Allowing anyone to view site?

[N0x]

Hey,

I am currently working on hosting my own website on my laptop which is running on Ubuntu 9.10 and I have only just tried out XAMPP and I done so by following the steps mentioned at this URL http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html and I also followed these steps to creating virtual hosting with my own domain from here: http://aminesoft.wordpress.com/tag/how- ... or-domain/

...but the problem is, I want anyone on the internet to view the website I have made but when somebody tries, they always see a webpage saying either website or server not found and I don't know what I have done wrong.

Here is my /etc/hosts file:

Code: Select all

root@server:~# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.1.1   server.nox           server
127.0.2.1   www.my-website.net


# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts


This is the extra-httpd.conf file:

Code: Select all

root@server:/home/nox/SFN# cat extra-httpd.conf
<VirtualHost 127.0.2.1>
ServerName www.noxed.net
DocumentRoot /home/nox/my-website.net

<Directory /home/nox/my-website.net>
AllowOverride All
Options All
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>


I was just wondering if somebody could see if I have done something wrong somewhere? Another thing is, while I'm doing this do I need to setup a DNS server on my laptop?

Thanks in advanced

[geebers]

Here's what i do.
- Install xampp, start xampp.
- if you have a firewall on Ubuntu, open port 80. I just disable it for testing purposes.
- if you're behind a router, log into your router and disable NAT and then forward port 80 to the IP address of your laptop. Consider setting up a static IP address on your laptop if your IP changes each time you fire it up.

Do you know your external IP address that your ISP has assigned you? If so, then open a browser (either locally or externally) and type in your external IP address. Example: http://206.153.43.2
If you need to know what your external IP address is, you could find this info in your router configuration. There's also scripts you can download that'll let you know this as well.

You should see your web page thats running on your laptop.
If your external IP address changes (via DHCP from your ISP), then consider a free Dynamic DNS account. Just google "Dynamic DNS". Lots of free services to do this.

Let us know how it goes.

[N0x]

Hey. Thanks for your reply. That way is working.

I was wondering though, is there any way that I can make the IP to resolve to a domain name like my-website.net without have to pay for and register one with an official domain registration website?

I'm pretty sure the IP my ISP gives me is dynamic though but if I were to have my own domain I could easily configure Bind9 and have it automate the dynamic IP changes whenever it occurs but after looking and asking around, I'm still clueless as to knowing if it's actually possible to host my own .net domain?

[geebers]

No, you can not. All top-level domains (.com, .net, .edu, etc) are governed by ICANN. So if you want a domain name to be used on the internet, you have to register your domain name with ICANN (using some registratioin website). Thats just the way it works.
Not to be disrespectful or anything, but registering domains are pretty cheap these days.

Hope this helps.

[N0x]

Oh. Thought they could.
Yeah, you've helped loads. Thanks for the help.