Hello.

I am a total Linux / website admin noob (just need to make that clear early).

I have recently installed Ubuntu onto an old pc, and also Apache and PHP. I have copied a static website to /var/www/

I have opened port 80, and also port 22. I accessed my server using PuTTy from my XP machine. But, I am not sure if my web server is accessible online. When I type the IP address into my XP computer, I see the website, but I am not sure if that is just because the computers are all on the same router and that the connection is not over the internet. How do I know if the connection is working or not? I don't want to give my IP address out, for security reasons, as I probably (I am guessing) need to set up a more secure server before doing that. So other than asking somone to look, how can I determine it is online from home?

My next task is to set up name servers / DNS (?) so that I can actually host a domain. But for now, I need to be sure I have at least got my site online.

So, how can I check from my home network?

Cheers,

Jon.

If you have forwarded the ports to the Ubuntu machine in your router configuration, then the machine is available from the Internet.

But the only way anyone is going to be able to see it is if you give them your IP address.

Try to go to the IP address from an external host. Yes, you need to test from the other side of the router.

Note: 127.*.*.*, 10.*.*.*, 192.168.*.*, and 172.16.*.* through 172.31.*.* are all private IP ranges, and are not routable on the public Internet. So if you're connecting to an IP in that range, it won't work, and you need to determine your public IP address, for example by hitting http://ip.dnsexit.com

If you set up your browser to pass traffic through a public proxy server, that is a reasonable test to see if your site is accessible from locations outside your own network. One option is TOR.

try connecting through a third-party proxy. that would, in theory, allow you to access it from the net and be sure that the local machine is not just connecting to itself

Thanks for the advice. I have heard of Tor, and I even think that i have an application on a magazine cover disk somewhere. I'll take a look tomorrow.

Failing that, what is the easiest way to use Tor / proxy?

Ok, this may have proved that I am online. I just took a look at the logs i.e. /var/log/apache2/access.log and in it there are a couple of IP addresses that are not mine, they belong to Google. I have Adsense on the site, so I guess that this is the Google bot, and if they can get in, anyone can. So I must be online. So that's nice to know.

Just need to direct one of my domains to my home web server now. Does anyone know a useful tutorial for this? Or, is there a recommended control panel for Ubuntu? I have heard of cpanel, is that user friendly, and free?

Cheers

Jon.

Just if you do not know:

You can try access the web server by http://--external--router--IP rather than http://192.168.x.y

If you do not know your router's external IP, you can login to your router and check.

Excellent. I can see it using the external IP. Being the noob that I am, I was just unsure if seeing it suing the external IP on the local network was the same as seeing it from another network. Wow, so I actually have a website up and running. Just need to sort out that DNS thing now.