Internet and Intranet on same server 1

[theoryofben]

Hello all,

I'm designing a web site and an internal intranet application for a client. They are going to buy a server for these to live on.

My question is, can I run an internet site and an intranet site on the same server? If so, are there any pitfalls I need to watch out for?

This will be the only server this organization has, so will I need to configure DNS on this server? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ben

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[sub]"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."-Thomas Edison[/sub]

 

[ShackDaddy]

You can run both sites on the same server. You should just set the site security on the intranet site to only allow access from internal IP addresses.

Now of course, you should also know that it's not the BEST idea to run both on the same server, because you always need to plan for the possibility of having your web server hacked by the public. And if the internet site gets hacked, the hacker will have access to all local files, including the ones on your intranet. Merely disallowing browsing on the intranet site from non-local IPs is not going to prevent that.

But if the intranet data isn't particularly confidential, then it shouldn't matter too much. But I would never do it. Why?

My question would be, why on earth are you wanting to host their public website in the company's office? Why not get a Pair or Rackspace account and host it externally for cheap, $10 or $20/month? And by doing so, completely remove the risk that I mentioned above?

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net

 

[theoryofben]

Thanks for the reply. I agree, the best solution would be to host the public site externally...but the client insists on it.

They are very small...and have never had a network before...they just wired their office. There are only 10 or 15 users and of those, there will only be at the most 5 concurrent users.

I have recommended we host the public site externally and just get a really good tower pc running XP pro with IIS to host the intranet...but they insist on doing it this way. I am going to have them sign an acknowledgment form stating that I made them aware of the risks.

Do I need 2 NIC's in the server? How do I configure it? Would I just assign the 1 NIC both the internal and external IP address?

Thanks for the help...I appreciate it.

Ben

________________________________________________
[sub]"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."-Thomas Edison[/sub]

 

[ShackDaddy]

If you are behind a firewall, you'll only need a single NIC. Probably the easiest thing for you would be to just IP the server with an internal IP and configure the firewall to forward appropriate traffic (port 80) to that server. No reason to configure both IPs.

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net