Linux n00b Server Question

[chopin1810]

I don't really know very much about Linux networking at all here, so be forgiving. I started experimenting with Fedora Core 4 and Apache last night, and added some code to the /var/www/html directory. Everything works well, but every time I want to view pages, I have to enter my IP address into a web browser. I'm wondering if there is a way to have an actual site name instead of the IP number for a site.

[genesus]

ok, there are a few things that you have to do first. You have to register a name with a registrar, then under your account information have them forward the domain, for example if you register chopin.com, you must forward that through your registrar's dns to your ip. Now, if you are using a router, you still will not be able to use www dot chopin dot com from your browser, but anyone from outside of your direct lan will be able to. Now, most likely you have a static ip, which means you will have to update the entry with your registrar when your ip changes, which more than likely will be once a year or so. Or you could use another dns that recognizes dynamic ips, you will just have to register with your registrar to point your ip through a different dns. Thats about it. If you are having problems with apache or apache2's hefty config files and requirements on a home system, there are also other httpd programs that are quicker, such as lighttpd...

[drakebasher]

...I have to enter my IP address into a web browser.

If you have a static IP, if you give your system a name with an entry in /etc/hosts, like so:

• x.x.x.x chopinsblock chopinsblock

then you should only need to use 'http://chopinsblock/' as the address and you should see the index page in /var/www/html

edit:
(This is only an in-house solution: useful for working with web pages without making them available to the entire world.)

[Roxoff]

The way I did it is this:

I registered a domain name with one of the cheapo suppliers, and ticked the 'full dns control' option. Then I pointed the DNS record for www.<mydomain>.org at the static IP provided by my ISP.

I set up DNS inside my lan to provide 'local' IP addresses for this same .org domain, so they can still do the same lookups, they just get different IP numbers to people on the real internet.

Forwarded port 80 and 443 through my firewall, and I'd then got one working internet website.

Next stage on from that, pointing the MX record for that same .org domain at my mailserver IP address, and setting up sendmail on the web machine to host my own email too.

Next, added name-based virtual hosts, squirrelmail, and other goodies.

[chopin1810]

Ahem.
I'm basically doing this to learn more about networking. I basically learned enough to pass the A+ exams when I was twenty and since I had no interest or need to study it anymore I didn't bother remembering it. So, keep the jargon to a minimal here and explain things as much as you can. I don't even think I know what DNS is.
But it would be nice if I could get a test site up and running. I've already learned an awful lot.
So be nice to the networking n00b here

[Roxoff]

DNS == Domain Name service

It converts your computer name (such as www.linuxforums.org) into IP addresses (such as 72.21.59.114).

If you're hosting your own web page, you want people to be able to type "www.<yourdomain>.net" into their browser, have that resolved into your own IP address which is then queried for the web pages.

My ISP gives me a static IP address (i.e. it never changes) so I took a cheapo domain hosting and ticked the box to allow me to configure my own DNS records. This allows me to make the domain name requests result in any IP I want - so it's easy to point it at my IP address.

[bigtomrodney]

Go check out DynDNS.org where you can get free domain names under one of their's for free, or register cheaply for one you define yourself. The benefit is that you can install a service on your machine (or on your router, a lot of them actually support DynDNS scripting like Zyxel). This will then update your DNS/IP settings every time a new one is assigned through your ISP DHCP. I have registered my laptop with a free account and can use it for all sorts - particularly handy for ssh'ing to my laptop. It's a great service. Also there are sites like noip.com that do similar jobs.

[stokes]

Another free one (and the one I use) is: freedns.afraid.org

[cvncpu]

another vote for dyndns.org, if you have a d-link router I know it should be able to automaticaly report to your dyndns.org account, but now I have the control of running my domain servers, and if you have a static IP, and you just buy a domain name, you can get a cheapo domain, and use Zoneedit.com for your DNS servers, they are up pretty much 99.999% of the time, they have never gone down on me, and they are free for up to 200MB a year, (in DNS traffic this is alot), and it's a nice easy way to manage domains without dealing with named.conf files, and db.domain files.