Wow, when I went to dyndns the first time, I thought they only had a service where you pay, but I found that they also have free ones.

http://colinstuart.homelinux.com/ will also work. (easier to remember) . Also, if my DHCP changes my IP from 192.168.101 to for ex. 192.168.1.103, it'll still work (oh yea, it should, I used the 65.30 one, and that one doesnt change, I just gotta keep my server on.

You did it. I visited your site. Not much there, though. I didn't wait for that bmp to download; was coming quite slowly.

As for whether someone can hack Apache, it depends on a LOT of factors. You certainly should make a serious study of security before choosing to leave that webserver connected to the net.

I suggest you disable the port forwarding in your router and play with it for awhile only in your LAN.

What should I try to secure it? I just turned the stuff off on my router.

SSH would be a better choice for this. You can make SSH very secure, and you can even tunnel through any school firewall (though I am not sure if you could get past a proxy server).

Ooof, sure makes me want to just forget about the whole idea. Guess that's not gonna happen, it was fun when I had it up.

Edit: Could I not run it in bsd/linux? I got a copy of XP home, and 2000 pro.

It will be more secure in Linux, but it won't ever be perfectly secure. Security is a process and a journey, not a destination.

There are a LOT of bad guys out there trying to hack computers that are exposed to the web. Windows computers are notoriously vulnerable. I would think that Apache on Windows would be a lot better than IIS, but given that the underlying OS is insecure I wouldn't trust it.

Myself, I just hire a hosting service for my websites. Let someone else deal with the problems and I'll give 'em $7 a month to do it. I do run a server for my clients (on Win2K as it happens) but it is using an app that I wrote to function as an ASP and I have it hidden behind a small router appliance, with only the ports that my ASP app needs exposed. It is pretty tight, but then it isn't using the web.

I guess I could try to do this on PCLinuxOS, but then I can't use wifi... eh screw it. If this is gonna comprimise the security of our stuff, it's not going to happen.

I run a full-up apache server on my workstation. I have mod-perl, PHP, ssl, xml, mysql, postgresql, all available on an apache2 server. I use it for development work. I have it set up to deny connections other than from the LAN, and I don't forward from the router to the webserver. Beyond that, I don't worry much about its security; it is behind the firewall and I have full control of all 'puters on the LAN.

All my web stuff is developed using that server and, when I am satisfied with it, I upload it to a hosting service where the rest of the world can see it.

You will find that having a web server available on your LAN will greatly facilitate your playing around, but if you really want the world to see it, you are best off if you just use a hosting service and keep your LAN private, closed, and secure.

Alternatively, set up another machine outside your LAN but still on your internet connection and play to your heart's content. If the machine gets corrupted, your LAN is still safe.

Well the fun I'm guessing was to host your own webpage, but just giving it to the hands of some hoster for bucks of month isnt gonna happen. My dad isnt gonna let me sigh up for that stuff, making own server ok, making own server but making holes in our security no.

So, everyone just ignore this thread, it was never here.

Unless you have a lot of resources and money to spend on buying a fast enough backbone to the internet and the cost of the server etc. get your site hosted by a third party. It'll still be cheaper if you go for a shared host. Monthly costs can be as low as $4. You can still do web development on a local Apache server as mentioned here. Apart from the speed issues of your internet connection, hosting frees you up from the headache of having dedicated machines to do your web serving and also the regular maintenance and security updates needed for a mission critical server.

But anyway, congrats on getting your own website hosted up! I have a static IP and I once exposed my home server to the internet. It was a great feeling. But it was just for a few moments though

One thing you can try is free hosting. There are quite a few free hosts with PHP and MySQL if you dig around deep enough and you get quite a bit of decent server space as well (50 or 100 MB should be more than enough for a personal site).

You could also set up a ssh server so that you could get to it from the net. Then you could set up a tunnel. But I would recommend making sure your server is prefectly secure before you put it up on the net.

No, for me it is business.

Try a free service. Just leave room on the page for the ads. My daughter put up her first website when she was 11 (she is now 17)

Or you could host a machine that doesn't have access to the other machines on your LAN. If it gets compromised learn from the mistake and what are you out other than time and knowledge gained.

How could I do that?