How to Access WAMP Server in LAN or WAN

Introduction

The WAMP server is very useful and is widely used open source. It works great when you are working in a local machine. But when you want to access the same WAMP server form a different machine on LAN or WAN then it’s not possible.

Background 

Consider you are working in a team in a big project and each member of the team works in different modules and the same database. Issues arise when you merge files as well as the database. The best solution is to implement SVN on your server (for checking in and checking out files and folders etc.) and ask all team members tto access that server instance. 

How to do this

Here are the steps to make WAM enabled on LAN or WAN:

Step 1

First you need to set up the WAMP service on your server and on the required services. And make sure that your WAMP server is online and it’s running on your browser using http://localhot:8081/ (I have given a fixed port number 8081 to my WAMP server). For more information please refer to the WAMP setup instruction at this URL: http://www.bulletprooftemplates.com/how-to-install-wamp-20.

To run the WAMP Apache server on your specified port, do the following. Go in the \wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\conf\httpd.conf file and search for “#Listen” and then change the port from 80 to 8081 and in that case, your URL will be http://localhost:8081/. Like below:  

#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 192.168.1.154:8081

Step 2

Now make the WMAP Server accessible in the LAN or WAN, you have to get \wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\conf\httpd.conf and open it and find the following code:

<Directory "cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Order allow,deny
   Deny from all
</Directory>

And change the above code to:

<Directory "cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
</Directory>

Step 3

Now you have to bind the server static IP to the port number (remember we gave done this in the start) so for this you have be on the same file and change “Listen 8081”  to “Listen [IP Address  of Server]:8081”. It will look  like “Listen 192.168.1.154:8081”.

Listen 192.168.1.154:8081

Step 4

Great! The next step is to open port (8081) of the server such that everyone can access your server. This depends on which OS you are using. Like if you are using Windows Vista, then follow the below steps.

Open Control Panel  >> System and Security >> Windows Firewall then click on “Advance Setting” and then select “Inbound Rules” from the left panel and then click on “Add Rule…”. Select “PORT” as an option from the list and then in the next screen select “TCP” protocol and enter port number “8081” under “Specific local port” then click on the ”Next” button and select “Allow the Connection” and then give the general name and description to this port and click Done.

Now you are done with PORT opening as well.

Next is “Restart All Services” of WAMP and access your machine in LAN or WAN.

Happy coding…

Points of Interest 

You will find here how easy it is to make WAMP running on LAN or WAN. If you need more help, please free to contact me atn jaisarvipin@gmail.com.