nginx

The 2025 version of setting up on a home network to serve a static local website is as follows. (Note: the file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf does not need editing at all, since it loads *.conf files under the conf.d folder.)

1. Install nginx

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install nginx-light
   

2. Upload a folder to be served, e.g., ck.lo in the example above to be under /var/www/.

3. Create a file named virtual.conf under /etc/nginx/conf.d, and populate it with the following:

   server {
       listen 80;
       server_name ck.lo;
       location / {
           root /var/www/ck.lo;
           index index.html;
           try_files $uri $uri/ $uri.html =404;
       }
       error_page 404 /404.html;
   }
   

   Add more server blocks to the file, if there is a need to serve more than one local website. Test it with sudo nginx -t to ensure there are no errors.

4. Set permissions for the server folder /var/www

   sudo adduser $USER www-data
   sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www
   sudo find /var/www -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
   sudo find /var/www -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
   

5. Reload nginx

   sudo systemctl reload nginx
   

6. Optional: In /etc/pihole/custom.list, set local DNS like so. The local IP address in the following is but an example.

   10.0.1.100 ck.lo
   

With this, the local website should be accessible at http://ck.lo