web hosting

[Slater]

ok, there is a thread out there about this general topic, but it's not quite what I was looking for.

I have a site called Nothing But Nack (http://www.nothingbutnack.com). go ahead, click that link! you will notice that nothing is there. That is because my host (http://www.nintendonet.com) went down when funding ran dry. and it makes sense... host goes down, YOU go down.
so here I am, floating out here with a dead host and a half-finished website sitting on my HD that I would like to have up on the net some time soon (I have a 100% backup of the site here too. smart, huh?). but I need a host...
anyone have ideas? Right now I don't need much... maybe 100 megs of space. any recomended hosts out there?
There was a way to set up my comp as a server too, and the pros are easy to see. 180 GB of space, free bandwidth (you know what I mean), and no having to call all over the place when your server goes down... just plug the durn thing back in. but there are also things that worry me... I am using cable through a linksys router. Yes I am on a network, no it is not at all active. I use 99.99% of the internet bandwidth on this computer. still, will it work through a router? Yes, I did disable its firewall.
also, would I need a DNS registration still? That seems to be a very logical "yes." any recomendations for a good DNS server site?
My upstream is about 480 Kb. I think this is pretty good for a small site like mine, but if anyone thinks otherwise...

so, can y'all help me?

[shooraijin]

If you want to do the home hosting route (both myself and oldphilosopher have large home networks), you'll need a static IP address at a minimum, and not all hosting providers offer that *or* allow home hosted services. 480K is a nice, decent upstream, so I think for a small site that will do just fine. I have filters on my outgoing web traffic so that I evenly disperse 32K/sec streams over my 384K, although I'm going to upgrade it to a 608K upstream if I can twist my ISP's arm a little.

Assuming you have all that and your ISP isn't going to ding you, what are you planning to host it on? The Unix/Linux/BSD (for that matter, Mac OS X) route means most of your tools come with you out of the box: some sort of web server (usually Apache), a DNS server (named), and firewalling and protection tools such as tcp_wrappers or ipchains. On Windows, I don't know how you'd do it; you might need to use an external DNS service such as dyndns.org and maybe Apache NT or PWS.

I use Network Solutions for my domain name services, but anyone should do, and most of them should offer you the option of having your own DNS servers running with your own name listings.

[Mithrandir]

btw: Most linksys routers allow you to use "ddns" or dynamic dns (see shoob's post). But did you know you can "forward" one or more port(s) through the Firewall? You can set up your router to forward port 80 to 192.168.0.1, for example, and have a machine inside your firewall on at all times. "EasyDNS" style service will let you use a dynamic IP, too.

Just some thoughts...

[Slater]

ok, I'm gonna sound like a TOTAL DORK for asking this, but how can I check if I have a static or dynamic IP? I know what they are, but I don't know how to check. when I do check, I get the generic 192.188.1.x address that everyone else who has a router has, with a subnet IP that is completely different. I know that it would not be a kewl idea to regester a domain under that IP... unless you want to give people's computers heartattacks... eh heh heh...

so, like I was saying, how can I find out my IP and weather it is static or not? I used a forum program since I was a mod there, but since that forum went down, it doesn't work...

any hintz?

[shooraijin]

Check your router's settings. Do you use DHCP to grab an address lease? If so, that's usually strong (although not ironclad) evidence your address is subject to change. PPPoE also is typical of a dynamic connection.

Also, my static IP connections (I have five, which I lease from my upstream -- two for my servers and a couple more as connectivity boxes and firewall stubs), for example, use neither DHCP nor PPPoE -- I know what my IPs are, and I set the firewalls and the server's external interfaces to them directly without using any kind of IP lease system. If your ISP isn't telling you this information, there might be a good (er, bad) reason.

[Slater]

the settings say that DHCP is set to 192.168.1.1 ... it says that I got the lease September 3 and that it expired september 4. so yay it changes every day ja?

it also says that I have 2 DNS servers:
204:1xx.xxx.x and 63.2xx.xx.xxx

so... uh... what do I do with that info?

