IP addressing (internal & external), domains and multiple servers.

napster100

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Aug 13, 2013
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Hi guys, I would like some help from you network experts out there, I have a small knowledge but would like my project I guess to be sort of verified? Or approved to work would be the better way of saying it.

I'm hoping to run maybe about 4 servers, one being a small minecraft server, two being a web servers and the final one being file storage with a possible web interface or FTP, I haven't decided, but more than likely FTP.

I'm currently facing the problem of not having a static public IP address, though I may have found a solution by using a service that no-ip.com offers, which isn't explained extremly well on how it works although I have a somewhat picture of what I can use if for, a domain name instead of IP. I know that to run a webserver it's viable to have a domain rather than IP as it'd be easier to remember and navigate too for users, so firstly can I run a web server through a port other than 80? Also is there a way to stop my router from showing it's interface to the world as I don't fancy being hacked etc... If I type my public IP or public IP with port 80 appended to the end it takes me to the logon of my router, I wish to somehow stop that.

I do believe I could use a domain for people (well my friends as of now) to access the minecraft server, although I'm not sure if I could just give them my domain name to access minecraft server or if I'd have to make a new one and append the server's default port number (25565) or if it would communicate automatically through that port?

I have no idea about FTP or how to set it up so help here would be very advantageous :) The only thing I know here is that it's default port is 21 haha.

Also, I will not have enough RJ45 connection ports on my router and the machine will be a floor above and I don't fancy running a tone of cables up, but I do have a second router... I was thinking of connecting them via RJ45 and using the sub router, but my problem is that I believe the nodes on the sub router can make connections outwards but clients on the WAN ie WWW cannot make connections inwards. Is this correct? Or is it dependant on the setup? I believe this is referred to as subnetting?

Thanks for your time reading this, I know it's an unlikely question and such a long one, but I appreciate all the help and answers I receive... If any haha :) If I've made anything unclear, please tell me and I'll find another way of explaining it. Cheers all.
 
A place like no-ip usually haves you run a small app on your pc that report the IP address to their server. Then in turn give you a hostname from their choice of names, like bob.no-ip.com or something like that (they say with the $20 a yr service you have 80 different subdomains to choose from) They give you 25 host names, so I would assume you could redirect each of those 25 to 25 different ports.

You would use your router to point the ports to the proper server. I don't see why you need 2 web servers and a ftp server. You could do all 3 of them in 1 box. Could do all 4 in 1 box really. there is no need to 2 have different servers just for webpages unless you are hosting a site that gets thousands of hits an hour and even that can be done on a small box.

Your internet bandwidth and upload stream is going to be a much more limiting factor.


 

napster100

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I think my first limiting factor is going to be my computer builds, very low RAM, and poor processor, so bad there's no point in even telling you the specs because there terrible and I know it. I should probably think about getting a new system first, then doing this and see about upgrading my broadband after, I know that's going to be a big bottleneck too, but I'm not expecting a great deal of traffic to start with :)

And please tell me how I'd get them all running on one machine? :D It seems merely impossible haha, but then I don't have much experience there, unless your saying to run virtual servers on one machine? Although I have test run a virtual server but had a few difficulties with drivers but then again it was for the PCI WIFI adaptor, I know its an impractical NIC for a server but that was all I had to play with at the time, now I have a nice long RJ45 cable to plug in the router and a spare second router to use :)
 
honestly, for webhosting, spend $3 a month from hostgator and get your hosting there. Hosting a website at home opens your pc and network to all kinds of exploits that unless you keep up and update daily for php, apache, etc, etc. then trying to configure it all and stuff. if you are a noob at this, setting up a webserver isn't for you. for ftp/file server, buy a premade nas box that has all that. that kills 3 of them. lol. minecraft i know nothing about. lol.
 

napster100

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Aug 13, 2013
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I don't particularly have a regular income of money so paying a company to host I cannot do :/ I understand that web servers opens a lot of security threats, but isn't that what NAT and firewalls are for? Also another reason I was thinking of using a second router, I could put this one in DMZ on the first router (allowing faster flow of traffic to the second one), that way only the nodes connected to the second one would get the bad traffic and potential threats but also be firewalled. I'm also quite a security freak, so anti-virus, malware and spyware software is what I (well my computers) live on haha, I always update and plug the security holes that I know about also try to find out more.

And minecraft is just a game server for the minecraft client, it runs on normal OS like windows 7, Java application, and runs through port 25565 (well that's it's default port), people connect via the node's public IP with the port number appended.
 

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