Virtual Hosting with the new WampServer 3.0.6

Have you ever wondered how you can work on your local server without having to type localhost/example in your browser? well if you have or not it is very possible and even easier with the new WampServer 3.0.6 through what is known as Virtual Host (Vhost).

Most web developers are familiar with this term , but let me make some clarification for you newbies out there, virtual host refers to the practice of running more than one website such as  gigzweb.com and gigzweb2.com on the same physical machine. virtual Host can be either IP-Based or Named -Based . For IP- Based virtual host you have different IP address for every website while the Named- Based virtual host just en-tells that you have multiple names running on each IP address.





The benefits of enabling virtual hosting in a local environment are enormous;

1.It helps you testing the behaviour of each site you develop

2.It comes in very handy when your working with PHP frame works like codeigniter ,CakePHP, Zend frame work and the rest which requires a base URL configuration, since  almost all the PHP frame works out there use the MVC architecture of programming it becomes very necessary.

3 Most importantly it enables you to work on different projects at the same i.e having multiple projects in your WWW directory.

4.virtual host generally makes URLs cleaner - localhost/gigzweb.com  vs  gigzweb.com

With the release of WampServer 3.0.6 the problems which were involved in enabling virtual  host in Apache was handled. Previous  versions of WampServer required editing and modification of the Apache config files to enable  virtual host,I personally had to uninstall my Wamp 2.5 three times while trying to enable Virtual Host because of the changes I made to my config files  , previous versions   also required writing rules for IP address in your windows host files which you shouldn't try unless you know what  your doing.

follow these steps to configure a virtual Host in WampServer 3.0.6;

1.Download and install the  latest version of WampServer which at the time  I was writing this post was 3.0.6. from  the WampServer official page .

  NOTE Wamp 3.0.6 was developed using visual studio 2015, so to be able to run the programme you need to download  and install visual studio redistributable 2015 from the official Microsoft site if you have any problem while installing the package  try running a complete  windows update.

2.launch the application .check to see if the green icon

is showing in your task bar, if not know that all the services  are not running.if you get this error " msvcr110.dll missing" message while launching  the application  try uninstalling  and reinstalling your vc_redist 2015 and make sure your windows is up to date.

3. visit "localhost " in your browser and you should see the WampServer default homepage

4.clik on  add "a virtual host" a the bottom of the page.

6.  In the next page add the name of your virtual host you wish to create, for this tutorial I will be creating "www.mynewsite.com" as my virtual Host name .Next add the directory to the folder which contains your site files this should be a sub directory under your C:\wamp\www directory which is your main http directory. the directory should have a forward slash instead of a backward slash example;   "C:/wamp/www/www.mymynewsite.com

Note:the virtual Host name does no have o be the same with the site directory.

5.  click on "start creation of virtual host".

6. Restart your WampServer to effect the changes by right clicking on your wampserver icon and selecting tools,under tools select restart DNS.

7.  Finally go to www.mynewsite.com on your browser to view your newly created virtual host.

Hey guys, I hope this post was helpful, do drop your comments and I will get back to you.Bye for now till my next post.
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