Pseudo domain name on localhost

[PRWang]

I'm new to apache server so I'm having some challenges figuring some things out. Maybe what I want to do is not possible, but figured I would ask anyway.

I installed xampp on my HP Pavillion running Vista Ultimate (ugh!) on an external 160G usb hard drive (WD Passport). So far everything seems to be working except for FileZilla, but that is for a different forum.

I'm using Apache as a testbed before I ftp my sites to the web. I have them setup in different subdirectories indicating the web host and domain name. So, the file I'm working on now is in /htdocs/HostICan/yourturn. I can access the site by going to http://localhost/HostICan/yourturn, but is there a way I can shorten this address to something like http://yourturn.local?

I've played around with the hosts and the apache configuration files (VirtualHost) but so far am drawing a blank. Any help or ideas appreciated.

Thanks

[Markus]

I just wrote a whole bunch here and, somehow, I managed to lose everything. Gah!.

Anyway, open your hosts file, on Vista this is usually located at C:/windows/System32/drivers/etc. Add the following line to it:

127.0.0.1 yourturn.com
 

You may see other lines in this file such as 127.0.0.1 localhost.

Save this file and close it.

Now, in the latest releases of XAMPP, they have a special file for virtual hosts - I cannot confirm this for earlier releases. This file can be located at <xampp dir>/apache/conf/etc/httpd-vhosts.conf. Open this file and add the following to it:

NameVirtualHost *:80
 
<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName localhost
 # Point to your root folder for localhost
 DocumentRoot "C:\xampp\htdocs"
 DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.html index.htm index.shtml
</VirtualHost>
 
<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName yourturn.com
 # Point to your root folder for yourturn.com
 DocumentRoot "C:\xampp\htdocs\yourturn.com\htdocs"
 DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.html index.htm index.shtml
</VirtualHost>

Restart apache, and navigate to http://yourturn.com. You should be greeted with the directory you specified in the virtual host.

Hope this helps,

Markus.

[Atli]

That's interesting.
I've always wondered how I could do that, but never really figured it out.

I wonder how I could do that same with a networked computer.
Like say, if I had an Apache server set up on a computer at IP 192.168.1.5, would editing my PC's hosts file be enough, or would I have to change something on the server to.

... damn. Now I won't be able to stop until I figure out a way to do that :P

Edit:
Yea. Turns out I just had to edit the hosts file on my PC. (W7)
Awesome... no more having to type IP addresses everywhere :)

[Markus]

@Atli
Cool as hell, right? :P

[Atli]

@Markus
Yea :D

Or wait... isn't hell supposed to be hot? :P

[Markus]

@Atli
Yeah but .. only the coolest people live in hell 8)