Bloodwinter Clan

Anyone want to educate me on how to go about setting up your own server?

What kind of server?

Just a server for hosting web stuff... I guess that's called a web server?

This is just for my own personal edification.

I was just looking up the different types of servers online.

What exactly is the difference between a Web server and a FTP server? I realize an FTP is just for downloading files but can't a web server handle this? Or does it actually require two different servers?

precious brain cells just died after reading this thread.

i will give you a ghetto intro.


1) for all that you care, a server/workstation/gaming computer/high-tech-footrest are basically the same, with the only difference being their overall purpose.

thus, your computer can double a server and a gaming computer if you wanted.

2) a server is defined by the services it offers. these services are pretty much just programs that run on it. a web serving program hosts distributes webpages to people who connect to it, a ftp serving app allows people to connect and transfer files, a ventrilo server program allows people to login and voice chat, a counter-strike server app allows people to connect to counterstrike games hosted on that computer, etc. these programs listen for connections on a specific port or ports, and wait for a connection.

3) these services are for your purposes non-exclusive. you can run any or all of them if you wanted on the same computer. there might be a conflict if 2 different services want to listen on the same port, but if that's the case, its probably just admin stupidity.

4) windows by default has a few to a lot of ports open and services running. that's why there are certain security risks if those services have bugs in it, and/or the admin is a dumbass and didn't protect the services properly. thus, you put up a firewall, as an artificial way to block all ports except the ones you allow via the firewall configuration software. linux usually doesn't have shit installed by default, so you're usually safer going this route.

5) most home broadband computers use NAT (network address translation), to squeeze more computers onto your 1 connection. well, what this does is it analyzes the packets coming into your house, and forwards them to the correct computer on your home network. so you gotta be sure your router knows that your computer is expecting packets on a certain port and for your router to forward those packets to your "server".


2 most common services:

1) web (http). this is usually done on port 80. but you can pick any port really. basically all web browsers default to trying to connect to port 80 because almost all web services are on that port.

2) ftp. this is usually done on ports 20/21. its a two seperate connections traditionally speaking, which makes it a pain if you're using NAT. (the 2nd connection is used to transmit directory listings and such). yes, you can do this over the web in many cases, because most web servers provide some simple directory browsing code. in the old days web servers didn't do this though, which is where FTP came in and has stuck. many web servers also didn't support receiving files, which is why FTP was necessary. its also more commonplace to put restrictions on FTP because of its nature as a file transfer protocol (that's what FTP stands for). you can also do some cool stuff with newer ftp servers like site-to-site transfers (known as FXP).


some other services:

1) telnet. this is more a unix-type thing, although winnt has it too. this is usually done on port 23. basically this gives you remote access to a command line on the server.

2) ssh. this is more a unix-type thing. in short a secure version of telnet, but it allows for file transfer as well usually on port 22. you can transfer files over telnet as well, but you gotta use something ghetto like old zmodem-type transfering

3) smtp. this is a mail transfer protocol. something that sends and recieves e-mail. i think its port 25.

Thanks for the lengthy summation Rich. I pretty much knew the general jist of all that I just had to have you reaffirm it

But...

What is not clear to me is your ip. If your isp doesn't give out static IPs then you can't really act as a server correct?

Or lets say you were given a static IP, but a year from now you decide to move and you end up with a new IP, can you edit your url to point to the new IP free of charge?


As for you losing brain cells, if you hadn't taken the time to post such a long reply I might have something to say.

If your comp stays connected 24/7 most DHCP servers will lease the IP to your comp constantly effectively making it a static IP

Even though it changes every minute, you can use free service with it that works like a charm with Linux and Winblows. It automatically updates your changed IP to DNS servers so you can always use yourcomputer.dyndns.org name (or whatever you choose from their domain collection). That's what I've been using for many years without any problems. Even some WLAN routers like Linksys WRT54G support this feature, just give your account information to the box and your dynamic ip will always be up-to-date in DNS servers.

Panner

But what about in the event you have to reboot Baker? Which you know with Windows is going to happen.

its your router which matters unless you don't use one.

I do have a router... small little Linksys I think... but it's only leased an ip for so long before it's renewed.

Rhuac,

Haven't read the thread however if your cable your probably static IP so just setup the nameservers of your domain to point to your home computer - setup Linksys if you have one to pass through traffic on certain ports to your home computer.

If your ADSL based your IP will change periodically. Here is what I did when I was on ADSL using Zoneedit.com dynamic DNS:

Here is a summary of how I setup hosting from home on YOURDOMAIN.com ... this works regardless if you have cable/DSL and/or use a Linksys router in front or even if your on dial-up:

1. Setup a free zoneedit.com account.

2. Change DNS Names Servers for YOURDOMAIN.com to point zoneedit.com nameservers.
- login to whomever is your current DNS name server provider and change
- change takes 1-3 days to propagate on net name servers

3. Enable IP Address mapping to home machine on zoneedit:
- setup YOURDOMAIN.com to IP forward to my current PC address

4. Enable WebForwarding for www.YOURDOMAIN.com
- setup www.YOURDOMAIN.com to point to my http://YOURDOMAIN.com:

5. Run the attached Java zoneedit update program on your machine - I set it to update zoneedit.com with current IP every 5 minutes.
- this works by hitting an external site that simply prints your external IP address ("http://ipupdate.virtualave.net/cgi-bin/myip.pl) it retrieves that then does a POST to zoneedit.com to update your zone IP.

For me I ran it as: "java rzo.ZoneEditDyndns <accountname> <password> YOURDOMAIN.com"

Then runup your favourite web/j2ee server I recommend not using port 80 just so it isn't obvious your running a home webserver.

Note you don't have to do webforwarding if you intend running your server on port 80 - in which case you'd setup YOURDOMAIN.com to IP forward to your PC.
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I now host my website on officially on running servers for about $180 CAD/year ... 100MB disk space, email, ftp, mySQL. etc.

What's your site's address Zoid? If I like I might pick your brain for more web stuff