I'm going to try making a home web server.
Tim
Southwest PA Icrontian
Just for something to do, and just to see if I can do it, I'm going to try hosting a website here at my place. Nothing fancy, just an HTML coded page with photos and videos and stuff like that, and some software to see the amount of traffic.
The word to keep in mind here is FREE.
I already have a Comcast cable connection with dynmic IP on it. A local ISP right down the street from me can give me a static IP fiber optic / ethernet line for $35 a month for 5 Mbps down / 2 Mbps up, or $45 a month for 15 Mbps down / 2 Mbps up. I'll go cheap on that, upload is what matters here.
Computer to be the server: I have a Dell Dimension L866r desktop here. 866 P3, 128 MB ram (I can boost it to 512 MB),20 GB 5400 rpm Western Digital hard drive.
Software: I just did a full reformat / reload on it, it now has Windows 2000 Server on it. My 2000 CD has 2000 Pro, 2000 Server, and 2000 Advanced Server on it.
I've been reading around on the web a bit for tips and software, there something called Abyss Webserver that sounds like it'd work ok for my needs. It claims to be super easy to set up, we'll see about that.
So other questions: Any tips for some free security software to use on this thing? It's going to connect directly to ethernet, so there's no hardware firewall in place.
Any other setup and security tips and ideas?
I still have to think of a URL name for the site.
Once it's all up and going, I'll ask people here and from other sites to visit it and see how it works and let me know how it does.
The word to keep in mind here is FREE.
I already have a Comcast cable connection with dynmic IP on it. A local ISP right down the street from me can give me a static IP fiber optic / ethernet line for $35 a month for 5 Mbps down / 2 Mbps up, or $45 a month for 15 Mbps down / 2 Mbps up. I'll go cheap on that, upload is what matters here.
Computer to be the server: I have a Dell Dimension L866r desktop here. 866 P3, 128 MB ram (I can boost it to 512 MB),20 GB 5400 rpm Western Digital hard drive.
Software: I just did a full reformat / reload on it, it now has Windows 2000 Server on it. My 2000 CD has 2000 Pro, 2000 Server, and 2000 Advanced Server on it.
I've been reading around on the web a bit for tips and software, there something called Abyss Webserver that sounds like it'd work ok for my needs. It claims to be super easy to set up, we'll see about that.
So other questions: Any tips for some free security software to use on this thing? It's going to connect directly to ethernet, so there's no hardware firewall in place.
Any other setup and security tips and ideas?
I still have to think of a URL name for the site.
Once it's all up and going, I'll ask people here and from other sites to visit it and see how it works and let me know how it does.
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Comments
I'm not really sure for about the process of pointing a domain name to your server because I've never needed to. I just use the ip address of my server. And as far as security I have my server behind ipCop with port 80 forwarded to my server. Now that would cause issues, but for right now it works just fine.
Whats a good, easy to use, FREE program that will show me how much traffic, bandwidth, and # of users I'm getting?
I don't know ANYTHING about Unix. I have a copy of Ubuntu Linux 8.10 Intrepid Ibex that I'll get around to trying someday, and I did a little bit of looking around in 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron.
A while back I found a web traffic monitor called StatCounter and set it up on my main site, but its information was generic at best.
Based on what I've read and been told so far, the 2000 Server / Abyss Webserver / IpCop thing should work well enough, but I'm always looking for more ideas.
I spent this morning rewriting the html code for the site and its 3 pages (4 if you count the home "index" page), getting a bunch of photos and videos and text set up on the pages, etc.
So the pieces are starting to come together.
Called up my phone company and asked them about putting a static IP DSL on my phone line. They are doing that for $35 a month. It's 3 Mbps down / 512 Kbps up, which isn't as fast of an upload as I wanted, but it'll do.
The server PC is all set, the website pages are ready, I just have to decide on a firewall and load everything up. I tried burning the ISO of IpCop, but it wouldn't burn, my CD-RW drive may be shot, it's been not working smoothly for a while now. I loaded up the PC with 384 MB of RAM, one of my 256 Mb sticks wouldn't work in it for some reason.
They aren't installing the DSL until next tuesday, so I can't register the domain name and get the IP address numbers in place until then.
The site will have one page for photos, one page for text, and one page for videos.
