Member Avatar for nmm124

Hi all,

I have a small network at home (one old desktop, two laptops), running off a wireless-enabled ADSL router.

I work as a webdesigner and what I would like to do is to convert the desktop into a linux-based web-server (running Apache, MySQL, PHP) to use for testing, only visible on my internal network.

Could someone offer some advice on how to set this up?

The easiest solution I can think of is to let the router handle the internet access as per usual and to access the testing webserver via its internal IP address but I was wondering whether I can/should use the linux box as a proxy/gateway to the internet proper...

I'm not too experienced in these matters, any advice would be welcome.

Thanks - Nils.

  • 3 Contributors
  • 7 Replies
  • 185 Views
  • 3 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by kc0arf
Member Avatar for MartyMcFly

If you want to let just set up and internal network and access one of the servers for web hosting to the other two, then the network side should not be too difficult.

If your talking about getting your web server available to the internet, therefore running your own world wide web hosting, I think your going to be asking for a lot of difficulty. unless there is a service somewhere that sorts this out for you, your going to have to get static IPs from a ISP, probably a better router that requires configuration to route web requests to your server. This has to be measured against bandwidth issues as well. i wouldn't have a clue how to start a project like that, let alone the guts, (or should I say money) to try and make it happen.

I wasn't too sure if that was what you were asking, so .......

Member Avatar for nmm124

Hi,

thanks for the reply. I don't want the webserver to be globally visible - only to other computers on the home network.

- Nils.

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hi,

You may use the linux box, with 2 network cards in it, to be your gateway to the internet world.

If you are running apache on the Linux box, there is a section there that you can configure what ports / ip numbers you would like apache to "listen" for requests. Simply specify the LAN IP (inside) address and port... the software willl then ignore requests on the internet (WAN) side. You can also control this via a firewall on the linux box... just block port 80 on the firewall, or have a re-direct to send port 80 somewhere else.

My RedHat 9 box is my router, webserver, dns server, email thing, and a bunch of other things running on it. 550 MHz computer with 3 network cards in it. I prefer it to a store-bought "wireless router". I know that Cisco products will route FASTER, but this is a home network, and I do not need that kind of performance.

Christian

Member Avatar for nmm124

How would other computers access the internet in this scenario? Would they need to use the linux box as a proxy?

If I don't want to go the whole route of using the linux box as a gateway, could I still access the linux box web server by using http://INTERNALIP/?

Thanks for the advice,

Nils.

Hi,

You may use the linux box, with 2 network cards in it, to be your gateway to the internet world.

If you are running apache on the Linux box, there is a section there that you can configure what ports / ip numbers you would like apache to "listen" for requests. Simply specify the LAN IP (inside) address and port... the software willl then ignore requests on the internet (WAN) side. You can also control this via a firewall on the linux box... just block port 80 on the firewall, or have a re-direct to send port 80 somewhere else.

My RedHat 9 box is my router, webserver, dns server, email thing, and a bunch of other things running on it. 550 MHz computer with 3 network cards in it. I prefer it to a store-bought "wireless router". I know that Cisco products will route FASTER, but this is a home network, and I do not need that kind of performance.

Christian

Member Avatar for MartyMcFly

thanks for the reply. I don't want the webserver to be globally visible - only to other computers on the home network

Apologies for the misunderstanding.

Member Avatar for nmm124

Hey - that's no problem :) Any advice on running it as an internally-visible only webserver?

cheers - Nils.

Apologies for the misunderstanding.

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

The other computers on the family network would access the internet though the linux box. Simply give the other computers the default route (gateway) of the IP number of the linux box's LAN card, and you should be set.

Time for a little ASCII ART. Pardon the yuck here, but it will help.

WAN CARD OF LINUX BOX --> CABLE MODEM --->  INTERNET
  |
  |
an.external.ip.address  (23.11.142.7)
|
Firewall running on Linux
|
an.internal.ip.address (192.168.1.1)
|
|
LAN CARD OF LINUX BOX --> HUB -->  Computer1
				  |
				  ------> Computer2

Computer 1 could be 192.168.1.5 and computer 2 could be 192.168.1.10

You will need to tell the firewall on Linux some information about packets to allow, and which ones to drop. Check out information on IPTABLES or SONICWALL.

And if you want the linux box to be a peer, along with computer1 and computer2, then yes, you could access it http://internalnumber or if you have it in DNS somewhere, http://internalname

We are starting to get to the advanced stage of network design in the house.

Christian

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.