever people want to access your website, otherwise they will get a "server not responding" error. Also, most of these projects are run by Windows or Linux machines - I'm not sure how this would work on a Mac. You would also need to point your domain name to your computer/router's IP address.

Here are some basic guides I found, maybe they will be helpful:
http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/server
http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/hosting/host_web_site_home_computer.php3

Needless to say, there may be simpler options available

 

Find a free or low-cost host. A server serves different needs than your computer. Unless you have high internet speed and you don't mind having a separate machine hosting your site, then don't bother hosting it yourself.

I used some home servers in the past and you need some time to maintain them. With your first website, it's just a waste of energy, time, money and all sorts of other resources.

 

Don't let them scare you. It is really easy. Just turn on your personal web sharing, buy the domain, edit the dns record to point to your home IP, configure your router to forward port 80 to the local IP of the machine running the web server.

 

I think the largest reasons not to do this for a professional web site are:

* Unreliable service -- do you want your web site down for a couple hours here and there? (you have to reset the router, or your ISP is down, or your IP address changes...)

* Slow -- "uplink" speeds are painful if just 1 person is browsing your site. And if 5 or 6 are browsing, well, it gets a little painful depending on the size of your web files

* Possibly not allowed by your ISP's Terms of Service

* Probably a more remote possibility, but still, you are risking someone exploiting a hole in Apache, PHP, etc, and messing with your computer

HTH...

~ Jeremy

 

Mac as a server

Loo here, they have done the same and in a mac mini.
Mac as a server.
http://www.freemacblog.com/mac-server-series-initial-set-up/