Run Apache for web designing on a W98 box 1

[ray436]

Hi, big time Linux newbie here.

What I would like to do is setup a linux box (at home) to run the pages I am developing on my W98 PC (laptop). I need to be able to move files from the laptop to the Linux box, and test "the site" before I place it on my office's ISP server. My problem is that at home the laptop connects to a DSL service that now uses dynamic IP addressing, so I can't specify settings for the laptop network card.

How should I setup the linux machine?

I can do the wiring, have a hub, spare NICS, a pretty good grip on Windows networking, but I'm not sure what services I will need runnning ( outside Apache ) to make this happen.

Very thankful for all help offered...

Ray

 

[rycamor]

If I am reading you right, your DSL connection simply requires an ethernet card to connect to a standalone DSL modem. True? And the dynamic IP address method is DHCP?

If so, then your Linux box can be the gateway to the internet, which your laptop, or any other computer on the network, can connect to the web through. Your Linux box can act as a firewall, with internal IP addresses at your home network being of the 192.168.xxx.xxx variety, while the Linux box translates these addresses out to the internet through your DSL IP address. This frees your network up to both allow access to the internet, and access to your internal server, or any other internal computers you want to mess around with. As an added benefit, your Windows system is much less likely to get hacked, since it doesn't have an external IP to grab onto.

What you do is put two ethernet cards on your server: one has the outside (DSL) IP address with DHCP and connects to the DSL modem, while the other one is 192.168.0.1 (for example), and connects to the internal network hub. Then you need to enable IP masquerading, and configure it for your particular desired features. Then you simply configure your Windows TCP/IP networking to have an IP address such as 192.168.0.2, and using 192.168.0.1 as the gateway, and you are ready to surf.

http://dcfonline.sfu.ca/ying/linux/ipmasq/index.html

is a good guide to get you started. The Linux services you will want running besides Apache are inetd and ipchains (or is it natd?), plus whatever else you might want

What version of Linux are you using? be sure to find out how to tighten security on your box, such as removing unwanted services from inetd.conf, etc...

I am doing the same thing with my home network, although I can't help you with Linux specifics since I am using FreeBSD with natd on my system.

 

[ray436]

Thank you very much,

The link looks good too. I'm running Mandrake 7.0. and have Apache running ( how well/secure I'm not sure..yet .) I have the Linux box connecting to the DSL modem, to my ISP, (with web transfers that makes the laptop seem glacial.)

From the reading you suggested, do I basically strip it down to only required services, give it a non-routable IP, set incoming connections to deny-all ( except the local non-routable addresses but require user and pw for login) close all ports other than those needed for running services, and generally say no first then find out why later?

This may be alot more like what I'm used to than I thought, ( done a few Windows networks with proxies ), other than I don't get a wizard/GUI , mind you I'd rather do a text file that leaves no doubt as to what I want than leave it up to a wizard who sorta second guesses.

I'm starting to really like Linux, not because I'm a control freak or anything but because it looks like the user gets to drive instead of just ride.

Thanks again !

Ray

 

[rycamor]

>>From the reading you suggested, do I basically strip it down to only required services, give it a non-routable IP, set incoming connections to deny-all ( except the local non-routable addresses but require user and pw for login) close all ports other than those needed for running services, and generally say no first then find out why later? <<

That's pretty much the case, although there's alot more to it than that if you want to get into it: firewall rules can be pretty complex if you want.

You can enable specific IP addresses for incoming connections, so you can log into your machine remotely if you want. For security reasons:
1. Use SSH instead of telnet -- I believe there is a choice for that in Mandrake, but if not, you can get it at

http://www.openssh.org

2. use secure FTP (sftpd), for your file transfers

If you are wondering how to connect to your machine remotely if the IP address is dynamic, remember 2 things:
1. AFAIK once a dynamic IP is assigned, it doesn't change unless the machine disconnects and reconnects, so just enter &quot;ifconfig -a&quot; to see your current ethernet IP configuration
2. If the address changes too frequently, it's a simple matter to set up a cron job that emails your IP address to you every half hour or whatever.

You probably already know this, but if you are going to play with Apache, you will probably enjoy using PHP (

http://www.php.net),

and MySQL (

http://www.mysql.com)

Yes, it's nice to drive instead of ride

 

[ray436]

Once again, more good tips!

I've had a look at what I've got set up and since it's really a hobble-up ( blindly doing what was suggested during install ) I think it would be better if I just redo it. I'm sure I'll learn alot, and this time I will have a better idea as to what I'm agreeing to include.

The current state goes on CDR, then blank slate time.

----

PHP and MySQL are just what I need. The site I'm working on is a &quot;prove the concept&quot; for a customer status DB where our customers can check how their projects are progressing, instead of calling on the phone, when they could just read the file notes.

Once again, thanks for the help.

Ray