Anyone have experience with services such as http://www.dyndns.com/
or http://web.easydns.com/? I thought this might be useful when
developing with MAMP, saves me from having to deal with the remote
server during dev when the client needs to view something.
Recommendations, alternatives or words of caution appreciated.
Todd
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If you’re running MAMP locally, then all those hosts are only
available at a non-routable address (localhost). If you want outsiders
to your network to be able to access them from the public internet,
then you’ll need an NAT router that can address a “DMZ Host” inside
your network. I have a fairly pricy Cisco that does this, but I
believe even some of the $49 models out there can do this as well. But
it’s not as simple as getting a hostname to point to your ever-
changing numerical IP address.
Another approach you might want to consider is buying a used Mac mini
or similar, and running it as your dedicated server. It’s going to
have a fairly recent version of PHP and Apache installed with the OS;
for the former, all you have to do is uncomment one or two lines of
the master httpd.conf file, for the latter, all you have to do is
check Web Sharing on in the System Preferences. MySQL is available for
free, with a nice gui control panel and an easy-peasy installer, so no
excuses there, either.
Put this little Mac in a corner somewhere cool, and use Screen Sharing
to administer it (you won’t even need a display or keyboard at all).
Be sure to enable remote login, so you can use SSH and SFTP to load
your content into the /Library/Web Server/Documents folder. Use your
NAT router’s control panel to define the mini as your “DMZ” host, and
be sure to turn on the firewall in System Preferences. And that’s
about it. Its tiny slow hard disk and wheezy processor are still
orders of magnitude faster than the fastest home internet connection,
so you aren’t in any danger of embarrassing yourself performance-wise.
Walter
On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:59 AM, Todd wrote:
Anyone have experience with services such as <http://www.dyndns.com/
or http://web.easydns.com/? I thought this might be useful when
developing with MAMP, saves me from having to deal with the remote
server during dev when the client needs to view something.
Recommendations, alternatives or words of caution appreciated.Todd
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On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:14 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
If you’re running MAMP locally, then all those hosts are only
available at a non-routable address (localhost). If you want
outsiders to your network to be able to access them from the public
internet, then you’ll need an NAT router that can address a “DMZ
Host” inside your network
Interesting. If it’s just one computer, no network, no router, then
does that simplify things? Plug-n-play? I suppose eventually there
will be a network of computers so I’ll have to do what you suggest but
for now it’s as basic as it gets.
Todd
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If you are running your computer as a “fully exposed host”, then I’ll
be very surprised. Even the most stone-age of cable modems don’t do
that. Who’s your internet service provider, and can you describe the
chain of gear from hole in the wall to your desk? What are the first
three segments of your Mac’s IP address, as reported by the Network
pane of the System Preferences app?
Walter
On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:21 AM, Todd wrote:
On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:14 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
If you’re running MAMP locally, then all those hosts are only
available at a non-routable address (localhost). If you want
outsiders to your network to be able to access them from the public
internet, then you’ll need an NAT router that can address a “DMZ
Host” inside your networkInteresting. If it’s just one computer, no network, no router, then
does that simplify things? Plug-n-play? I suppose eventually there
will be a network of computers so I’ll have to do what you suggest
but for now it’s as basic as it gets.Todd
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Comcast. Incoming cable > cable modem > Mac. IP 71.57.41
On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:32 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
Who’s your internet service provider, and can you describe the chain
of gear from hole in the wall to your desk? What are the first three
segments of your Mac’s IP address, as reported by the Network pane
of the System Preferences app?On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:21 AM, Todd wrote:
On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:14 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
If you’re running MAMP locally, then all those hosts are only
available at a non-routable address (localhost). If you want
outsiders to your network to be able to access them from the
public internet, then you’ll need an NAT router that can address a
“DMZ Host” inside your networkInteresting. If it’s just one computer, no network, no router, then
does that simplify things? Plug-n-play? I suppose eventually there
will be a network of computers so I’ll have to do what you suggest
but for now it’s as basic as it gets.
