i have a dynamic ip that changes every 30 days or so and i would like to make a server so that when i access a static address ( lets say : www.staticaddress.com ) it will direct me to my server even when my ip has changed. Note: my internet connection first enters a router that supplies 3-4 computers with internet connection ( via cable or wireless ) . can anyone direct me to a tutorial?
Regards,
Alex Badescu
If you have a domain name whose DNS records you control fully, this can in fact be done.
Sign up for a dynamic DNS provider like DynDNS
Get a sub-domain under one of their domains like xyz.homeip.com
In your domain's DNS records, for www, add a CNAME entry pointing to xyz.homeip.com
Related
Updated the question:
Assume that i run several web applications in one windows server under IIS. As you know, for the several web applications to co-exist in IIS, i need to differentiate them using a hostname, ip address or port combinations. Assuming that i go with defining a hostname binding unique for each of the web applications, do i need to create a DNS entry for the hostnames to be resolved?
There are three different sites i host in IIS in the same windows server. I can not allocate different ip address to each of my dev sites so i chose to use unique host names for each of the sites thus
api-orders.dev
api-catalog.dev
api-products.dev
etc..
api - indicates it is a web api.
orders | catalog | products - indicate it is an application serving a business department.
dev - indicates it is my development site.
My organization has several domains such as usdev.org.com, us.org.com, uk.dtt.org.com and more like.
Assuming that my Dev servers are hosted in the usdev.org.com domain. I should be able to request my hypothetical sites from within and also outside of the usdev.org.com domain
right now, when i use the below urls, i am not able to hit the site within or outside the domain. Not even from the web server where the sites are hosted. I ask this question to several people and could not get a clear response.
DO i need to create DNS entries corresponding to the hostname IIS binding of each site in order to solve this issue?
api-orders.dev.computer-name.domain.com
api-catalog.dev.computer-name.domain.com
api-products.dev.computer-name.domain.com
What kind of setup i need to acheive this?
If you just want to access the website via your Active directory. I think you shouldn't include servername in your domain name.
Because in common AD DNS Forward Lookup Zone.
You should have a primary zone called domain.com. Your web server will displayed as a HOST(A) Servername and its FQDN will be servername.domain.com.
Then you could create a CNAME api-orders.dev and map it to your servername.domain.com. The FQDN should be api-orders.dev.domain.com.
Finally you have to set the domain into IIS binding so that IIS can share 80 port for mutiple sites.
Since your cname api-orders.dev will not be considered as a seperate website, you have to input FQDN instead of CNAME.
If you want to access the website from internet, then you may need to purchase public domain from domain provider and map it to your server's public IP address.
Apache doc regarding virtual hosts states:
Your server has a single IP address, and multiple aliases (CNAMES) point to this machine in DNS. You want to run a web server for www.example.com and www.example.org on this machine.
Am I right to assume that I can also bind two domains to this single IP address using A DNS records, instead of creating one A record and CNAME record for another domain pointing to the first domain? I mean that it won't affect Apache's functionality.
Correct. The browser passes the name it is requesting. It does not care what type of DNS record was used to resolve the name to an ip address.
I usually use Cnames though for the actual domain. and point it at an a record that just represents the ip. Just a way to organize things and make it easier in the future.
I have a web domain registered and a hosting space.
When I access my website with www (for ex. www.example.com) it shows expected content. However when I try to access it without www (for ex. example.com) it shows site under construction page. This site under construction page is provided by web hosting provider and is html file.
What changes are required for accessing site both ways?
setup an A-record for the domain name without the 'www' prefix pointing to the IP address of
the web-server, and setup a CNAME-record for the domain name with the 'www' prefix pointing
to the web-server IP.
use a CNAME record for "www" to point it to the base name. Use an A record for the base name.
But I find it easier (and it's ever so slightly faster for users) to simply use an A record for both the base name and www.
Creating A record and CNAME record usually is the solution - but on your authoritative DNS.
You will want to put A and/or CNAME records into master DNS, not secondary DNS. There are two approaches to DNS which are:
authoritative DNS (master DNS)
local DNS (usually resides on your host machine/router) (secondary DNS)
Indeed - it is not simple as it may seemed. To have your own working authoriative DNS, you need 2 host machines physcially connected to two different separated ip addresses (eth0 physical connect - not virtually bridged). Since this is so complicated and time-consuming implemention, it is typical to outsource master DNS to a DNS provider (and is a common practice among many of us).
