Here are the steps to setup a very simple website using xampp and a Namecheap domain.
- Obtain your external IP address
- Go to whatismyip and get “Your IP” address
Take note of the external IP address
- Configure URL forwarding
- Go to the URL forwarding section in Namecheap domain configuration.
- Now set the values for the IP Address/URL and Record type as follows -
A (Address) - Your IP
URL Frame - http://<your_ip>:8080/mysite
URL Forwarding section in Namecheap domain configuration
- Obtain your internal IP address
- Open the command prompt window and type
ipconfigand hit enter
- Open the command prompt window and type
Identify your network adapter and take note of IPv4 Address
- Configure port forwarding
- Log into the router configuration by going to this address in the browser -
http://192.168.0.1/(This might be router specific) - Go to the Port Forwarding section, and add an entry to forward HTTP traffic for port 8080
- Log into the router configuration by going to this address in the browser -
Router port forwarding configuration
- Configure Apache to serve on port 8080
- Open the Xampp control panel, and click on Configure and then on Apache (httpd.conf)
XAMPP Control Panel
- This should open the config file in notepad. Change the line Listen 80 line to Listen 8080
Apache httpd.conf
XAMPP Control Panel after listen port change
- Create your website directory
- Create a folder called mysites in the server directory. The path will be as follows -
D:\Program Files (x86)\xampp\htdocs\mysite
- Create a folder called mysites in the server directory. The path will be as follows -
mysites folder in htdocs
- Access your website via following URL in the browser -
http://localhost:8080/mysite/
Website access on the local server. This should display the index.html in the browser
Now access your Namecheap domain. For me, its www.patchrowcester.com. This should serve the index.html page in the server directory.
This post is published on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 5:51 AM CDT