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On 30 July 2010 14:59, Todd email@hidden wrote:
Anyone have experience with services such as http://www.dyndns.com/ or <
http://web.easydns.com/>? I thought this might be useful when developing
with MAMP, saves me from having to deal with the remote server during dev
when the client needs to view something. Recommendations, alternatives or
words of caution appreciated.
I’ve always used Zone Edit without any problems. (And it’s free.)
DNS Update handles the IP address forwarding.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/mac/9192
Roger
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Hi Todd,
If you are developing locally and wanting to see the sites under their
own domains then I’d strongly recommend using VirtualHostX (VirtualHostX – retina studio
).
It basically sets up any number of virtual hosts on your local machine
so you can use URLs like http://www.mydomain.web rather than the
default localhost scheme.
If on the other hand you want to show a remote client the site in
progress then you’ll need to either host the site on your machine and
share it from there, or better still, as Walter suggests, get a budget
Mac and use that as a server. I’ve a old (G4) PowerBook that the
display died on a few years ago that I use as a headless server.
Here it is;
http://www.freewayactions.com/test/silver-server.jpg
It runs Apache, PHP etc as well as VNC for getting in and controlling
it over the network. It runs quite well as a web server and the
internal battery will even keep it alive if the mains power goes out.
I then use one of my ‘parked’ domains to redirect to my static IP
address and open up port 80 on my router to let requests in to the
server.
Anyone can then enter the domain and, assuming the server is on (it’s
in a box at the moment), will get the requested site.
Regards,
Tim.
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Wow. Scary. Hope your firewall is on. Get thee to the Best Buy or
similar, and buy a $49 NAT router. Linksys are a good brand. You’ll
find both wired and wireless varieties, and they all have little multi-
port hubs built in, good for connecting to printers or other Macs like
your soon-to-be-purchased mini server…
Follow the Ikea instructions on the colorful card, and you’ll be up
and running very quickly.
Walter
On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:39 AM, Todd wrote:
Comcast. Incoming cable > cable modem > Mac. IP 71.57.41
On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:32 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:Who’s your internet service provider, and can you describe the
chain of gear from hole in the wall to your desk? What are the
first three segments of your Mac’s IP address, as reported by the
Network pane of the System Preferences app?
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On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:46 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
Hope your firewall is on.
It is.
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Thanks Guys. I think for the moment I’ll file this one for later.
Walter, what will a NAT router do for me that’s so much safer than the
current setup of cable > modem >computer? Is it really so strange or
dangerous?
T.
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On Jul 30, 2010, at 9:46 AM, Tim Plumb wrote:
If you are developing locally and wanting to see the sites under
their own domains then I’d strongly recommend using VirtualHostX (VirtualHostX – retina studio
).
It basically sets up any number of virtual hosts on your local
machine so you can use URLs like http://www.mydomain.web rather than
the default localhost scheme.
Hi Tim,
Pretty nice, I bookmarked that one. But I was thinking of giving
remote clients access to the local server development which is why I
was looking into a service. But it seems the consensus is to use a
separate machine instead which I had not considered. Funny how my best
laid and simple plans seem to get ramped-up in short order!
Todd
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In a NAT environment, there is zero opportunity for accidental leakage
of your private information into the public Internet. Your Mac would
have an IP address in a private non-routable address space (usually
192.168.1.xxx) and if someone tries to access your Mac directly, they
absolutely can’t.
But you can open little keyholes into your Mac, say to allow port 80
to be seen from outside. Outside people go to [your ip address]:80,
which is actually the NAT router. This router is a battle-hardened
piece of silicon that doesn’t have any valuable information on it.
The router creates a virtual port to your Mac’s private address at
port 80, and passes along the request, listens for your Mac’s
response, and rewrites the response to make it appear as though it
came from the actual “real” IP address. Since the router knows which
ports it opened to your Mac, it only accepts replies from your Mac
along those same ports (or as in the case of FTP, along their approved
reply ports).
