Background: Recently I wanted to write something and put it online. I bought a domain name and a vps, and also set up an ngxin server on the vps. I wanted to start with the simplest static page, so I wrote it myself. A static page index.html is uploaded to the /home/peng/var/www directory through ftp, and then the server node is configured under the http node of the nginx.conf file:

server {
    listen      80 ;
    server_name  **.**.**.**;
    index index.html;
    root /home/peng/var/www;
   }

Finally restarted the nginx service,

But the problem is
Every time I access the domain name address, the nginx welcome page is always returned, as if the configuration has not taken effect at all
The domain name address is: ethanvae.com

This is my first time using nginx, so the question may be very simple. I want to understand it.
1) My idea: return static files directly through nginx. Is this idea feasible? Is it wrong?
2) Are there any good tutorials that start from practice and go into depth about what nginx is, its features, usage scenarios, etc.

Although the question is very simple, I have been confused for an nginx novice for a day
Thank you again for those who can answer

The entire nginx.conf configuration file is as follows

user www-data;
worker_processes 4;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
events {
        worker_connections 768;
        # multi_accept on;
}
http {
        ##
        # Basic Settings
        ##

        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;
        # server_tokens off;

        # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
        # server_name_in_redirect off;

        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;
        server {
          listen      80 ;
          server_name  ethanvae.com;
          location / {
            index index.html;
            root /home/peng/var/www;
          }
        }
        ##
        # Logging Settings
        ##

        access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        ##
        # Gzip Settings
        ##

        gzip on;
        gzip_disable "msie6";

        # gzip_vary on;
        # gzip_proxied any;
}