11 replies to this topic

[mist]

First let me start off by saying that this tutorial is not about how to host a webserver on your computer. That was done quite well by swizzeron. This tutorial has to do with those of you who are interested in hosting a webserver on your computer, but are stuck with a dynamic ip. For those who don't know, a dynamic ip is one that is non-permanent; and thus it changes. This is opposed to static ip address' which are permanent locations on the internet assigned to computers. How did dynamic ips come to be? Well as far as I can tell, they were created to deal with the large amount of internet users. To put it simply, there are too many people using the internet to each get a permanent address. Thus, some ISPs (internet service providers) assign temporary addresses every time you connect.

What does this mean for people who want a webserver but have a dynamic ip? Well, lets see:- it means that people who want to visit your website (including you) will never know which ip address to visit without checking first
- it means that domain redirection services will not work
- overall it means that you have a server which is extremely difficult to access
My solution involves using a program to update a remote server with your IP every time it changes. People who wish to visit your server would do so through the remote server.

For those of you who aren't internet savvy think of it this way: Imagine a city is the world wide web. Each home represents a separate computer and thus, a separate ip address. Mailing a house (visiting the server) would be quite easy; after all you just need their address. However, this particular city has a large amount of mobile homes/rv's which are constantly moving from one site to another (representing changing or dynamic addresses). Mailing a friend who lives in a mobile home would be a problem because it would be hard to tell where they are at any given moment. However, my solution works sort of like a P.O. box. The box represents a permanent building which redirects your "mail" to the appropriate mobile home. This allows you to "mail" them wherever they may be.

If you are not sure if you have a dynamic ip, ask your ISP or visit http://www.whatismyip.com and periodically between network resets. If you have a changing ip address, you have a dynamic ip.

So what is this so-called solution I have? To tell you the truth, it's quite simple really. Lets begin:

• Make sure you have a working webserver on your computer
• Visit http://www.no-ip.com/ and sign-up for a free account
• Once you have gone through the email confirmation process and logged in, click on the downloads tab. Download the appropriate version of No-IP.
• Click on the first "Your NO-IP" tab and click the "Add" link underneath the "Hosts/Redirects" heading.
• Setup the configuration for your redirection host. The domain you create here will be the new address to your website.
• Install the No-IP program you downloaded and login using the account you created.
• Allow approximately 5-10 mins for an update and then your website is ready to go. It can be accessed from the domain you specified on the site.

There you have it! An easy way to grab a dynamic ip by the horns and ride it. Figuratively of course.

[mHelmy]

Dynamic IP is usually given for Dial Up connection, not for dedicated connection.

And a dial up connection is usually slower. Maybe its speed is not enough for your own browsing needs, so it's not wise to run a public server on your computer that can be accessed from world through your dial up connection.

It will only waste your time. Why don't you just host your website on a best quality free hosting astahost.com ? You can use your bandwidth to do something else.

[Chesso]

It's not just about that.

Why test on AstaHost and strain your time and servers when you can build everything locally, it's just better in so many ways I won't even get into it.

But you may also want to ask from friends or colleagues to test it out for you and rather than have to upload the changes or whole thing to a web server all the time, you want it setup so they can access straight from where you are working and see instant changes.

[Neten]

i use NO-IP for hosting my ventrilo server. I had no problems with it.

[8ennett]

As I know this lesson will not work at 95.95% of the times ...

because dynamic ip's are given by a modem (as far as I know) so when you have a dynamic ip that is given by a modem and try to redirect your dynamic ip you will actualy redirect it to the modem and not to your own pc ... so in the case you will have a redirection to your router/modem(etc) control pannel web page ... (this that want's password for entering the modem/router)this is because actualy the dynamic ip is given not to your computer! it is given to your router or your modem ...

-reply by ManovaLL

There are many things wrong with that statement that need clarifying. When using a router, the router assigns local network IP addresses. This tend to start with 192.168.xxx.xxx. This IP address will not be available to the world wide web and is only accessible on your local network. These IP addresses can be either static or dynamic depending on how you have configured your network. You can also configure your modem to forward all external connections to an ip on the local network, hence the term ROUTER.

The ISP is what assigns an IP address to your internet connection. Dynamic IP addresses are not usually assigned to Dial-Up connections either as was stated by mHelmy. I have a 50 megabit (5 megabytes per second) connection which still uses a dynamic ip address, which trust me comes in handy. If they ever converted every user to a static IP then I would probably end up switching to a different ISP.

And finally to comment on the tutorial lol
It's very good and clearly written and offers a great method of dns forwarding for dynamic ip holders runnign a server. An alternate method I used to use for my old synchronet server (telnet) was by signing up with DynDNS.com and using their forwarding system. Now I wouldn't have much trouble because my server was constantly connected to the web, however there did come times when the server required a reboot if the OS became unstable or began to lag. If this happened then I would simply visit whatismyip.com, get my new ip quickly and easily and update my DynDNS account in seconds with the new ip address, so routing to the site was immediately updated and corrected. So my static DNS address was bennettbbs.darktech.org (I had a free account with DynDNS) which never changed however my IP was constantly changing.

[tansqrx]

I personally use DynDNS (http://www.dyndns.com/) and get a hostname that can be looked up to find my current IP. I run a DynDNS client on a spare computer that updates when my ISP IP has changed. I know that many consumer routers (Linksys) even support DynDNS updating on the router.

Like the previous poster stated, I have a TeamSpeak server running on the spare computer and I just give all the clients the DynDNS hostname. They never have to change their settings and I never have to work because the update client does all the work.

[Neten]

The No-IP client sometimes (raarely) needs you to uncheck and check again to update. just keep that in mind. My ISP is a little unstable so i have to do that ALL the time for fast updates.

[manuleka]

Dynamic IP is usually given for Dial Up connection, not for dedicated connection.

And a dial up connection is usually slower. Maybe its speed is not enough for your own browsing needs, so it's not wise to run a public server on your computer that can be accessed from world through your dial up connection.

It will only waste your time. Why don't you just host your website on a best quality free hosting astahost.com ? You can use your bandwidth to do something else.

actually some (if not a lot) ISPs run their services with Dynamic IP addresses, then provide Static IP address services by purchase/request

i know here in New Zealand Telstra provides Static IP where as Telecom has a pool of IP address which gets allocated upon modem/router connection to their network... once you reset your modem (which i do often) a new IP is provided

[yordan]

actually some (if not a lot) ISPs run their services with Dynamic IP addresses, then provide Static IP address services by purchase/request

The aim of this topic is precisely to show how to use Dynamic IP address with static names, like no-ip does.
A small service runs on your PC, which communicates with the the server, and when people want to reach your fixed DNS name they reach your PC. When your IP changes, no problem, the client program tells the server that the address changed, and everything works fine again.

[manuleka]

cheers for clarifying that yordan... this is quite handy for those who get's dynamic ip like me with my ISP... everytime i restart my modem i get allocated a new IP