Creating a web site using a dynamic DNS service

[Colugo]

I'm trying to set up a webpage using Ubuntu 12.04 and a dynamic DNS service. I'm recounting the process for those that follow and for error checking purposes. I installed apache2 on my would be server and verified that I could access it over the WAN. From my laptop, I can enter in 192.168.254.2 and I get the default page. At this point, the address is still dynamically assigned (the .2 means that the server was turned on second), so I need to make the server a static IP address. I edit the /etc/network/interfaces file to be static (because I'm using an old iMac as a server, it is eth2 rather than eth0) *and* use network manager on the server to change the ip address to 192.148.254.5. I have to use ifdown eth2 then ifup eth2 to get this to work - you can't just restart network services. Next I log into my wireless router (determine your ip address with a search engine, then enter it into the web browser) and change it so that incoming HTTP traffic is directed to port 80 (or 8080) on 192.168.254.5. Next I go to no-ip.biz and create an account. I add a host at myplace.no-ip.biz. I download and install their dynamic update client (noip2).

So, now what? If I enter in the host name I selected (myplace.no-ip.biz) as a url, I get nothing. When I do nslookup on myplace.no-ip.biz I get a different ip address than the one registered at no-ip.com and what I get from whatismyip.com. Thus no-ip.com isn't working?

[SASDOE2]

Not sure of this, but when I setup my server with dyn dns, I also had to tell my router about it so it would automatically update the ip. Also you should know that visiting yourplace.no-ip.biz from your home network will not work (or it will only point you to your router) as long as you don't setup a loopback.

Another thing you could try is telling your router to assign ip 192.1168.1.2 to the server and try again.

[Colugo]

I changed my dynamic DNS service to freeDNS.afraid.org, and am much happier (go Josh!). I installed ddclient, which more or less works - it will not accept 'protocol=freedns'. This is the reference page for that. Now nslookup for myplace.crabdance.com returns the same IP address as an IP lookup site. I have also found that network manager takes precedence over the interfaces file. I still can't access a webpage or a SSH connection. I have this on my router:

Server Name	External Port Start	External Port End	Protocol	Internal Port Start	Internal Port End	Server IP Address	WAN Interface	Remove
Web Server (HTTP)	80	80	TCP	80	80	192.168.254.5	ppp0
Secure Shell Server (SSH)	2121	2121	TCP	22	22	192.168.254.5	ppp0

[Colugo]

I changed my dynamic DNS service to freeDNS.afraid.org, and am much happier (go Josh!). I installed ddclient, which more or less works - it will not accept 'protocol=freedns'. This is the reference page for that. Now nslookup for myplace.crabdance.com returns the same IP address as an IP lookup site. I have also found that network manager takes precedence over the interfaces file. I still can't access a webpage or a SSH connection. I have this on my router:

Server Name	External Port Start	External Port End	Protocol	Internal Port Start	Internal Port End	Server IP Address	WAN Interface	Remove
Web Server (HTTP)	80	80	TCP	80	80	192.168.254.5	ppp0
Secure Shell Server (SSH)	2121	2121	TCP	22	22	192.168.254.5	ppp0

Part of the problem is that the iMac/server can't decide if it's using eth1 or eth2. In fact, it seems that whenever I change /etc/network/interfaces, it switches to something else.


Can someone tell me what this line in the ddclient.conf does:


#use=if, if=eth0

? ddclient isn't working, but I can manually set the IP at freedns.afraid.org.

Thanks, love y'all

[Colugo]

For those who come after: the problem is that one cannot access this kind of server from within one's home network. Once I logged into my neighbor's unprotected network, I can see the webpage and access the SSH server fine. The ddclient still doesn't work. In some fashion it must resolve the home IP address, which isn't easy from the terminal. The line with 'use' in it in the ddclient.conf file seem to do this, but I don't know how to control it.

[papibe]

Hi Colugo.

This works for me (using DynDNS):

use=web, web=checkip.dyndns.com, web-skip='IP Address'

Then you should restart the service:

sudo service ddclient restart

Let us know how it goes.
Regards.