Any risks in installing my own http server?

To save bandwidth and play around using PHP and all without any limits, I was thinking of installing my own web server.

However, I was wondering if there any risks:

• Is my computer more exposed to security risks? If I set up my router not to forward any incoming requests to my computer, will it really have no开发者_StackOverflow security risks?
• Is it a wise solution to install XAMPP, so as not to clutter around with installing each separate server and stuff?
• Can I uninstall XAMPP and all its siblings whenever I'd like to? Will an uninstall make my computer clean of the install again, or will there be alot of traces left?

Thanks in advance.

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I wouldn't worry at all about installing Apache on a local machine if you're not going to be forwarding traffic to it. If traffic can't get to it, the only possible security issues would be from things internal to your network, and if you're at home that's just you anyway. It's a great way to get familiar with it.

I'm on linux, but XAMPP sounds like a very convenient way to go about it.