If you have an ADSL connection it is possible to Host a Web Server even though you are not given a static IP address by the Internet Service Provider.
There’s a mechanism called Dynamic DNS where your IP Address is mapped to DNS and updated in short intervals so that it won’t loose track of your IP, providing you with something similar to a static IP
First of all you need to have these pre requisites
- An ADSL connection
- ADSL router or a Modem with access to configure
- IIS
Creating a DynDNS Account
Let’s see how to create a DynDNS account. You can select NO-IP or DynDNS. In my case I have selected DynDNS because it gives more functionality than NO-IP. Open your browser and go to http://www.dyndns.com and click on Create account. Enter the required details and click on create account. Then your DynDNS account will be created and you have to check your emails to activate the account. Once you have activated the account you can go to DynDNS and click on “Account” and login to the system, then click on “My Services”. Under the “My Services” tab you will see “My Hosts”. Under that there’s a link called “Add Host Services” click on that. Then click on “Add Dynamic DNS Host”
Give a host name that you like and select a domain name. Keep the default IP address. And click on “Add Host”. Now your are done creating the Host
Configure DynDNS in the Router
Now you have to check whether you have an option in your router to configure dynamic DNS to automatically update when your ISP gives you a new IP.im using a USR 9107 Router which gives a special option to configure DynDNS to map the IP address with DNS from the router.
Even if you don’t have this functionality in your router you don’t have to worry at all. All you have to do is to download the IP update client and install it to your computer. You can download it from the following link
Once you have installed it’s very easy to configure. Just follow the wizard and enter your DynDNS account details then the system will automatically synchronize with the DynDNS and map your IP address with your domain
Configure the Router for Port Forwarding
This is only applicable if you’re using a router. Because a router uses NAT it shares one IP address to all the computers connected to them when they access to the internet.
This is one of the most important things to do .That is to configure your router to forward port 80 in to your web server. Check your router manual for port forwarding facility. In my router there’s an option called “Virtual Server” where I can assign various ports to forward to my Server IP address.
After going to “Virtual Server” page which you can locate in the Security menu. Click on “add” and you will see this “Add Virtual Server” page. In that Select the Server as “Web Server (HTTP)” and enter your Server IP address after that click on apply
Now you are almost done
Next step is to configure your HOST file
Edit HOST file
If you want to test these things in your computer you need to Configure your HOST file
Go to %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc then edit the host file
At the end of the file enter your IP address (IP address of your server) and then keep a space and enter your website address
Eg :- 192.168.1.2 nirmal.homeip.net
Configuring IIS
First go to “run” and type “inetmgr” and check whether you have IIS installed. Once you click ok IIS manager should open if it doesn’t open that means that your IIS is not installed. If that’s the case then go to Add/Remove programs and install IIS
Expand your Local Computer then expand Web Service Extensions. Click on that folder and
make sure that all your Web Extensions are running because by default in Windows 2003 Server Asp.Net functionality is disabled.
Now u can create a website and copy it to %systemdrive%\Inetpub\wwwroot
If it’s a public website you have to enable “Anonymous access” otherwise when ever some tries to login to the website they will require a username and a password. You can do this by going to IIS manager then expand local computer expand Websites then right click on Default Website go to properties click on the Directory Security Tab under Authentication and access control click Edit button then tick on “Enable anonymous access” and untick “Integrated Windows authentication”
Share one of your Folders to others over the Web
This is also another thing that you can do. You can share your folders and give a link to remotely access them and download.
Open my computer and go to the folder that you want to share right click on the folder and click properties click on the web sharing tab then click on “Share this Folder”. Make sure that you give Directory Browsing access. Then click ok. Go to IIS manager and set Anonymous permissions now your friends can access it via “http://yoursubdomainname.dyndnsdomain/aliasname”
