How can I make my Web Server visible to the 'Outside World'?

[ady199]

Hi Guys,

 

Apologies for the newbie question......

 

I've setup a Web Server and i can access it it through localhost/index.php?item=2&type=library

 

Now I have my own domain name aide199.co.uk through LCN and I want users to access my Web Server by using http://aide199.co.uk

 

How can I do this?

 

Thanks in advance

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I think you need to port forward your "Web Server"

 

Unless you already did that?

[ady199]

I thought as much, this is the part I'm stuck on

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

If LCN has hosting, the safer thing would be to put your site there and never expose your home server to the internet.

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

If you are certain you want to self-host from home, LCN will need to add your home ip address to its DNS to point the domain to you. If your ip address isn't static they probably won't do it.

 

I would strongly urge you to not put a home server online.

[ady199]

Someone else has advised me to create a free domain on no-ip.com which i have done myserver.ddns.net and forward my domain aide.co.uk to myserver.ddns.net

 

But I still can't get my head around how i make http://aide199.co.uk point to localhost/index.php?item=2&type=library

[adrynalyne]

Use ngrok and be done with it.  
 

Otherwise, you need to open port 80 to the world if you want to host on your machine, set up your web server, point no-ip to your public ip, which is hopefully static else you have to run a service to keep it up to date if your router can’t. You sure that’s something you want to do? You are better off finding a cheap web host. If it’s just to test, see ngrok. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by adrynalyne

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

I just looked and LCN does hosting. Just get a basic site there. They will point your domain accordingly. If you can't figure out how to get this going, I doubt there is any likelihood of your home server being secure enough. Do the world a favor and don't run this from home.

[Steven P. Administrators]

  On 04/04/2021 at 16:48, Biscuits Brown said:

I just looked and LCN does hosting. Just get a basic site there. They will point your domain accordingly. If you can't figure out how to get this going, I doubt there is any likelihood of your home server being secure enough. Do the world a favor and don't run this from home.

Expand  

Thanks, you just reminded me to close off outside connections to my NAS. I successfully set it up to allow Plex from the internet using ddns.info but I don't actually need it, and it is a giant security risk so I just set my Qnap to only allow connections from the LAN IP range.

[~InstaShock~]

  On 04/04/2021 at 16:25, ady199 said:

Someone else has advised me to create a free domain on no-ip.com which i have done myserver.ddns.net and forward my domain aide.co.uk to myserver.ddns.net

 

But I still can't get my head around how i make http://aide199.co.uk point to localhost/index.php?item=2&type=library

Expand  

you don't point to localhost, localhost is a term the computer identifies and redirects to itself.

If you've correctly setup the myserver.ddns.net , all you should need to do is to setup port forwarding on your home router such that all requests to Port 80 are redirected to your Computers LOCAL (intranet) IP. 

 

For a detailed answer check out: 

https://serverfault.com/questions/1058/how-do-i-set-up-a-web-server-out-of-my-home