[shooraijin]

The DHCP lease implies that your address *could* change every day. There are two situations where it wouldn't: 1) you really do have a "stealth" static IP and the DHCP is just for autoconfiguration purposes. This is rather unusual; most ISPs that offer static IP do so very loudly for advertising reasons since, obviously, it's a desirable feature. However, there are some ISPs that do indeed do that silently; just don't count on it staying that way. More likely, however, 2) relatively few systems are competing for leases, so even though you have a truly dynamic IP, you just keep getting the same address in the round robin because even though it got freed, no one was waiting to grab a lease ahead of you, and thus you got the old address back again.

The router's external address *shouldn't* be 192.168.1.1 unless there's something intriguing about your network. According to the logs here, the external IP you're exposing is in the 67/24 network (that's a Class A IP 67.*.*.* owned by Comcast; full subnet censored for privacy, ask me if you want it and really can't figure out what your external address is).

What do you do about it?

1) March up to Comcast and present your checkbook and say, "Yo, fool, give me a static IP." Write them a nice additional surcharge a month.

2) Change services to a provider that provides static IP for a nominal extra fee. I use DSLExtreme which should be available to you also, since you're in California as well. Their static IP rates are *very* reasonable and it's dirt cheap to get extra addresses if you want them, and they're friendly to people who want to run servers. http://www.dslextreme.com

3) Live with Comcast's dynamic IP restrictions and use a service like http://www.dyndns.org to do dynamic DNS mapping, which requires your system to run a client to constantly broadcast to DynDNS what address you're using. Your firewall may or may not support this, and Comcast may or may not allow you to run services from your servers even if you *do* get this working. Check your AUP before you even bother.

[Slater]

well my router's IP isn't 192etcetc... that's just the general IP across the network, which is the same as my friends' networks.

so, basicly untill Comcast decides to give us a static IP, I can't do much, eh? How much do you think that'd cost?
changing ISPs isn't something I'm too fond of. They were nice enough to give us 2x the downstream of their usual services at no additional cost, and I'd like to keep that.

Maybe I'll use Dyndns, but would it work through a Norton Firewall? Cause that's what my dad just bought yesterday along with their latest Antivirus (because my sister installed the wonderful virus named "Bloodhound" on one of our comps). I have no problems with using Dyndns, just as long as it works without a hitch.

[shooraijin]

I think you're going to have trouble with DynDNS unless you can figure out what your true, worldwide IP is. There is no *way* it can be truly 192.168.1.* on the outside (and in fact I know it's not) because that's defined as a Class C internal address. If that really is the *external* (NOT INTERNAL!) address of your router, this isn't going to work.

Keep in mind the typical home router has two faces. The internal face is exposed to your home network, and your home network is remapped as a private intranet, typically on a Class C internal network address. (Mine happens to be a Class A, but that's just how I set it up ages and ages ago.) The external face is the IP address that the router transparently remaps internal addresses into. It doesn't matter what the internal face's IP address is, because no one will ever see it. The *external* address is what you need to look at.

As an example, try going here (this is a CGI test for the webserver that I write and maintain):

http://www.floodgap.com/httpi/noodle

I strongly doubt that a 192.168.1.* address is going to turn up.

[Kaligraphic]

or http://www.whatismyip.com/ for just the ip address.

[Mithrandir]

...unless your internet provider is forcing you through a proxy, which some use DHCP to get you to use...

[Slater]

well my case now is that my dad doesn't want me leaving my computer on all the time... ^^;

[shooraijin]

*grins* Now that, we can't help you with. ^^

[Slater]

maybe a list of good, well-priced hosting companies? (good and well-priced being key words there) Like I said, I don't need too much bandwidth and something like 100-200 megs of space. It would also be nice if I could upgrade my space/badwidth when I feel necesarry

[shooraijin]

I know Gypsy uses http://www.jatol.com/ for her site, so that might be somewhere to consider. The rates don't look too bad.

Back in the day when I was in the amateur portal business, I did a lot of work through http://www.buoy.com/ . If you make any inquiries, I'll give you a name to ask for.

[Mithrandir]

O.O That's "Not needing too much bandwidth" for you? 100-200 megs...? Are you hosting songs, or something? My entire website, databases and all is only 5 megs, and most of that are the rotating front graphics that my wife drew. Huh... I guess to each their own.

[Slater]

well I am hosting about 60 pictures so far, hi rez... and I am still collecting them. Also I will be hosting fiction. So far it came out to about 50 Megs, but I'd like to add some more to it.