This is topic setting up a web server using Linux in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 04-09-2002, 09:01 AM:
I want to set up a web server for a small web site using a computer I have lying around. What flavor of linux do I use for this? I have a DSL connection, is there anything else I should address before i get TOO into this?Josh
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"Film is made of silver, video is made of rust"
'nuf said
Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 04-09-2002, 09:39 AM:
We need to know your root password to help. 
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-09-2002, 10:19 AM:
What is your upload speed on the DSL? You can test all that at www.dslreports.com under DSLR Tools and then Speed Tests.As far as Linux I am guessing NetBSD, but what da hell do I know? 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-09-2002, 11:33 AM:
What is your goal in doing this? Do you want to get a web server up and running as fast as possible? Do you want it to be primarily a learning experience? Do you want to do this for some other reason?For Linux, I'd recommend the Slackware distribution, which can be found at http://www.slackware.com/
Slackware is less common than various other distributions like Redhat and Mandrake, but it is generally a bit more conservative than the other two and is thus more stable, at least in my experience. The Film-Tech web server runs a hacked-up Slackware installation.
The most common web server for Unix and Unix-like systems is Apache -- http://www.apache.org/. The included documentation is pretty good and you should be able to get a basic site up and running fairly quickly if you have any prior Unix knowledge/experience.
The BSD variants (FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD) are also worth looking into and each offers its own unique benefits. I would tend to recommend Linux for someone without a fair amount of Unix knowledge, though, since the documentation and support that is available online seems to be more abundant and of higher quality (in general).
Lastly, when setting up any system that is on a network, take note of security issues. If all you want to do is serve web pages, then you don't need to run services like sendmail, portmap, telnetd, ftpd, rshd, etc. Instructions for turning these services off are specific to your OS and (in the case of Linux) your distribution (Slackware, REdhat, Debian, etc.).
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 04-09-2002, 09:07 PM:
I *would* like to learn to navagate around linux in the process, but it isnt necessary. All I want is a site to host cross pictures and screening room pics, possibly a few how to pages. I have a 400MHz machine I can use, and I'm not in a real hurry. DSLreports said I have a 207Kbs up and 460Kbs Download.as for the password, dream on.... 
Josh
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-09-2002, 09:43 PM:
Josh, is that using the Red Hat Software? I still have the disks if you need them.
Posted by Sean M. Grimes (Member # 445) on 04-10-2002, 01:49 AM:
Josh just make sure that your isp isn't blocking port 80 and all... you can run into a decently huge road block with that. For servers I would run Apache. The documentation is very good for Apache, imho. But at least with my cable service provider, most "server" ports are blocked.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-10-2002, 02:29 AM:
Sean-Tell us more about this Port 80 blockage and how one can tell if it is indeed blocked.
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 04-10-2002, 08:48 AM:
Yes, do tell
Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 04-10-2002, 11:58 AM:
Some ISPs like to control their customers bandwidth. By blocking Port 80, they are pretty much eliminating the possibility that someone can start up a small website. If they have Port 80 blocked, they might also have 21 blocked as well, for FTP.As for finding out how you can see if it's blocked, I'd imagine running a port scanner on yourself would work.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-10-2002, 07:36 PM:
My problem is that I'm hidden behind several different IP's. The internet sees me as 12.x.x.x. Easy to find out, but I think that IP is a shared one at a router down at the ISP. My IP is something like 10.x.x.x and then of course my machine IP is 192.168.1.1 since it is behind my Linksys router, which is easy to bypass. I don't know if I have blocked ports (which I probably do), but even if I didn't, setting up a personal server probably wouldn't be the easiest task in the world.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-10-2002, 08:59 PM:
If your address is in the 10.x.x.x range, then you are behind some sort of proxy or NAT (network address translation).The 10-net addresses are among a group of so-called "non-routable" addresses intended for use in private networks and specified in RFC1918: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1918.txt These RFC1918 address blocks are guaranteed never to be used on the Internet directly and are thus "safe" to use for private networks (i.e. they won't conflict with someone else's address space).
Unless you have direct control of the router, firewall, or other device which is doing the NAT or unless you want to get fancy with IP tunneling, etc., it isn't possible to host public services which accept incoming traffic requests on a NAT'ed subnet (except for other users on that network, of course, but we're talking about the Internet at large here).
NAT breaks various other things, too. FTP can be made to work, for example, but stuff like videoconferencing often doesn't.
Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 04-10-2002, 09:42 PM:
Joe:
Take a look at http://www.dyndns.org in the dynamic DNS area. These guys specialize in facilitating what you are trying to do. (Dynamic because most ADSL systems don't assign fixed IP numbers to users; yours may change at any time... if you do have a static IP# things are a bit easier)
The IP# you report may be a red herring. Almost all ADSL systems use "transparent proxy" systems that cache web pages, serving them from their local memory instead of from the "real" internet. Pages are cached for a time depending on how many users are accessing them.
This is called transparent because you can not disable it, cable internet systems typically use a proxy server model that can be disabled by changing your internet settings. You can check in start/settings/control panel/internet/connection/LAN settings: if either of the three main check boxes is checked then you can uncheck it and (possibly) not use the proxy any more. Something is odd - the 10.x.x.x IP# is impossible to use on the internet, as Scott mentioned. It can not be the IP# seen by an internet site when you connect to it. Use the IP reporting tools at www.dyndns.org or www.grc.com
This is a different problem from NAT forwarding/masquerading. With a proxy you still have a "real" IP number that would be seen by more dynamic things like IRC. You can use a service like dyndns.org to map a URL to that IP# and then you could host joeredifer.com from your home machine.
BTW - ISPs hate home web servers. They probably forbid it in the EUA you are bound by. They probably have snoop systems that regularly ask your port 80 whether it is a HTTP server, and you might be disconnected if it says "yes"... just something to consider...Oh... the entire class A address block 12.0.0.0 - 12.255.255.255 is owned by ATT.net! They might be selling some of it to other ISPs though, there are very few single-owner class A blocks...