How to host your own website

[pcmaniaguy]

Hello Gents and ladies,

Does any know the steps or know a good link about hosting your own website with static dsl. I got as far as browsing my website by entering my ip but got stuck on the dns part.
I am running windows 2000 server and IIS5. I did some searching on the web but can get anything that is comprehensive. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

K.C.

[korkus2000]

I have done it before. What are you looking for? It isn't that hard except keeping it secure. What part of the DNS stopped you?

[pcmaniaguy]

Basically here is my setting.
Running windows 2000 server and the tcp/ip setting on my local area connection is on dynamic ip as is required by my static dsl. I would get online using PPP over Ethernet dialer that I've created. I'm running IIS5 and typed my static ip under the default web sit properties. This allows me to browse my homepage by entering my ip. Which lead to the next step which is to set up dns translation for my domain name.

I emailed my dsl provider which also is where I registered my domain and they replied with the following email.

"You don't need to run a DNS server in order to have a web server. You can
just change the DNS information on the domain on our servers to point to
your IP address, for a web or a mail server. This is much easier than
setting up your own name server"

I tried it but can get my setting updated due to unknown reasons for now. Anyway are my provider correct and are there other ways to do it such as setting up my own dns server with going through my dsl and domain provider?
Help from anyone is appreciated. Thanks.

[jagalvin]

There right, you don't need to run a name server. Go to the place you registered you domain name (mine is register.com), login and change the ip address associated with your domain name. Withing a day or two, after the information propagates around the name servers around the web, you should type in your domain in a browser and your homepage off you computer should pop up.
-John

[incywincy]

if you have a spare, low spec machine, i'd recommend setting up your own firewall. a product called ipcop (it's free by the way) does an excellent job securing your home network, including your webserver.

[chamade]

You can use your ISP's DNS settings to keep your IP up to date, but you mentioned you were on a dynamic IP which means each time it changes it will take you 24-48 hours to update.

A better solution would possibly be to use one of the companies that specialize in dynamic IP management. Basically you set your domain name to resolve to their DNS servers. Then you tell them your current IP and they update their server usually within 5 minutes or so.

Some even have a loadable program that automatically sends out your new IP to their server everytime it changes so a dynamic IP is almost transparent. 5 minutes downtime to 24-48 hours is probably worth the US$20 to use their service.

If you need specific url's then sticky me.

[incywincy]

not sure how good dynamic dns is with respect to email though. i presume that if your server is temporarily unreachable then all incoming emails will be bounced.

[trillianjedi]

not sure how good dynamic dns is with respect to email though. i presume that if your server is temporarily unreachable then all incoming emails will be bounced.

That's correct, but most of the dynamic IP comapanies now offer an MX-record backup service (at a cost of course) so that if your mail server is down, they take mails for you into a pop3 box on their server.

Having said that, unless you really know what you're doing, or need specific functionality that you can only get by running your own mail server, I wouldn't recommend it. Life's too short, and pop3 boxes that are maintained 24/7 are very cheap.

TJ