If you like the classic 80's music videos, you'll be spending some time on this site! I have about 25 on it so far, plus a few of my own videos.
Besides, there's not going to be much new stuff added to it ever, so it's not like people will be coming back months later to see what has changed.
http://www.wampserver.com/en/
And you're done.
Screw Abyss webserver, Apache is where it is at
If you really psychotic you can try your hand at IIS... http://www.iis.net/
Or you can play in the real world and actually learn something useful with a LAMP server, Ubuntu or Debian...
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_debian_lamp_server or http://wiki.debian.org/LaMp
For the first 4 years or so, I had AWStats on my site, www.loudmouthtim.com , and I liked it. When the ISP changed to the parent company, they switched to some other program that I don't like as much called plesk-stat. Information is nowhere near as detailed.
I tried stat counter on my own, and its information is vague at best. I saw one called Clicky, and it looks good, but I didn't see anything on its site about bandwidth reports.
It's free from Google, will provide stats out the wazoo, and can the applied to any website.
cheers
The computer has the site set up on it too.
Just got to get it working now. The IIS in 2000 Server wasn't working for me, so I disabled it and went to the Abyss Webserver I had downloaded. It'll show my home page when I type in http://127.0.0.1 in the address bar, but I have to get the internet connection figured out yet.
Strange thing, even after I stopped IIS in Services AND set it to "disabled", after the next time I restarted the computer, it made itself turn on and run in "automatic" again.:confused2
I'll call the ISP tomorrow and make sure the router is set right, and if all else fails (which it probably will), I know one computer expert type who co-owns a local ISP service who I can pay to come here and show me all the things I screwed up.:shakehead
I got the Google Analytics code in the index home page too.
Well, it's KIND OF working.
The URL is supposed to be one thing , but that's not showing the home page. The IP address of the server computer is http://206.123.xxx.xxx and if you type that into your address bar, it works.
I spent some time on the phone this evening with the tech department of the ISP that is giving me the static DSL line. The guy I talked to got me through the process of "bridging" the modem / router, so the ip number address thing works.
Another problem is that I'm not sure HOW the site is working. I wasn't getting things working well with Server 2000's IIS system, so I disabled the service and stopped it. I checked the Services list, and it's still shut down.
I messed around with Abyss Webserver last night and don't think I got it working unless I did something right purely by accident. The Abyss icon isn't in the task bar by the clock to show that it is running, yet the site works, although abyssws.exe does show up in Task Manager as a running process.
My 3 Mbps download / 512 Kbps upload static DSL line is also not exactly conducive to fast downloads on your end either. I'm going to see if I can get a faster upload speed tomorrow. I was downloading files to my main PC (on my Comcast high speed cable connection) at 64-67 KB/second. I called a friend of mine and got him to download files at the same time, and he was showing 30-40 KB/second on his end. If I stopped my download, his speed went into the 60's, if I then restarted my download with his still going, I was in the 30-40 range.
Google Analytics is showing the traffic to my site, although it seems to be missing the one statistic I care the most about - total bandwidth / data transfer from the site!
There are 4 pages on the site, all basic HTML pages that load fast. You've got a LOLcat page, a Chuck Norris page, a "what runs this site" page, and an audio / video page. Some of my original Loudmouthtim content (the shorter YouTube versions) is there, plus 34 of the best 80's music videos.
The download speed may suck, but here's your chance to get some classic music videos you may not have seen in YEARS! Start downloading!
I have the Local Area Connection Status window open on the server pc, I'm curious to see how fast it hits 1,000,000 packets of data transfer. Or more. With this weak upload speed it might take a while!:shakehead
I know, some are gonna flip out about it, but there are bigger problems in the world today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA
You and I and others may not AGREE with it, but it is THE LAW, and as such, we do not make any exceptions - no links to pirated content on Icrontic.com
Never in my post did I mention anything about being upset at this content or in anyway give headway to a presumption that I am "freaking out" over it. I was merely trying to provoke a question who's answer may not have been something you were expecting. Thus I was hoping to prevent unforeseen consequences should it be investigated by someone with legal pull.
Anyone know why bridging the router was needed? After the router work was done, the tech people from the ISP had me go into Network Connections and set the IP data to the static IP numbers, along with the subnet and gateway. I had tried doing that before the router was changed to bridging and I couldn't even see the home page using the http://127.0.0.1 address.