Another option is to download a server to run on your local computer. The most often used I believe is Apache. It allows you to do testing offline. If you need a database you can download http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

this is a triple setup Mysql, Phpadmin and apache server.
I use it mostly for the server which is 'localhost' to test my site while working on it. It really makes things much easier and lest stressful.