DynamicDNS will help the world find you!

Unless you have a special situation setup with your Internet Provider (Comcast, in my case), you most likely don't have a static IP address.

"A static huh-what?"

Every computer on a network (the internet is the world's largest computer network) has a number address (right now, my home address is 76.100.200.2). That's all very interesting and everything, but no-one wants to remember to go to 207.171.166.252 to shop at Amazon or 17.112.152.57 to buy their new Mac or iPod. So what the early internet big-wigs thought up was a naming solution. Domain Names were a way to humanize the cold and ugly IP Addresses. Domain Name Servers are all over the internet and all they do is map domain names to their IP addresses. So when you type in http://www.amazon.com, you're being directed to a server(s) with the IP address of 207.171.166.252.

Are your eyes glazed over yet? Look! Heres a picture!

Ahhh... a Snuggie will take you away from those nasty IP numbers.

The problem is, you need a "static" (aka- non-changing IP address) for the DNS servers to find you. My IP address that Comcast gives me for my computer changes about once a quarter. If I want to point phpirates.com to my home computer, I'd need to pay $29 a year for DynamicDns's Custom DNS Service. I tried this and it works very well. I install the DynamicDNS app onto my mac and it updates their servers with my current IP address every day. Their DNS servers then know where to direct people when they go to phpirates.com.

You can also use their free service if you don't care what your domain name is. They will assign you one of their domains (in my case, brucecreative.blogdns.com) and you can use that for FREE!

Conclusions & Caveats on Running a Public Web Server at Home

Before you go off and setup your wildly successful Blog on your home Mac, keep this in mind- you are opening your computer up to massive cyber-attacks! If you are going to do this, I recommend you use a Mac you do not rely on for production. Let's put it this way, if you don't feel you could safely erase your web server's hard drive and not lose anything vital, I wouldn't use it to host live and very public websites!

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

...aside from that, have fun ;)

this is Part 2 of the 3 part series "Have a Mac? You Have a Web Server!", Part 1 can be found [here].

When you connect your computer to a cable or DSL router (that's the box-thingy that Comcast or Verizon gave to you so you can read FaceBook), you are "findable" on the web- that's good .  Good, because we can serve websites to the world now. There are 2 possible ways you are connected to your cable or DSL router- 1, directly through ethernet or 2, wirelessly through Airport/Airport Express or 3rd party Wireless router like Lynksys. My experience in through ethernet and Airport Express, so we will cover that scenario.

We will be working from your web serving Mac, so if you have more than one computer in your house, get on the Mac you intend to be the web server.

Get your web server's IP address

1. Go to /Applications/Utilities on your hard drive and open the "Network Utility" app.
2. In the window choose the method you're connected to your Modem, Ethernet or Airport (pic).
3. Write down the resulting IP Address below.

Note:
In the case that you're connected directly to your modem with ethernet, that's probably your external IP address that the world can find you with. In the case of this tutorial, it's the "local" IP Address that Airport Express gave your Mac when you connected to it.

Ethernet directly connected to cable modem

This is really simple- you're already connected. YAY! Open Safari or Firefox and type in the IP address you just wrote down (in the browser's address bar). You should see the same web page you saw when you opened http://localhost on your web server (see http://neutralgood.net/blog/2010/03/15/have-a-mac-you-have-a-web-server-part-1-installing-your-server/)

Skip the rest of this article and go on to "Part 3: Find Me Please."

Ethernet directly connected to DSL Router

There are so many different routers and variations, I'd say just consult your user guide for setting up "Port Forwarding." You'll want to port-forward ports 80 to the IP address of your computer.

Using Airport to connect to the internet? No Problem! Port Forward!

Like the DSL router, the Airport Express needs to be configured for people to find your webserver in your wireless network. By default, Airport Express blocks all incoming traffic (not requested by your computers). We're going to tell it what traffic it can allow and where to send it.

1. Go to /Applications/Utilities on your hard drive and open the "Airport Utility" app.
2. Select the Airport Express icon in the left-hand column that connects directly to the modem (pic).
3. Click on the "Manual Setup" button at the bottom of the window.
4. Select the "Advanced" icon at the top of the window (pic).
5. Click the "Port Mapping" button just below the top icons (pic).
6. Click the "+" button below the "Port Mappings" window.
7. Fill in the following (pic):
   1. Public Port Number: 80
   2. Private IP Address: your web server's IP address
   3. Private Port Number: 80
8. Click "Ok"
9. Click "Update" and wait for the Airport Express to restart.
10. When you see your Airport Express icon come back up in the left-hand column, click on it.
11. If the "Manual Setup" button is there again, click it.
12. Write down the IP Address at the bottom of the resulting window, we'll use this to test your web server's connectivity to the outside world.
13. Open Safari or Firefox and type in the IP address you just wrote down (in the browser's address bar). You should see the same web page you saw when you opened http://localhost on your web server (see http://neutralgood.net/blog/2010/03/15/have-a-mac-you-have-a-web-server-part-1-installing-your-server/)

Ports aren't just for sailors anymore!