All great websites have a great server behind them. NETTUS has shown us how to set up a dedicated web server for free (with Apache, MySQL, and PHP) using that old computer you have lying around the house and some free software. In the tutorial, you are going to learn the following things.

1) You are going to install the Ubuntu Server operating system. Ubuntu is easy to use with simple administration. It also has a rather large and extremely active community behind it, which makes getting support a breeze.

2) You are going to install an OpenSSH server. This allows you to administer your server from remote computers.

3) A LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack is going to be installed. This provides the backbone that will run your web site. Apache is the industry standard web server on Unix-based operating systems.

4) You are going to install a firewall to protect your server from unauthorized access.

Source: How to Setup a Dedicated Web Server for Free