Running own server on University Network?

How do I run my own server on a University Network?

[vsage]

I'm new here and I apologize if this has been addressed before. I just entered a large university with a massive network and well I'm worried about whether I have the ability to host a webserver or not. I have been hosting my site on my old computer for some time at my parents' house and it worked fine because all I had to do was forward port 80 on the router to my local intranet IP. No sweat right? What if I don't have access to port forwarding? How do I get users to my site from the web? I'm stumped and I tried googling for over an hour for something relevant. I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not but I use Apache 2.0 on Windows XP (I know I know, but it's a small site so it doesn't really matter what I use too much)

[py9jmas]

CHeck your University network's terms of service. Different universities have different rules. If your University is on JANET in the UK, non-academic use is technically banned. Some universities will completely firwall off their residential network so you won't be able to run public servers, some allow it with restrictions.

Ask around older students, see what they could get away with and how.

[benihana]

i work at for an ac.uk, and all students and staff here have webspace available to them. Talk to the computing service reception.

caveat: everyone has space but its generally under the main domain, i.e. ac.uk/students/m.y.initials

adding a domain to the name servers would probably be a very different matter - particularily if its a money making venture. talk to the computing services.

as for actually 'running your own server' - not a chance. There will be fulltime, highly qualified server admins to do that.

alternatively, when that first loan check comes in, blow £20 on a years hosting :)

[Custodian]

Many universities in the US are constantly being hacked into from the outside, being sued by the RIAA for allowing file sharing and targeted by many law enforcement agencies for illegal internet scams.

As a result, universities have cracked down on who they allow on their network. Even if you do manage to get your server set up, most universities run monitoring software that will detect your server's presence and then either block the IP or track you down.

Your best option is to host your site outside of the university.

If you are wondering how to do it and not get caught? I'm not much help there.

[vsage]

Are there any good hosts you guys prefer? (I may just end up leaving one of my comps back at my parents' and host it that way) I get tons of money from this university in aid so I can probably set aside 20 of it for hosting. Universities throw way too much money at kids like me but I digress. Thanks for your opinions. They don't actually allow any sort of server but I've been running Apache in the background of this particular computer for a month now and I haven't gotten any sort of notice so I figured they didn't care too much, but it may just have been because its not generating any traffic since outsiders cant get into it.

[karmov]

its not generating any traffic since outsiders cant get into it.

That's exactly why they're not worrying about it :) They've most likely blocked all of the stuff they're worried about at the router so that students can't do anything outside of their ToS.