Help Getting Website Online

MoogPoo

Hi I'm trying to get a website online just to see how it all works and stuff. I wrote out a few html pages and stuff and it works when I type in my ip address in Internet Explorer on my home network.

How can I do it so that I can access it from outside my network? I dont think I need a website name or anything, ip address would do. I'm using Linux and Apache just on my laptop and have read some books on it but can't get it working.

What exactly do I need to do? Some websites say I must get a static ip address or something and enable port forwarding but I dont know if its necessary. Any help would do..

Also when im trying to get it working is there any way to test if it would work from within my network, instead of trying it at home, then going out and testing it etc... I'm new to this so not sure what I'm talking about. Any advice appreciated thanks.:)

swordsinfo

if you want to access the site from outside the network then u need a public ip - basically so when u put in the ip outside the network it points to your network. From there on your router you can direct the traffic for say port 80 which i think is only http traffic to pint to your local computer on the network say 192.168.0.1. Just to not there is some service that you can do this without a registered Ip but for a standard setup thats how it works - hope that gives you some useful info.

MoogPoo

Thanks for the reply, I'm still a bit confused about the whole thing... so my ip in my network is 192.168.2.102 and ive a router at 192.168.1.1 and wireless router at 192.168.2.1. I think my pulic ip is 84.xx.xx.xx and changes, I think thats something to do with DHCP is it?

So do I need to get a public ip as in something like 84.1.2.3 or something? Or would it be a range like 84.1.2.1/255. How would the router know which computer on my network to forward ports to? and what would my public ip of my server be then?

Sorry I know thats a lot but im really confused with this and Im a bit slow.
Oh and is this all free if I don't get a domain name or do i have to pay more for static ips and stuff? Thanks

swordsinfo

The dhcp or dynamic IP is your main prob - as this is what you will need to load your site. Basically if you reg a domain it usually is assigned to a IP address so say www.hotmail.com points to 82.1.2.3. If your IP keeps changing this will not work. With regard to your port forwarding you can do this at the router. On the router you can set it up that traffic for http (usually poprt 80) points to your local machine on your network.

To get over the no static ip issue check out http://www.no-ip.com/index.php


::In its entirety you put in www.mydomain.com
::mydomain points to 82.1.2.3
::traffic goes to your address where it hits the router. router checks the port on which info is being send/request and port forward to a local address.
::Local address is setup to host pages and accepts request for http.

MoogPoo

I dont have a domain or static ip. But should'nt it still work just by typing in the ip address of my router in the address bar on another network? So if I find out the ip address on whatsmyip.org and type it in it still doesnt work for some reason... I know I'd need domain and static ip for a real website but I just want to do it to see if it works.

swordsinfo

Have you port forward the http traffic to your local computer?? On the router you need to setup a rule from WAN to LAN that forwards traffic for port 80 (http) to you local hosted computer such as 192.168.10.3 where as the public ip that has been temp assigned should point to your router (192.168.10.1) not your local pc - can you view it with a different computer on the local network? - also need to check how often the public ip you have changes this could also cause problems . Dont forget to check out http://www.no-ip.com/index.php for the ip issue.

Hope this helps.

MoogPoo

Thanks clears things up a bit. I tried to portforward port 80 on my router but no luck yet. Ive the apache server working anyway, it all comes up when i check from my network but just page missing comes up if i try from somewhere else.

ive apache installed on my laptop so, my router is wired at 192.168.1.1, then ive a wireless router at 192.168.2.1 and my laptop is 192.168.2.102

So from which router would i port forward, would it go from one to the other and then to laptop or just from the first one to laptop?

swordsinfo

try resolve the issue by first getting another on the same wireless network to view the hosted pages then wire a laptop direct to the main router and try and look at the pages on the wireless network. As far as I know bridging is required to communicate between the two routers. why are the wireless router and the main router on different lans - security or is there actually a couple of users on each lan?

MoogPoo

Great, got it working at last. Problem was i wasnt allowed portforward to the other lan, thought I could if I forwarded to the other router first or something but no... just using one now as you said. Thanks a million!

swordsinfo

i think if you bridge between the wireless router and the main router then you can prob port forward but at least your on the way anyhow check out the http://www.no-ip.com/index.php for the ip issue and you should have some site hosting going. Best of luck with it all