Hey everone. I just want to start out by saying that this forum is awesome, I have learned so much here in the past year. Unfortunately there is one thing I haven't been able to understand or find. I am looking to host a web server and ftp server from my home server. I have a dynamic ip address through my isp. I can configure apache and proftpd just fine, they work great. I have an account at dyndns.org, but here is the hard part. I just registered my own domain, and I cant seem to figure out how to point it at my linux computer. I'm trying not to spend the 25 dollars that dyndns.org and websites like it have to provide a nameserver. I guess my question would be, is there a way to host the website and ftp on my home server without any other hosting costs aside from registering the custom domain name? And if there is, how do I do it?

Thanks alot in advance.
-Kevin

The dynamic ip will propose a problem but I suggest this site for help
It walks you through the process

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DNS-HOWTO.html

i dont know much about the web server side, but i would say for sure, a dynamic ip address will pose a huge problem for the ftp server. A static ip is usually a must. With no static ip, a use would have no idea of an address to ftp into. Having the DNS will point users to your web page, but the web page and ftp server needs to be hosted on your own machine, and can be done only with a static IP address. My suggestion, would be to look into obtaining a static IP from your ISP. ALL the best.

Josh

PS: i have to agree, this forum has a huge wealth of knowledge.

There's ways of doing it, but they are beyond me. On shilo's guide he says something about... But I really dont know how you would write a program to login to dydns.org and update your ip on a change. Sorry, maybe a guru is around to help

If the host is always on then the IP address is unlikely to change even if you're on dynamic ip, since the host automatically renews the dhcp lease every now and then with the same ip address. Though it'll depend on the ISP's configuration.

I haven't tried dyndns.org but this is what I use(its free):
http://www.afraid.org

Basically what you need to do is register your domain, point the nameservers to afriad.org nameservers, add your dns records, then run dynamic dns updating scripts(which they provide on their website) at regular intervals(say every 6 hours or something)

another point is the ip is unlikely to change if the machine is always on, check it often to find out when it changes, you may find that you have had the same one for a while.

don't let the ip issue keep you from setting up your dns server, you may find that the ip is not changing often. Just be aware of this possiblilty when trouble shooting (ie: you restart your system after some software-hardware update and then all of a sudden-guess what!)

make sure your machine is accesable from outside your lan via ip address (your firewall is open enough to allow certain requests.) This way you have assured connections and know things are working- then tackle your dns

also I suggest setting up a modem for connectivity so you can trouble shoot from 'outside' your network, test settings made, a bit of due diligence. This allows you to look into your zone or network from the outside like everyone else would intead of within your lan (localhost and so forth)

Your main problem will be that of child name servers. Since the child nameservers have static IP's and these IP's are stored in the Internet registry (internic.net or verisign) You will not be able to change on the fly. Now these child name server IP's point to where the nameserver can be found. (the DNS that you are trying to create). So you may not be able to do this for your domain until there is a DNS that points to your dynamic IP's on the fly.

Cheers
http://www.linuxbrats.com/forums
http://www.linuxbrats.com/forums/rss.php
http://www.propertytalaash.com