I thought I could do that, and I have a thing in Windows that makes it look like a page is on the web.
It sounded like fun, and the kids want to do it, mostly to prove they can, I guess. But I’m not clear on what the steps are.
Under Programs/ Internet Tools it has
Personal Web Server and Web Publishing Wizard
They seem to work, but who assigns the computer number DNS# ?
I have ISP service provided by non-dedicated line and free services (Juno, Excite, etc.). But that’s OK, they could just log on at a pre-arranged time with their friends.
And we got a free domain name from NameZero.com, and they are holding it for us to tell them the DNS#.
I’m not clean on the details, but if you don’t have a dedicated line, you’ll need a DNS hosting service, and it’ll hold your address when your computer isn’t on the web, or has changed IP Addresses.
There’s sites I can reach only during business hours, and at other times the browser will just say it can’t be found.
I suppose they just go off-line to save money or use the computer for dedicated tasks, like maintenance or generation of bills, etc.
anna - please forgive me if I write some things you already know. I think the info may be useful to others reading this.
What you really are lacking is one thing to be successful:
A static IP address. This is very important, or else every time you reboot Windows, or every time your Dynamic IP address expires, people will not be able to find your PC. Normally, every time you dial in (or connect via DSL) your PC is assigned a semi-random address from a small pool of addresses that your provider supplies. This is something like “63.97.40.3”. This IP address is what your PC REALLY connects to when you type “www.straightdope.com”.
But if this address chages every 8 hours or so, or every time your PC is rebooted, then no one will know how to find you. So this is the first step. Typically, you need an ISP with a quasi-persistent connection to give you a static IP (DSL, Cable Modem, ISDN, T1, etc), and there is normally a $10 per month charge.
In theory, you could run a webserver with an IP address that changes continuously. But that’s not really that fun to do.
And therefore, by using Juno et al, you are pretty much out of luck for a simple solution. I believe they will always only give you a dynamic IP. And NameZero will not be happy at an IP that changes every week or so, and they probably will not let you do that.
And to clarify one other thing, Personal Web Server doesn’t really work as a public web server. It mostly is intended to mimic a web server on a small network in-house. You’ll notice that when you set it up, the web address is gives you by default is something like http://mycomputer. This lacks the proper extensions to be a full, public website, i.e., http://www.mycomputer.com.
At any rate, as Una explained, you’d need some sort of dedicated line that’ll run a minimum of 50 bucks a month. Further, you’d notice a slowdown of service as other people log in to your computer and view your site. Also, you’d want to invest in firewall software to protect your system from unwanted intrusion. Basically, it’s not a simple thing to do. This, of course, is why there are so many services for publishing a web site on someone else’s server. Sorry.
There is one thing you can do without getting a static IP address and paying lots of money. There is something called “dynamic DNS service” which you can get, some places (such as eyep.net) for free.
What happens is this: You dial into your ISP and when you connect, your computer gets assigned an IP address. You then run a piece of software (for example, the EyeP client) which contacts the dynamic DNS server and says “my IP address is 1.2.3.4 now”. Now when someone does a lookup on your domain name, it goes to 1.2.3.4, which is valid until you hang up. Next time you dial in, you do the same thing, only with a different number.
I only have a little experience with eyep.net, and no experience with any other dynamic DNS providers. When I looked at it, eyep.net had the downside that you had to use a name from one of their domains (so, for example, you could have http://annalamerino.fatkids.net/).
And there’s nothing wrong with Personal Web Server, except that it won’t serve very many connections at once (I think it’s limited to 5 or 10). Other than that, it works fine as a “real” web server. The fact that the default address is http://mycomputer doesn’t have anything to do with it “lacking the proper extentions”.
For instant gratification:
[ol]
[li]Make sure your personal web server is running[/li][li]Connect to the web[/li][li]Find out what your IP address is:[/li] On Windows2000 or NT:
[list=a]
[li]go to the Start menu and choose “run”[/li] [li]type “cmd” and hit enter[/li] [li]type “ipconfig” and hit enter[/li] [li]the output should contain your IP address[/li] [/ol]
On Win98:
[list=a]
[li]go to the Start menu and choose “run”[/li] [li]type “winipcfg”[/li] [li]I don’t remember how this info is organized, but your IP address should be in there somewhere.[/li] [/list]
[li]call your friend and tell him to go to http://1.2.3.4/, where 1.2.3.4 is replaced with your IP address.[/li][/list]
The only difference between this scenario and the scenario that exists once you have DNS working properly is that when your friend types “www.annalamerino.com” instead of the IP address, his computer contacts a DNS server and finds out that “www.annalamerino.com” is really 1.2.3.4, and the browser does the translation. All the communication is done by IP address.
It may sound useless, but just think of it as the old walkie-talkie sets you got as a kid.
You just want to make it work, even if you have to phone your friends to tell them when to turn the receiver on.
I don’t know anything about this Eyep service, but I figure it has to point your domain to a server that does the redirecting - even if it updated their DNS server to whatever IP you had at the moment when you logged on, it could be days before that change propagated to every DNS server out there.
Even without a domain name, you can still set up your computer to be accessed from outside, via your IP address. If you posted your current IP address (which you can get by running winipcfg in Win9x) there are a number of things someone could do to your computer, most of them bad. 8^)
The eyep service works because the time-to-live field in the DNS record for that host is set very short, so that nameservers will frequently go back and get the updated record. This makes it propagate much quicker (it’s only taken a few minutes when I’ve tried it).
