Web Site Hosting with Streamyx ADSL Connection

Retiring my 56K dial-up modem and having an always-on internet connection, I started to experiment hosting my personal and other non-commercial web sites from under my desk. It was proven satisfactory. My web sites started to appear in Google, MSN search, Yahoo and various other Internet search engines. Having said that, I wouldn't recommend it for a commercial web site for various reasons.

If you already a Streamyx Broadband ADSL's subscriber with a few hours to spare for this mission, here's a guide for you to get started.

Requirements

In order to have a web site that can be viewed online you must put together all these elements,

1. ADSL Broadband Modem and Router
   There are many units in the market that have these 2 functions in one unit and some come with a 4-port LAN socket. If you found one, it will not only save you money but your setup will be less messy.
2. A computer with a Network Interface Card (NIC)
   I prefer to use a spare computer for a web server. You can use your regular computer to host your web site, but remember, in order to have a successful web site, you must ensure your web site is available 24/7. That means a computer that host your web site must be turn on all the time.
3. A Web Server Program
   There are many web servers program with various degree of sophistication for various operating system such as IIS for Windows, Apache for Linux, Netscape, Sun and Zeus to name a few commoners. Microsoft provides a web server program for Windows users since their early release of Windows 95. However for this exercise I will only show you how to prepare a web server on a Windows 2000 with Internet Information Service 5 (IIS 5).
4. An Account with any Domain Name Service Provider for Dynamic IP
   Streamyx Broadband home users connect with a dynamic IP. Hosting a web server with dynamic IP is useless since no one knows how to reach your web site at any given time. To overcome this shortfall you will use a dynamic DNS service provider that allows you to alias a dynamic IP address to a static hostname. This service usually provided free of charge but with some limitations and you do not need to register for a domain name.
   For this exercise I will be using dynamic IP DNS service from DynDNS.com.

Preparing the ADSL Broadband Router

Almost all recent broadband routers' configurations are accessible with a web browser. Check the router's manual to find out it's default IP address. Once you know the IP address, connect to the router to set among other things,

• Streamyx Broadband account username and password to establish PPoE Internet connection.
• Assign the router LAN IP address
• Enable or disable the build in Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server in the router. You need to take note IP addresses range assign by the router's DHCP server.

Important router's configurations for hosting a web server within LAN are the followings,

• Virtual Server - This is what make your hosting adventure within your LAN works. You tell the router to accept incoming TCP Port 80 requests and direct them to the computer's IP address that was setup as your web server. If the web server also has SMTP configured, you also can open TCP Port 25 for the computer to be able to send out e-mails.
• DMZ - should not be use unless you need to expose your computer to the Internet for some special reasons.
• Dynamic DNS - if it working properly it is very useful and before you can use it, you must register with the respective dynamic DNS provider.

Preparing the Web Server Computer

The computer that you choose to become web server should be assign a static IP address within your Local Area Network (LAN). To set a static IP address on Windows 2000,

1. Click Start > Settings > Network and Dial-up Connections
2. Right click on the Local Area Network icon, select Properties
3. Click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click on Properties
4. Select Use the following IP address:
5. Enter the desired IP address, such as 192.168.0.10. Subnet mask, leave it at 255.255.255.0 and Default gateway IP address. This is your router LAN IP address set earlier to your router.
6. DNS
   You can leave DNS at "Obtain DNS server address automatically". This may or may not work depending on your router. DNS servers can be any valid DNS server IP address on the Internet. They are needed to resolve domain name to its numeric IP address. Normally we will use DNS servers provided by TMNet,
   • 202.188.1.5
   • 202.188.0.133

NOTE:
The web server static IP address must be outside the range of IP addresses given out by your router DHCP server.

Installing and Hardening IIS 5 on Windows 2000

1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel and open Add/Remove Programs
2. In Add/Remove Programs' window, open Add/Remove Windows Components
3. In Windows Components' window, click on Internet Information Service (IIS) and click Details...
4. In Internet Information Service (IIS) window, you only need to check Common Files, Internet Information Service Snap-In and World Wide Web Server. SMTP Service is useful if you want to send e-mail through you web site.
5. Click OK, confirm your selections and Next to start the installation. You will be prompted to insert Windows 2000 installation CD. When the CD is inserted, click OK, wait for the wizard announced it has finish with the installation. Click Finish when the installation completed. Your Windows 2000 computer now ready to host your web site but before that you need to configure your IIS to secure it from known exploits.
6. Open your Internet browser and type http://localhost in the address bar. You will be greeted with a "Welcome to Windows 2000 Internet Services" page and another page that announced "Directory Listing Denied". This is because no web site has been created for the web server to display.
7. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel and open Administrative Tools
   
