ID:182373
 
I've been looking into this since I've got this computer that I have turned on all of the time but I've been messing with it all day and I've been having problems. I've been participating in an event this summer where we've been learning how to use PHP and MySQL so I was also trying to get those to work, but those are what I've been having problems with.

The computer I'm using is kinda old; it's running Windows 2000 but all I use it for is hosting a BYOND game since I have an awesome laptop. What I've got to work so far is using IIS and being able to connect to a web page over the internet from another computer, but I can't get PHP installed correctly. The installer doesn't do it right and the manual installation instructions I find make my head spin :( Especially the instructions on php.net, which you think would help, but instead of giving you five sets of instructions for each of the operating systems and configurations they support they put it all in one document D: It's hard to sort out what I do and don't have to do x_x

The programs I'm trying to use are the IIS that comes with Windows 2000 Pro (5? it doesn't tell me anywhere...), PHP 5.2.3 and 5.2.6 (.3 was manual install, .6 had manual and an installer) and MySQL 5 which I didn't mess with much because PHP won't work =\ I'm also open to any other suggestions since not everyone will agree on one program. I even use Internet Explorer~

I had PHP working for like a half hour but I reinstalled it to try to get MySQL to work with it and it hasn't worked since D: If I try to load a .php file it pretends it's just HTML and the tags are swallowed, so I know it's a problem with PHP.

I hope someone here can help me with this; searching the Byond forum for "IIS" only brought back like 20-30 results, dating back to 2000 D:! Not a good sign... I hope that means there are better programs than IIS :O I also hope my book-of-a-post doesn't deter helpful people :(

Edit: I'll also add that I tried using something called easyPHP but I had no idea what I was doing with it :O It kinda looked like it would do the job of Apache, PHP, and MySQL, but while the PHP worked I couldn't find enough settings to get my files to be accessible by other computers... I also never tried using Apache, just IIS, so that could be why I couldn't find anything...
For simple Windows servers I recommend Abyss Webserver, it's a simple server that lets you do things like PHP rather easily. It gives step-by-step instructions from the internal help system on how to get PHP and Perl working.
In response to Nadrew
You might also consider WAMP - Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP. There are several 'download, install, and go'-kind of WAMP packages that take much of the struggle out of running a webserver.

Try: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html or http://www.easyphp.org/

In response to digitalmouse
I've installed XAMPP and it seems to be working okay except for the MySQL. I seem to be able to connect to MySQL using PHP code but clicking Admin next to MySQL on the XAMPP CP does nasty things. It pops up with the MySQL control panel but then after about a second it closes it and begins popping up with this at regular intervals (a second or so): Access violation at address 10009F40 in module 'LIBMYSQL.dll'. Read of address 00000000.

It'll keep spamming me with that (whether I close the error or not) until I close MySQL with the icon in the systray D:

I tried searching the internet and it seems like a common error except that nobody seems to get it just for clicking Admin :(

Edit:
I dunno what that tool is supposed to do, but with the Admin button for Apache I can click on phpMyAdmin and edit my MySQL databases and stuff so I suppose this isn't a very big problem