Hello,

For the past week or so I have been trying to setup a web/mail server for myself and a few friends. I purchased a domain name and have Slackware 11.0 installed on the server box. The server contains only 1 NIC and is connected to a router/broadband modem (Verizon FiOS) along with my daily use desktop running Windows XP/Vista dual-boot.

I have installed Apache, MySQL, PHP, QMail, dnscache and tinydns. I have setup my domain (through godaddy.com's account page) to use my servers DNS info, but I am still unable to connect to my domain through either mail or web.

Does anyone know of any good guides on how to set something like this up? Or would anyone be willing to help me out and guide me through the process? I have been playing with Linux for the past few years but nothing more than general usage, not much on the admin side, so I am sure I am missing quite a few key steps. Oh, and if my explanation of what I would like/need is lacking, let me know and I will try to be more specific.

Any help would be more than grateful, thank you for your time.

Greg
gviscardi@gmail.com

You've got a bunch of different things going on that don't make sense.

1. Is your problem you can't access your web server from the Internet? If so, do you have a static IP from verizon or are you on the typical home broadband setup? Can you reach your web server by typing in the IP address?

2. I'm not sure why you want to get started doing DNS when you can't even get a public web server going. Let godaddy do your dns for now, you've got bigger fish to fry at the moment. DNS is a big deal and unless you can be a good net citizen and spend the time and effort watching your dns server, you best option is to let godaddy do it. Hopefully, they have someone competent watching it.

3. Setting up your own mail server is a big deal. Many default mail server setups are ripe for spam relay. Without good reporting tools, you have no way of knowing unless you like to read logs on a daily basis. Again, you've got bigger fish to fry.

Getting a public web server up is easy. Keeping it up is a little harder especially if you want to add bells and whistles. Concentrate on getting your http server up first and keeping it up.

1. I can access my web server via IP, but not via domain name, even when I had it set up through godaddy. I believe I have a static IP as it has not changed in the 3 months since I have had the service, but I cannot say for certain.

2. I was attempting to setup my own DNS because I believed that godaddy's DNS would not work unless I had purchased a hosting plan through them, but if you say it will work regardless then I will suspend the DNS idea for now until I get a better understanding of the concept.

3. I am willing to do what I can to protect my mail server from malicious intent, and knowing that there are risks, I would like to at least try to see if I can do it, but if you say the HTTP server needs more attention for the moment then I am willing to let it go for now, temporarily.

I hope these responses help to further your understanding of my needs/wants.

Once again, thank you for your time and if any more information is required, please let me know.

1. Verify with your ISP first. I'll bet it's dynamic. They charge a premium for static even though many times the IP doesn't change much. If it is dynamic, you need dynamic dns service.

2. They should give you a place to enter an IP address where you manage your domain name. That's where you put your public IP address from your ISP. Or, that's where you put your dynamic dns service ip address. I don't know anything about go daddy though. Once you enter it, wait a couple of hours and see if entering your domain name works.

3. Uninstall the domain name server package. Just don't get started with it yet. You have quite a ways to go before you can responsibly admin a mail server much less mucking about dns. Please take the time to learn http servers first and make sure you have some way to read and understand your log files.

For testing purposes, if I used my current IP, would it work even if it is dynamic? I mean, until it is renewed that is.

Yes, temporarily it should.

Once you know it's working check out www.no-ip.com for DDNS service

I agree with merize147 to check out no-ip.com

On the dynamic side, you can install an application on your server (provided by no-ip.com) that will send out your current dynamic IP to update your DNS entry. I run a similar setup to yours at home, and I am on a dynamic IP account.

Did you follow a guide to set up your server? Maybe you should take a look at shupp's toaster. You can include ProFTP to let your users update their own virtual websites, and the afore mentioned dynamic DNS updater...

Deion "Mule" Christopher