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2

serving multiple websites over a home DSL line

rated 0 times [ 2] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 2011 / 2 Years ago, sat, april 30, 2022, 5:08:17

I'm a complete noob at running my own server, and I want to install 3 different sites to be served from my Mythbuntu 14.04 system at home. What I want to do is not for actual public access though, but just me and maybe a small circle of other people.
However, I want the sites to be publicly reachable in the sense that I can access them from any place outside my home network. However, I don't want to rent a domain for them, but access them just by the IP addresses.

My question is: how about public IP addresses? Do I need to have as many as the number of sites I want to host?
I have a normal home DSL internet connection, and I think my ISP may only be handing me a dynamic IP address - but I still have to verify that, it may also be static.
In short, is it possible to host like three sites, accessible from outside, on the same box, over this infrastructure, or would I need to make arrangements with my ISP for a different setup?

EDIT: Thanks for your answers, I'm not sure though I got it all figured out:

It seems that If I have a static IP, I don't need the DynDNS service, correct? It seems that I actually might, but I sent e-mail to my ISP to confirm (EDIT: no, it's dynamic).

Checking my router's control panel, I can't find a proper interface for port management. This router actually belongs to the ISP, it's a Technicolor Gateway TG788A1vn.

It has a panel for managing firewall settings with just three preset security levels, and basically that's it for managing the firewall!

firewall settings

In addition, I can "assign" applications,

applications assignment. "hermann" in this image is my server box

I suppose the router manages the respective ports, but I'm not sure if "assigning" the https server means it gets to communicate through port 80. Would you think that's what this panel does?

About the domain name vs. IP-only, I'm not actually opposed to using a domain (although IP-only might have a small security benefit?), I just don't want the extra cost. I wasn't aware there are free domains available, so that's good to know! :-)

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bathtusain

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2 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago arkcker · Accepted Answer

I would advise the following:

Get a static IP address (honestly, so much easier). I assume (from now on) that you have opened up port 80.

Register a TLD (top level domain) - free ones are available, such as freenom.com
1. Click Register a New Domain
2. Chose the domain you want, click search multiple TLDs and then select the top row. Click check availability.
3. Select the one you want, click the amount of time, then order now.
4. Complete the fields (100% free)
5. You will be sent back to the home page. Go to your domains...
6. Click manage domain.
7. Click Management Tools and then URL Forwarding. Forward it to a random website (like http://google.com)
That's registered!

Now for the DNS

Sign up to freedns.afraid.org, and add your domain. Steps how to follow:
1. Sign up (free), then Click "domains", at the side
2. Click add domain
3. Enter the domain, and see the highlighted section. We have to go back to freenom for that.
4. Go to manage domains again, and select manage this domain.
5. Select Manage Freenom DNS
6. Select Before using this service, please click here to activate Freenom Default Name Servers..
7. Finally, enter into the fields the following:
  
  NS1.AFRAID.ORG
  
  NS2.AFRAID.ORG
  
  NS3.AFRAID.ORG
  
  NS4.AFRAID.ORG
8. Go back to Free-DNS and click submit
9. Ignore the warning, and just click subdomains.
10. Click add
11. Enter the relevant details, and click save. Repeat for the other subdomains.
12. Enter your domain and click trace. This can speed up the time it takes to start working.
13. Wait for the changes to propagate across the internet - for me it was about 24 hours. I watched funny cat videos:

Now we have to set up apache.

Make 3 folders in the root (/var/www/html) and give them sensible names. In each of those you need an index.html file (or whatever you do with your gaming set up, just separate it into 3).

Use this command to open the file in gedit:

sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

Add in the following lines, at the end. I put it above the # vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet line, but that makes no difference from what I know.

<VirtualHost *:80>

    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/game1"   #Edit this line to have the correct folder name

    ServerName game1.mynametestdomain.tk #Edit this line to have the correct subdomain name

</VirtualHost>



<VirtualHost *:80>

    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/game2"   #Edit this line to have the correct folder name

    ServerName game2.mynametestdomain.tk #Edit this line to have the correct subdomain name

</VirtualHost>



<VirtualHost *:80>

    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/game3"   #Edit this line to have the correct folder name

    ServerName game3.mynametestdomain.tk #Edit this line to have the correct subdomain name

</VirtualHost>

Restart apache with
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```

Make sure everything is working (as I said, it may take 24 hours+ to set everything up.

Finally, set up an index.html in the root that has the links to the other pages - just in case they visit your ip address.