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It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 5:03 am

Welcome to the Ghost Network

If you are new here, Welcome to the Ghost Network, or if not welcome back.

Just remember that I take no responsibility in any shape of form for any loss or damage incurred (of any kind) by using or misusing any of the guides and information on this site. In brief using anything from this site is AT YOUR OWN RISK. It’s as simple as that. I will however warn you within the individual guides and information if in my opinion you have to be aware of anything before continuing!

I setup the Ghost Network because I like learning new things. I wanted to know if it was possible to set up a Linux server at home. Turns out all I needed was a static public IP address from my ISP. I spent hours online re-searching how this was done. The server that I set up is running on an old laptop that is far too slow to run modern versions of windows.

Now, I know how to build a website so just building one would be too easy as I wanted to learn something new, so I installed the free open source forum software “PHPBB” and decided to use it to build this website, this was a small learning curve but you are now looking at the results.


This is a closed forum-based website, in other words I am the only member. Another reason I am using forum software it to make it easier to add, edit, and even delete content quicky as time is something I am always really short of. Maybe at some point I will open things up, but no promises. Support is available from other sites which I have outlined within my posts.

This site it about how to set up your own webserver at home or even at work, just like I did. I have found there is nowhere on the web that provides a guide in a simple non-technical easy to follow way, I hope I have achieved this with the Ghost Network. In a lot of cases your entire server will only cost you around £15 a year (to register a domain name for example MyWebsite.co.uk for a year). You don’t even need to buy a server, just use an older PC or laptop that you don’t use anymore as your server, it does not need the latest cutting-edge hardware.

Once you have got your server up and running you can use any free or even paid website building software, to create your site. Your new sever is equipped with PHP, and MySQL. So, most things will work fine on it. As this is a Linux webserver unfortunately Microsoft technologies like ASP.NET will not work. I will at some point publish a getting started guide for WordPress (Free Site Builder) and PHPBB.

Just in case you are new here and were wondering, the WA part in my name stands for “Web Alias”. Rob Swan of course is not my real name, in actual fact my name is Paul.

All web servers are vulnerable to cyber-attack, which includes mine (and yours). Let’s be honest now, it does not matter how good your security is, for any Internet connected device hacking is a fact of life and can happen to anyone. When you get further into the guide, you will find out more in regards to the security we use on these severs. You will also find out about taking backups to minimise the downtime in the event of a server breach.

Oh by the way I have the server set to re-boot itself in the early hours of the morning so if you are up at that time and cannot get on, wait a few minutes and try again.

When you are ready to get started click on Forum Home.