Host site locally w/MAMP?

Can you?

I know you can let people into your /Sites folder with the built in apache, but I'm running MAMP, and don't see a point in running two servers at one time. I'm no networking whiz but I'm thinking it has something to do with MAMP being setup on port 8888... are there permissions somewhere I can change to allow incoming traffic?

you do realize that MAMP just means you have Apache, MySQL, and PHP installed on OSX right? just uncomment the php line in your php.ini and install mysql (from entropy.ch) and your done, i don't understand what you mean by running "two servers", you only have one web server, its preinstalled, and unless you need some specific feature from some other install then you don't need to change anything (and if you do need something get it from from entropy.ch), and if you install two versions of apache you should only run one install, but whatever did it will probably offer you a way to control each

MAMP is a software for the mac like WAMP for windows. You don't really need MAMP really, it'll be easier if you installed and configured PHP and MySQL yourself. Once you do that, just store your files in /Library/WebServer (note: not your user Library but the system's). Make sure Personal web sharing is on in System Preferences > Sharing.

If you want your server to be seen on the net and you have a router, make sure you port forward port 80 to your computer's IP address.

it was my impression that mamp installs it's own copy of a+m+p rather than using what came stock on the mac, which I'd been using for a while already but always had trouble with it. So I tried mamp out, it works, I don't have to worry about it. The stuff's over my head and all I know is this does what I need it to.

EXCEPT! for the part about letting other people access it over the web. Might not even be related. I don't know.

I am running a router and when I turn on personal web sharing, it says I can view my websites at ...192.168.1.101/~... which I think is just the ip my router assigned my computer. If I try using my real IP it doesn't work... so is it the router? And if it is, how the heck do I forward port 80?

Thanks for the help guys!

I believe that when you turn on personal web sharing, the computer's pre-installed apache fires up and opens your ports. I'm not 100% sure though. What kind of router do you have? It's usually under the Port Forwarding or NAT tables in most routers. Have you tried consulting MAMP's forums at http://www.mamp.info?

alrightyyyy, got it!

I forwarded port 8888 to my ip from my linksys cp like you mentioned, then in system preferences > sharing > firewall, I added port 8888 to the list.

Now I can build sites super fast locally without having to upload/re-config stuff every time I need to show something, just shoot them http://my.ip.address:8888. Also comes in really handy sending big files to people, not having to upload anything.

Thanks for the help guys! Now I guess a good follow up question might be: Did I just open up my computer to some gnarly vulnerabilities?

OK I may have screwed something up...

Now none of my websites' backend pages can write to MySQL, they can read from it! just can't write to it. Any ideas?