Articles Repository

How to set up virtual hosts using Apache on Windows platform.

Related to the other articles in this section, open up your httpd.conf file in a text editor, wordpad or notepad, and add a few lines. The file, from the default installation is found in the X:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf folder.

To avoid having to continually editing this particular file, I add one line towards the bottom of the document.

Include conf/hosts.conf

Save the file. Next step is to create the afore mentioned hosts.conf file. Using your text editor create a new document and copy the virtual host example that is commented out in httpd.conf.

#NameVirtualHost *:80
#
# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for requests without a known
# server name.
#
#<VirtualHost *:80>
#    ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
#    DocumentRoot /www/docs/dummy-host.example.com
#    ServerName dummy-host.example.com
#    ErrorLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-error_log
#    CustomLog logs/dummy-host.example.com-access_log common
#</VirtualHost>

Uncomment the text, remove the #’s and change to fit your need. In the example below there are 3 settings on a made up domain name, mycomputer.pc.

• No subdomain
• Specific subdomain
• Wildcard subdomain

NameVirtualHost *:80
# (1) No subdomain: http://mycomputer.pc
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin virtual@mycomputer.pc
    DocumentRoot "X:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/public_html"
    ServerName mycomputer.pc
    ServerAlias mycomputer.pc
</VirtualHost>
# (2) Specific subdomain: http://test.mycomputer.pc
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin test@mycomputer.pc
    DocumentRoot "X:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/public_html/test"
    ServerName test.mycomputer.pc
    ServerAlias test.mycomputer.pc
</VirtualHost>
# (3) Wildcard subdomain: http://*.mycomputer.pc
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@mycomputer.pc
    DocumentRoot "X:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/public_html"
    ServerName *.mycomputer.pc
    ServerAlias *.mycomputer.pc
</VirtualHost>


The comments within the code are fairly self-explanatory, but (3) in particular allows you to put “anything” before the domain provided that the host exists in your HOSTS file. Save the file as hosts.conf in X:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf.

The HOSTS file is usually located in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc folder. Open the file with wordpad and then add the following to match your virtual host settings above.

# PC (NETWORK, CHANGE IP TO MATCH NETWORK IP)
192.168.1.2     mycomputer.pc
192.168.1.2     www.mycomputer.pc
192.168.1.2     test.mycomputer.pc
192.168.1.2     blah.mycomputer.pc
# PC (LOCAL)
127.0.0.1     mycomputer.pc
127.0.0.1     www.mycomputer.pc
127.0.0.1     test.mycomputer.pc
127.0.0.1     blah.mycomputer.pc

Save the file and restart Apache. You should then be able to navigate to any of the URLs listed above. Try creating a phpinfo() page and see the differences.

Source: Virtual hosts using Apache on Windows.