how do i set up windows 03 server as a server?

Question

first off, it can't connect to the internet while the rest of the computers on my network can. but further than that, I paid for a domain name through yahoo so i have my own website.com. but i ran out of money and i couldn't pay yahoo to host for me anymore. but the website.com is still mine right? I want my new 03 server to host this. I've tried to set up a domain on my server by using the domain wizard. now when my server boots up, i log in to that said domain. but i'm still confused. i made the domain of my server the same name as the domain I paid for, but nothing is happening. I know my biggest problem is to get internet access to my server, but i'm afraid that even if i do, it won't work the way i want it to. I'm currently downloading a few ebooks on 03 server. I don't know how much help they will be because they might be too complicated for me to understand. I'm no dummy, you can be technical in your answers. I just don't have much experience with servers.

Answer 1

I dont mean to be rude but Im not sure you quite understand what the problem is; so you got a host name, lets say its called fredbloggs.com, it doesnt mean you need a domain name for your lan to be in the same name - its nice if it is say for commercial use, but I get the impression its for home use.

Okay so you got fredbloggs.com in our example above. next you should be able to log into where you bought your domain name from , in this case Yahoo, and ask them to redirect it to another site - my guess is you dont have internal dns server(s) running for outside right? so the easiest way is log into yahoo - i dont use yahoo for buying domain names so I'll give a generic example, the options may be slightly different for your domain name registrar - go to the 'Administer Domain Name'. Select your domain name, then there should be a forwarding option to redirect to another website or server.

A word about running an internal dns - You can either forward to your own dns servers or web forward to an external server or website address. However, my guess is you dont have internal dns server(s) running for outside right? (you can do it this way, but its complicated as even a simple (cheap) solution you would need a proxy and create either a vlan or seprate you lan to the proxy which would have another lan to get to the internet so you can forward dns requests through the proxy), so this is why you'll need the web forwarding option.

If you are lucky enough to have a static ip address (will depend on your Internet Provider at home) you can forward to an external server so simply use your ip.

If like me your not lucky enough to have a static ip then you need to join a dynamic dns provider - most are free - i use dyndns.org. I created my free domain there which points to my ip at home. If your router at home supports dynamic dns thats all there is to it, otherwise you run a small client on your webserver that will tell the dynamic dns whenever your ip changes.

So I join dyndns.org and create an entry for fredblog.homedns.org that points to my ip. Now having logged onto my domain name registrar that I bought fredbloggs.com I can use the option to redirect to an external website (web forwarding) which actually points now to fredbloggs.homedns.org (this in turn will get forwarded to your wan ip address - thats the ip others on the internet see you with).

Right, now to the bit your having the real problems with - you can run win 2003 and use IIS 6 that comes bundled with it to host your site if you really want to, but you dont have to!! You can just as easily install Apache (free) onto any of your workstations - and host your website from there! If you really want to stick with win2003 you can run dcpromo to create a domain, but you dont have to - if you want all your workstations logging into that domain then thats the way you need to go (create whatever domain name you want), however if the server is only going to host your website then you dont need to create a domain - personally i run win 2000 servers with a domain controller, as I have workstations logging onto to the domain, and use the server as a fileserver as well.

Right so whether or not you go for an internal domain option and have IIS running or run apache on any of your workstations, you should have a running website - if not go and put a simple page and test from the other workstations inside your lan that you can access it okay. So you now have an internal web site accessable from any of your other workstations inside your lan. Make a note of the ip of the server/workstation that you are using to host this web site (yes your internal ip address)

Now you need to configure your router to port forward any web site request from the wan (internet) to the machine that is hosting your web site. Log into your router and configure port forwarding (port 80 / HTTP ) to go to your internal ip address that is hosting your web site - the actual method will vary depending on the model of your router - in mine I had to create a service which I called http and set port 80 to it, then set routing (port forwarding) to point to the pc I am hosting my own website on.

Once this is done, using an internet browser, you should be able to put http://fredbloggs.com (for the example we are working with) on any of your workstations or on a friends pc and it should go to your website which you are hosting from home!

I host my own website at home as you can put whatever you want on your own server for free eg I use php, mysql all free industrial grade tools, but you have to pay extra for these if hosting it via 3rd party - like you my pockets dont run that deep either!! lol).

Of course the advantage of hosting externally is backups/reliability (eg I had a power cut that blew up the psu on my server, took me a week to get a new one - was a special type psu - for which period my web site was down).

The other thing to note, is most ISP (Internet Provider) allow you to host your own website, but some dont! So check the small print. To get your wan ip address, open a browser from any of your pcs and go to http://checkmyip.com/ . This is the ip you will use for web forwarding. To check the local ip address for the pc you are running IIS/Apache on, from the command prompt type
ipconfig - the numbers after the label, 'IP Address' is the local ip address that you will need to set up port forwarding on your router to redirect tcp 80 to this ip.

I hope this helps you getting your website up and running - the description above is what i use to run my own website.

Happy webmastering!

Answer 2

Assuming that your cd rom was working I would suspect that there is a problem withe the cd rom. Can you play a music cd? Can you access it form windows server? Is the cable from the cd rom to the motherboard loose/bad? Is the cd rom bad/need lens cleaning?