I have 4 servers on my one ip, and my local DNS are being managed in between my router and 4 host machines and it works great on local network ONLY. Since I wanted the local network to be hooked to my domain, I outsourced my master DNS to http://dnsimple.com (there are other DNS provider competitors), so it'd manage my domain directly. This therefore functions as an authoritative DNS, known as master DNS.
The issue you are trying to fix should be focused toward master DNS, not secondary DNS (local network) as it'd not work. If you got your domain via a registrar company or a web-hosting company, you should be able to find the setting/management on your account with the company (for example, C-Panel)...not DNS on your local network.
EDITED: This is a tool that I always use and is a great benefit in tackling down DNS / Domain issues. I dont know what I'd have done without it. http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools
Ok so I have a domain registered, for these purposes I will refer to it as mydomain.com.
I also have Shared Hosting (just fyi) so I may be restricted in doing what I am planning.
So basically I have a sub-domain, gserver.mydomain.com, which points to a directory on the Host server showing basically a seperate website for this subdomain displaying information about it's corresponding gameserver.
Since it's about a gameserver, naturally I would want gserver.mydomain.com to also direct users to the gameserver's IP but I can't have it both to the Web Server and Game Server in the zone record as they are seperate IPs.
If the gameserver listens on.. let's say port 2400, then is it possible to have gserver.mydomain.com:2400 point to another IP (the gameserver's IP) while still retaining the Web Hosts IP on port 80.
I have a general idea of how to go about it but with the current Hosting Plan, restrictions may be preventing me.
Talking about DNS, it's not possible to use port (tcp or udp) information, as it handles only name/ip's (basicaly).
So, gserver.mydomain.com will always be resolved to the IP in the DNS database, regardless of the :port. Actualy, the :port is not part of the DNS name.
If all of your server will be HTTP servers and you have access to an Apache web servers, you can use something like proxy_pass.
You can take a look at this link http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypass
I have a server in at a hoster (which has a static IP) and want to run a server at home too and don't want to buy the dyndns package from dyndns.com
I would either like to find a program that does this without costing money and using my own server and domain so I can have myclient.domain.com or I would like to write this myself. Would I be able to do that with a custom apache conf?
EDIT:
I have 1 Server with a static ip and I want to run a server at home (dynamic IP) I want to use the server with the static ip to run as the dyndns managing server
I use zoneedit.com for my DNS servers, and they have a free dynamic service that works fine for my home box. (On the other hand, my home box changes IP about twice a year, so it's not like I stress it.)
On my home box, I have a script that polls a tiny little cgi on my colo box to return what my current IP is (because I can't get it from the router), and if it's changed, it does a "curl" to update my zoneedit settings. When I get home, I'll try to remember to post the script.
Per your revisions: Ah, then you can theoretically do that, yes. (As noted elsewhere, apache.conf is irrelevant.) Your hosted server needs to be the nameserver of record for your dynamic DNS; you should probably use a subdomain. This would be a record in your main domain's zone file of IN NS server.ip.number.here. Then you configure a DNS server on your hosted server for the dynamic namespace; you'll have to get deep into the configuration to set up the records so that they advise client nameservers not to cache them, or to cache them only very briefly. Then you write some sort of systemry where the home machine, when a connection is established, talks to the hosted server and tells it to change the DNS for the dynamic hostname to point to its currently assigned IP.
You cannot do it with a custom Apache conf. Apache handles web serving, not DNS.
Maybe I´m wrong but I think what you want is:
create a dynamic host in a free DNS service, like dyndns.org (Or you can even manager a entire domain using editdns.com which has dynamic dns also). For example: server-at-home.dyndns.org.
Create a static IP host for the desired address (ex. www2) pointing to the same IP address of the www server.
Create a virtual host in the httpd.conf in the static ip server and put a reverseproxy using the dynamic host create on item 1.
P.S.: You said that the main goal is to void to buy for this service but i use dyndns.com and i dont pay for it. And i have 4 hosts in my account.
I have a server at home with a Static IP address, and I do exactly what you are looking to do with a free dyndns account. I just have to renew it every month or two - they send me an email and I just click the link to let them know I'm still here and alive.
I am not exactly sure, but it sounds like you want to redirect to your "server" at your house from your webserver at the hosted site?
You will need to periodically send some notification to your static IP server to let it know your dynamic ip.
You can do this is some cron/scheduled job - just create a redirect html page every day and ftp it (automagically) to your static ip host.
There are probably other ways to do this. But that should work.