Forum Moderators: phranque
[edited by: jdMorgan at 1:19 pm (utc) on Nov. 13, 2008]
[edit reason] Obscured IP address [/edit]
The LAN IP address of your computer is neither 247.11.***.150 nor 127.0.0.1 -- It is the IP address assigned to your computer by the DHCP server in your router, or the IP address that you selected if you set up your computer's TCP/IPv4 network address manually in "Network Properties" (in Windows). Again in Windows, you can do "Start->Run->Cmd->ipconfig /all" to see your computer's current networking configuration.
I strongly suggest that you *do* run a firewall --both hardware and software if possible-- and disable all inbound services except for HTTP and HTTPS. Otherwise, you face a huge security risk: When connecting servers to the internet, I see that most get scanned for vulnerabilities at least once within 30 seconds of being connected...
Your ISP may or may not permit you to run a server on your internet connection -- Check their Terms of Use carefully. Some ISPs actually block the traffic, while others will cancel your account and disconnect you if they catch you running a server. Some ISPs don't care.
The reason for this is that if you are a normal ISP customer, most of your traffic is *to* your computer: You send small requests (clicks) to servers, and they send large responses (Web pages and downloads). But if you are running a server, then your traffic profile changes noticeably: You server receives small requests and sends large responses -- Most of this traffic is *from* your computer. This unbalances the ISP's network, which is designed for normal clients using browsers. It interferes with their other customers' ability to use their service, and they do not like it. It is also not difficult for ISPs to identify customers running servers, because of this traffic imbalance.
People who have access to only one ISP in their local area should think twice about violating that ISP's Terms of Use; We have had members post here at WebmasterWorld telling us that they can no longer use the internet because they violated their ISP's terms of use, their account was canceled, and they cannot sign up with another ISP. So, they can only use the internet from work, from friends' houses, or from internet cafes...
If you are on Windows XP or Vista, and you have the "Sample" version of IIS installed, then disable it or remove it; If IIS is running, it will grab port 80 and Apache will be unable to connect to that socket to "listen" for traffic.
In order to connect to your server, people on the internet must use your 247.11.***.150 IP address, unless you register a domain name and point that name to your IP address in the domain's DNS zone file.
Jim