8. Open Internet Services Manager, right-click on Default Web Site and select Properties. Go to Home Directory tab and change Local Path to other directory or folder you'd plan to store your web pages.
9. Still in Home Directory tab, click on Configuration... button. Once in the Application Configuration window remove all the following extensions;-
   • .printer, .shtml, shtm, .stm, .idc, .htr, cdx, and .cer
   You won't be needing this application extensions. Moving away from default home directory and removing application extensions above secure your IIS web server from known security hole exploits.
   We leave ASP and ASA extensions since it will be useful when creating dynamic web pages on a Windows platform.
10. Again for security reasons, delete Scripts, IIS Admin, IISSamples, IISHelp, MSADC and Printers under your Default Web Site.
11. Next you need to create a sample web page in your web directory. If you already have your web pages ready, copy them into the directory. When you have you pages ready, open Internet browser on the same computer with IIS setup and type http://localhost in the address bar. On another computer within your LAN, type the http://computername where "computername" is the name you gave to the computer with IIS web server configured. You can also type the web server IP address such as http://192.168.0.10.

NOTE:
On Windows 2000, IIS is configured to accept only 10 concurrent connections.

Making Dynamic IP Works for Web Publishing

Streamyx connection for home users assigns dynamic IP address upon successful PPoE connection. Everytime new connections is established, your get a different IP address. It can last for a few hours, days or weeks depending on the state of your connection. Even your ADSL modem turn on 24/7, your IP address will change from time to time. This situation is not suitable for web site hosting.

Fortunately for us, dynamic IP is common for Internet users and ever since the dial-up era people all over the world has been using dynamic IP to host non-commercial or hobby web sites and refining tools and utilities to overcome this issues. One of the many successful organisation to provide this service for dynamic IP users is Dynamic Network Services, Inc. You can use their service at http://www.dyndns.com.

Other similar services
No-ip.com | Address.net | DynIP.com | ZoneEdit.com
You can search for more through search engines.

Using DynDNS.com

1. Go to DynDNS website, and sign up for a free account.
2. Once your account successfully created, log-in and go to Service > DNS Services > Dynamic DNS.
3. Click on Add Dynamic DNS link, enter your chosen hostname and select your preferred domain name from the selection available. DynDNS server automatically detected your Internet IP address, which is the dynamic IP assigned to your ADSL modem by Streamyx. It appears in the IP address fields in the form, do not change anything here. Click Add Host button and you are done.
   For a free account, you can have up to 5 hostnames.
4. Go to DynDNS Update Client page and download the Official Windows Update Client. Download the ZIP file, extract and run the Setup program on your web server machine. The update client is a utility to automatically update your IP address in the DynDNS database when it detected changes to your dynamic IP address.
5. DynDNS Updater Settings
   
   • Group: Add a group and within the group enter your account log-in username and password, and add your hostname in full (eg: mynewhostname.dyndns.org)
   • Connection: Local Area Network
   • IP Address: Use Default Setting
   • Right click DynDNS Updater's icon on the system tray, select Show Main Window > Option tab, check Enable Automatic Update and make sure Checking Interval is not less than 10 minutes. DynDNS will removed your account when it considered abusive update when it detected too frequent update while there is no change to IP address.
     
6. Now you can open Internet browser and type the URL http://yourchosenhostname.dyndnsdomain.tld in the browser address bar to see how your page loads like any other web pages on the Internet. You can pass around about your newly created website and submit your web site to be indexed by search engines.

Cost Considerations

You may not need to spend extra cash for the host computer, but the computer itself is utilising electrical power. The cost you might be expecting for the host computer running 24/7 to serve your web pages to the Internet may be calculated as follows;

Electricity Cost: 350W x 24 hours x 30 days = 252kWh x RM0.258 = RM65 per month

Assuming the maximum power rating of your Power Supply Unit (PSU) for the host computer is 350 Watts on Malaysia's current tariff for electricity usage (RM0.258 per unit on next 200 unit block).

Adding the electricity cost to Streamyx monthly subscription fees of RM88, your total operation cost should be around RM 165 per month. For all the troubles, some paid shared hosting in Malaysia is still much cheaper than that and offer much more reliability as far as connectivity is concerned.

Nevertheless, the freedom of doing anything you like to your own webserver and experience gained from doing it all yourself - priceless.

As a web developer, I'm using this setup to do most of my web development works before I uploaded a complete project to a production server in a datacenter. As you gain more skills and experience running your own web site, you will find many ways to enhance your web server capabilities. There are countless resources and communities on the Internet that you can make use whether you are a hobbyist or professional web developers running your own web server at home on a Streamyx Broadband connection.

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