Do anyone know how do i start my own little business by doing web hosting from home on my (XAMP 1.7) Apache server?
You want to run a web hosting business from your house??? I would SERIOUSLY reconsider that. A home Internet connection is just not suitable for running a hosting business. Not to mention, there is no redundant power sources, etc. What happens if the power goes out at your house? How about for days at a time? Also, you had better tell the clients that the server is being run from your home, because you will have some very unhappy people when things go bad.
are you serious with this plan? how much your internet speed? is xamp is enough for running this business?
I did get your PM. It doesn't matter what size host...small or large. People do not want to be hosted on a computer in somebody's house. Why would they, when they could get an account in a world-class datacenter for relatively nothing?
The procedure will be different based on what OS do you use, for Windows the easiest one is installing WAMP or XAMPP. on CentOS or other Red Hat based distribution, use yum install httpd php mysql-server mysql. on Debian/Ubuntu use apt-get instead of yum. As everyony said, hosting any websites on your home's computer is not reliable. (do you have a redundant power, network, and hardware to make sure that it is up at least 99.9% every month?) However, for learning purpose, it is very advise-able to start from your own computer, at least until you are accustomed with how things work.