Home Server

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

I am building my own PC at the moment and have realised that I have a shed load of parts left from past machines too.

All that is missing from one of them is a hard drive, which I now have, and memory, which I can take from or share with, my current PC (as I have 2 DIMM's in at the moment).

I was wondering exactly what I would need to build my own server in order to run a web site from my home PC, or to store files on it to access over the internet etc.

Im going to google for a bit now but any thoughts or past experience would be appreciated.

Cheers

PJ
____________________
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick up the arse will take you a long way.
Only1PJ.co.uk

R1stu · Shrek! Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Karma :

I also run my own server mate, and its great fun. All that you need is a few little programs installed to make it all work.

1) ServU FTP Server

2) DNS4me/NO IP.com (for getting a site to your IP)

3) IIS/Apache (web server IIS is part of windows)

With these bits of software you can have your own FTP server and a web server. However I am having problems with the web server side of things at the mo, where as my Intranet is fine, but the outside world cannot access the pages.

You can get a 30 day trial of DNS4me from Rhinosoft.com after that its only $20 per year for the service, which is very good and I will be subscribing.

This service changes the server address to the new IP every time it changes, as unlike mine most peoples IP are Dynamic. (Meaning they change every connection) No IP is a free service, however you need to update the IP address manually each time it changes via their website.

I hope this helps, if you need and more info let me know ok?

Regards

Stuart
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

What is this "Apache" you speak of?

I cant see if IIS is installed on my PC or not, where could I get IIS (if in fact you can get it separately to a windows installation) or Apache download.

Is Apache free?

PJ
____________________
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick up the arse will take you a long way.
Only1PJ.co.uk

MarJay · But it's British! Joined: 15 Sep 2003 Karma :

Apache is a web server program, and its better (so I hear) than IIS. I have apache running on my laptop and it is very good. I believe (not 100% sure) that it is free.

Hope that helps. Smile

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Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

R1stu · Shrek! Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Karma :

You can get Apache from https://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi?Preferred=http%3A%2F%2Fapache.mirror.positive-internet.com
and its FREE! IIS is part of windows.

If you goto add/remove programs in the control panel, and then windows system components, then you can install it from there!
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

I have downloaded Apache (and have no idea what it does or how to work it still) but I am now after a domain name.

I did a bit of searching through previous posts and have a list of places to look for and buy domain names but I am not sure exactly what I need.

https://uk2.net/ where Syfoon got his .co.uk account seem to be the cheapest but they offer extra services like:

* WebDiversion with UK2NET Header
* Website 50mb
* WebDiversion without UK2NET header
* CGI / PHP (Requires website)
* MySQL database (Requires CGI)
* 500 extra forwarding addresses
* Spam filtering
* DNS Management

If I am going to be running this site from my PC (2nd PC when I get the new one built) I will not need the web space, but if I use some of the programs mentioned earlier, will I need DNS management, CGI/PHP etc?

PJ
____________________
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick up the arse will take you a long way.
Only1PJ.co.uk

Ste · Not Work Safe Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :

Any PC connected to the Internet can be run as a webserver. However, there is little point in doing this for most people other than as a quick and easy way of developing websites and being able to test them.

Apache is the industry standard in web server's.

Unless your site is using lots of the computer processor power there is no need for a seperate machine to be running as webserver.

Remember to also setup a good firewall correctly as you are allowing people onto your PC.

My Penny Coin

would be to install it, learn it, play about with it etc but just use it internally.

Ste · Not Work Safe Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

If you have to ask what Apache is then it's probably not for you.
It's moderately complex to setup, compared to IIS anyway.

However if you intend to use IIS you need to be sure that you install every security update as and when they become available.

IIS does FTP as well, but as above, you need to be sure that it's kept up to date and this still doesn't guarentee it will be 100% safe.

There are some dynamic dns places that do it for free.
I can reccomend www.ukreg.com for domain names, however unless you particularly want your own name, most of the dynamic dns places will give you a free subdomain... ie yoursite.dynamicdns.com style.

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

Ste · Not Work Safe Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Unless you have a fixed IP, you can't just buy a domain and point it at your home computer. You'll need one of the dynamic IP things people have been talking about.

I'd sort that out and if everything else works fine, buy your domain as the last step.

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

As far as I can tell, No-IP.com do the job... dont they? Confused

Registered with them and then intend to buy domain name.

PJ
____________________
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick up the arse will take you a long way.
Only1PJ.co.uk

Ste · Not Work Safe Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :

It will do the job. You don't need to buy a domain name unless you're going to use thier plus service which isn't worth it as you can get it for free.

I'd start of just getting apache to work, then getting it to work with an IP address, and then think about getting a domain as that is the only bit which is actually going to cost any money Smile

Ste

R1stu · Shrek! Joined: 12 Mar 2003 Karma :

Im using dns4me, like I said, its only $20 for a years use or $30 for 2yrs!! and my address is vengence.servu4me.com.

You can then get a web address forwarding system to the address you choose!! Thats how I am doing it!
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

I think you'd agree that he should get it up and running on free trial first though.

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

So, if I used https://www.dyndns.org/, for free, and then arranged some free URL redirection to my www.only1pj.co.uk address, that would work right?

PJ
____________________
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick up the arse will take you a long way.
Only1PJ.co.uk

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

dynDNS provide this dynamic DNS service for free.

Where as

Sytlutions offer redirection also, for free.

Confused

____________________
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick up the arse will take you a long way.
Only1PJ.co.uk

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

You want https://www.no-ip.com/services/page/free/dynamic/dns or similar. It doesn't matter which, they all do the same thing.

Then, yes, you could get your domain name forwarded to that if you so desired.

I think I used dns2go when I did this, they were fine and would redirect users to another page when your machine was offline.

Dr Nick · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 Jun 2003 Karma :

For when i needed to convert my forum to phpBB, i needed to run the converter locally. I found a piece of software called phpTriad which has apache, php, perl, mySQL etc bundled with it.

I think its the tits, but ive only used to to convert my forum.

Heres the link

https://sourceforge.net/projects/phptriad
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is that it

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

Right, this is annoying me now.

To have people 'access' my website/server/files etc, by typing in the domain name I bought earlier today, Only1PJ.co.uk, I can not use one of these third party companies can I.

They all make you use there long company name url's. Don't they?

PJ
____________________
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick up the arse will take you a long way.
Only1PJ.co.uk

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Where did you buy your domain name from?

Most places, for a fee, will let you 'forward' the url on to somewhere else. That somewhere else would be the dynamic ip redirecting address that you get and point at your actual machine.

So you point PJ'sdomin.com at PJsdorkyIPthing which points at 81.23.45.67 or whatever your machine is that day.

If the company you bought it from will NOT do this, me & G will host your domain name for a small donation and can do the forwarding.

P_J · Nearly there... Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Karma :

Bendy · Mrs Sensible Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Karma :

Like we're that organised Rolling Eyes

Apparently UKreg will forward, so you won't need us. Well, not until you muller your connection and realise buying some webspace would have been easier from the start...