It’s worlds safer than only relying on a firewall.
Walter
On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:56 AM, Todd wrote:
Thanks Guys. I think for the moment I’ll file this one for later.
Walter, what will a NAT router do for me that’s so much safer than
the current setup of cable > modem >computer? Is it really so
strange or dangerous?T.
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Hi Todd,
Either use a separate machine or simply sync your MAMP based site to a
live server somewhere. A lot of hosts will offer accounts with sub or
add-on domains so you can set a site up very easily. Obviously you
would need to sync your local data with the server before your client
can see the updates but it may be easier to manage than a dedicated
local server.
Lastly you can get standalone servers that are not much bigger than
external hard drives and are pre-configured with Apache, PHP etc. that
you can just add to your network and forget. They can be cheap but are
generally less ‘tinker-able’ than a dedicated computer.
The single thing I would suggest you don’t do is allow your production
machine to act as the server. If you use a standalone box or computer
as the server and it gets hacked then you’ve not lost your ability to
work.
Regards,
Tim.
On 30 Jul 2010, at 16:04, Todd wrote:
But it seems the consensus is to use a separate machine instead
which I had not considered. Funny how my best laid and simple plans
seem to get ramped-up in short order!
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On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:16 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
In a NAT environment, there is zero opportunity for accidental
leakage of your private information into the public Internet.
I guess I’ll be buying a router. Is this the one you mentioned? <http://tinyurl.com/2a6k8cg
T.
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On 30 July 2010 16:16, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:
In a NAT environment, there is zero opportunity for accidental leakage of
your private information into the public Internet. Your Mac would have an IP
address in a private non-routable address space (usually 192.168.1.xxx) and
if someone tries to access your Mac directly, they absolutely can’t.But you can open little keyholes into your Mac, say to allow port 80 to be
seen from outside. Outside people go to [your ip address]:80, which is
actually the NAT router. This router is a battle-hardened piece of silicon
that doesn’t have any valuable information on it.
But doesn’t a service such as Zone Edit (with DNS Update) achieve the same
thing?
Roger
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But doesn’t a service such as Zone Edit (with DNS Update) achieve the same
thing?With a router, I should add. (An Apple Airport Extreme in my case.)
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No. If your Mac has a public IP address, then you are only protected
by your firewall, nothing more. If your Mac has a private IP address,
then you have to work really hard to expose yourself to hacking.
Walter
On Jul 30, 2010, at 11:27 AM, Roger Houghton wrote:
On 30 July 2010 16:16, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:
In a NAT environment, there is zero opportunity for accidental
leakage of
your private information into the public Internet.
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This isn’t working for me, I get a 404 at Best Buy. This is what I mean:
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-EtherFast-Router-4-Port-Switch/dp/B00004SB92
There is also a wireless variety for $10 more.
Walter
On Jul 30, 2010, at 11:26 AM, Todd wrote:
I guess I’ll be buying a router. Is this the one you mentioned? <http://tinyurl.com/2a6k8cg
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On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:47 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
This is what I mean:
There is also a wireless variety for $10 more.
Ah. That’s not the one I found. This one looks hardcore. Ordering now.
Thanks everyone.
Todd
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On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:16 AM, Tim Plumb wrote:
Either use a separate machine or simply sync your MAMP based site to
a live server somewhere. A lot of hosts will offer accounts with sub
or add-on domains so you can set a site up very easily. The single
thing I would suggest you don’t do is allow your production machine
to act as the server.
I do sync with my remote server (sub-domain) for such things it’s just
that, on the surface, the idea of granting access to the production
server seemed very appealing and more streamlined because I don’t have
to deal with the remote server at all until the things go live. But I
see where this may not be ideal. Until I can I use a separate local
server/box I think this is the my safest option.
Todd
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