web servers and routers

[judhkqkhsd]

ok. so i am slowly understanding this webserver business. so i need to:

a) register domain

b) create web server to host files

c) have a dns service forward the request of www.my-domain.com to the ip address of my webserver.

this all seems easy enough assuming i have a static ip and that I do not have a router. How do I get the DNS service to update my dynamic IP? How do I tell my router to forward all requests to my webserver? Its certainly easy enough to make the webserver get a static IP from the router, but how can the router know to send all the DNS requests to that static IP?

I have been directed to go check out everydns.net. How would I make that service work with my dynamic IP from my ISP?

i hope someone can help. thanks for going through all of this with me.

cheers

[hdcleaver]

Have a look at dyndns.org. You download a piece of software that checks your IP address every 10 mins or so and when it detects a change it will update the dns servers (works almost instantly).

You can get a subdomain such as 'you.homelinux.net', 'you.dyndns.org', 'you.homedns.org' or you can use your own domain name, 'you.com'. However i would recommend www.zoneedit.com for your own domain name as it is free (about £14 a year for dyndns domains).


What type of router do you have? If you have a look in the manual it will tell you how to set NAT, IP Routing, etc. Just set it up so any requests that come in for port 80 get forwarded to your webserver and that should do the trick.

[judhkqkhsd]

awesome.

ill just look in my routers manual.

thanks for the links.

[deek]

Yeah, and about dynamic IPs, it depends on your service provider. I use comcast and have a router (forwarding all necessary ports to my linux box, 25, 110, 80, 21, 22 etc). I don't use any extra software to do anything dynamic as I have had the same IP, even though it is dynamic, for over a year.

Worst case scenario in my setup is that if my IP changed, I would have to update a couple A records on the DNS service manually and maybe have to wait 30 minutes or so for DNS to update most of the other servers...

[Xenon]

I always use www.no-ip.com , which is free, which I am using at the minute, all you do is intall a little app that sends your IP to your forwarder, e.g. mine is 230volts.hopto.org
I then point my purchased domain (230volts.co.uk) to my no-ip sub-domain and people can access my web server no matter what IP I have.

[judhkqkhsd]

xenon:

where do you get the 'little app' that sends the ip to the forwarder?

thanks

[judhkqkhsd]

nm. bad question. its right on the site.

thanks

[Xenon]

Glad to be of help, feel free to let me know how it does with the Linux installer.
I am still using the Windows one on my Win98 gateway *hides shame* but I have posted in another section of this forum about Linux connection sharing after failing the first time to get it to work. :P

[judhkqkhsd]

well...i am still unclear here.

so i have a domain i registered and I have another domain from no-ip.com. do i set the Name Servers of my actual domain to the no-ip addresses? How do i get the no-ip addresses to get the dynamically updating IP from my webserver?

i am sorry i am still confused. i know i am so so close. but just slightly off.

thanks

[judhkqkhsd]

so i found that my router has a DDNS option.

it includes no-ip.com as the listed servers it supports. it then asks for a hostname, username and password.

the username/password is easy enough to figure out...but for the host name, do I use my registered host or the no-ip address?

Im still confused.

it makes sense to me to uses the no-ip hostname. the router would keep the correct ip updated and then when going to MYDOMAIN.COM it will always have the correct ip info (as the no-ip.com site will be the listed DNS site).

let me know if im on the right track!