This chapter involved a lot of preparation and server setup work. So, give yourself a pat on the back. You've got the hard work out of the way, and now you can focus on the more exciting parts of building your blog network empire.
Specifically, we covered setting up a local server (and what each part of the server is for), creating wildcard DNS entries in order to offer attractive, easy-to-remember blog URLs to your users, creating a database for WordPress MU, and setting up WordPress MU itself (the most important part!).
We also looked briefly at the control panel and some of the options in it—we will explore that in greater depth in later chapters.
Now that we've got a working blog network, it's time to spruce it up a little bit. In Chapter 3 we will look at customizing the appearance of the site—from installing new themes to making the front page more exciting and informative.