need help setting up webserver behind linksys router

[coy0]

i have just a cable modem for the internet, going into a Linksys 4 port router, which has three PC's connected to. It's all working just fine, and we share the internet no problem.

Here's the question:

I'd like to set up one of the machines as a web server serving pages onto the internet, but I'm not sure this is actually possible. The cable modem has our ISP assigned IP address which is then used by the router. So the PC's connected to the router all have 192.168.xxx.xxx IP's. Obviously these are the reserved range which aren't actually accessible from outside the LAN. So can I set up one of the PC's as a webserver with it's own IP that will be accessible from outside via the cable modem and router?! If so how?! please help

 

[smah]

Just use the port forwading feature of the router to forward TCP port 80 to the internal/private IP address of your server. It would also be wise to staticly assign that address (instead of DHCP). You also might want to investigate wether your ISP blocks incoming port 80 traffic & your terms of use.

 

[CiscoGuy33]

coy0,

Just go to

http://www.linksys.com

and under products pick your router and you can then download the "Users Guide" for your router.

It will walk you through "port forwarding" as smah explains above or even putting one computer in a DMZ. Anything that you want that router to do is listed in the Users Guide!

Hope this helps!


E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[coy0]

thanks for the reply CiscoGuy33 and smah,

How do i find out if port 80 is block? and i assign a static ip outside the dhcp and forward to port 80 to the private server ip address, but now i cant connect to the internet.

 

[smah]

Depending on exactly which router & firmware, possibly the easiest way to find out if your ISP blocks port 80, is to enable remote administration of the router & set it for port 80. Make sure you have a good password set! Then have a friend or someone outside your network, try to access the router's public WAN address (you don't need to give them the password). If the router answers with a password prompt, then port 80 is not blocked. Don't forget to return the router settings to normal.

When you assigned the static IP address to the server, did you also set the router's IP address (192.168.1.1) as the default gateway & manually set the DNS server entries?

 

[coy0]

hi, smah,

thanks for the help, i found out that my port 80 is block. what can i do to run a web server with a hosting control panel or can i even do it. Iam using an linksys befsr41.

 

[smah]

If you're ISP blocks port 80 traffic, you'll either need to ask them to allow you to run a web server, or use an alternate port number. Also see

http://www.dslwebserver.com/

 

[coy0]

thanks smah for the great feed back, if i was to change to port number will i still be able to use a hosting control panel like Cube Panel, and if so how? What port number would you prefer?

 

[smah]

Let's take a step back for a moment. First, if you're running the server, why do you need the 'control panel'? If you intend to do some real web hosting, you should use port 80; if you use an alternate port, users will need to add the port number to the end of the url. Second, most 'control panel' software runs on php (or possibly asp), so before you worry about that, I suggest that you get apache running properly.

Common alternate web server ports are 81 & 8080.

 

[coy0]

thanks again smah, iam using a control panel for myself only, i want to be able to host multiple domains and a control panel is a easy way i think to do that (i think), smah, what would you suggest? and how would you set something like that up yourself.