Plz help a total noobie

[qquizz]

Hello all:
I am a hardware person. I recently purchased my own domain through godaddy.com
My domain is www.eleventhdimension.net

The problem is I am having a hard time finding information on how to actually publish a webpage using my domain. I probably will be using FP to start off. For no particular reason other than it's on my computer. I have searched the web just trying to find out how to get started. I think I can get through the FP part but for the life of me, I don't know how to link it to my domain. When I get to the part about nameservers I am lost. I think I have to register my domain somewhere (ICANN maybe?).

Basically, I am just looking for a beginners tutorial on how to do that, and then develop my skills from there in my eextra time. Can anyone help with a link or some tips on how I should get started? I would be very appreciative
Currently my site is "parked" with the default nameserver from godaddy. They allow me to use my own nameservers if I choose.

thanks in advance

[Aronya1]

First of all, build your site.

When you are ready to test your site in the real world, you will need hosting. Find a hosting company, pay for the service, and they will give you the nameserver info you need for godaddy.

Upload your site to the new hosting company using an FTP program. There are lots of free ones available. I use FileZilla. Your hosting company will provide you with the necessary info to set up the FTP connection.

Once your files are transferred, go to godaddy, log in to your account, and change the nameservers to point to the proper place. In a day or two, this change in information will have propagated out to the index servers on the Internet, and you will be able to access your site by typing in the address.

[qquizz]

thx very much for the reply. i was planning to host it myself using my own extra computer, but I haven't considered a free hosting service. I wanted to do this to give me more hard drive space for email and pictures. Isn't this possible w/o a great deal of hassle? Perhaps starting off w/ a free hosting service is a good idea but I do eventually want to migrate to my own server. That is where the nameserver part gets "iffy" for me. Also Comcast gives me space for webpages too, but I'm not sure how to utilize that into my domain either.
I don't mean to be pesky, but this is my ultimate goal (to operate my own webserver). Any ideas for a good source of info on how to do that? I have searched the web for hours trying to find something but no go.

[Aronya1]

Hosting your own is probably more trouble than it's worth, especially for a newbie. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't even think about it myself.

Free hosts usually require allowing popups, etc. You can find paid hosting for pretty cheap; $10/mo or maybe less.

[h4r01d]

if you plan to host it yourself, thats kinda a fun thing to do, but can be a hassle if you are not exactly familiar with the ins and outs.

I host a site on one of my machines, and I get hit almost daily with some jerk who tries to do some illegal activity or flood my buffers, and many other attempts. If you do this, be sure you have the latest patches and update them constantly. Also, be sure you have a firewall in place, and preferabley not some software version.

If you do decide to go that route, it can be rewarding though.

to do it;

you need IIS and preferably a static IP.

now, to have your own email suffix from your domain name is another daemon called Exchange Server, fun fun fun... there are others out there too, thats just the MS version. this isnt part of your OS nor IIS.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/iis/default.mspx


personally... if this is your first attempt at web publishing, I would advise against hosting it yourself. slap something up at Comcast or something (just advice) unless you are good at detecting network intrusions and have extra free time.

Aronya1 gave some great suggestions, and that would be the way I would suggest you go. However... as one who doesnt like to be redundant... you dont need an FTP client if you already have FP, it has a built in connectivity for transferring files.

[qquizz]

I guess I am determined to have my own webserver. If for no other reasons than MB space, and to learn it. I have a hardware firewall, MS Exchange, MS Windows 2000 Adv. Server, MS 2000 Server, and of course IIS. I have searched some more for info on the web but Google links all give me paid hosting info. I've browsed the MS site too, but still no go. It amazes me that considering all the info on the net, I can't find a simple "how to" on building and operating your own webserver with your own domain.
I really appreciate your replies. This is the first place I have been able to get any kind of info at all!
Don

[h4r01d]

ok then Don,

install your software, and choose the add-in IIS

set it all up, get it all patched

the goto your start menu and the run command, type MMC

a nice little utility will pop up... click 'console', then 'add snap-in', then 'add', then 'Internet Information Services'.


now use the IIS utility (the one you just made in MMC) to administer your webserver. you will see it on the left.

click the + to expand the menu and select the 'default web site'

a new list will expand from there. click 'new' and then 'virtual directory'. Follow the wizard, name it what you like (probly the name of your web site - note: this will be appended to your IP address, ie; http://000.000.000.000/websitename will show up in a browser when u r done).

next, on the new virtual directory you are going to need to set permissions. right click the virtual directory under the default website tree and select 'all tasks' adn then 'permissions wizard'. follow the wizard and allow it to inherit.

if memory servers me, you should be about ready (without exchange at this point). try it out.. type in your IP address, followed by the virtual directory name.

now, I gave you direction here to make it slightly diifferent than most manuals might do, because hackers wont know the name of your virtual directory and will look for your DLL's in the expected locations... you can however skip the 'new virtual directory' wizard and just set it all up under default website... but thats your judgement call. this way is just another step is all and allows you to easily add subwebs if you wanted more than one site with same IP.

once you get the permissions, etc set up.. select the virtual dirctory and right click it selct properties and set things like the name of your index page... its set to default.htm or default.asp and stuff like that.. I suggest index.htm (have to add it) because FP wont automatically use default.htm (just a preference I have to save time).

lets see... did I miss anything? (phew... good thing I can type fast)

[h4r01d]

oh yea, i did forget one thing...

this will be one of your best resources for questions...

http://localhost/iisHelp/iis/misc/default.asp

[qquizz]

YES! this is the kind of info I'm looking for. I have struggled at some of these steps, and thanks for the virtual directory tip. Can you give me an example the proper syntax of what the nameserver would be in this case. Let's say I use eleventhdimension as my virtual directory and have an IP of 192.168.1.100 just for example. Godaddy asks for this.

thanks again,
Don

I probably will start off with an under construction page just to make sure it works first. I hope you don't mind if I ask more questions if I get stuck at a step.

[h4r01d]

i am not familiar with godaddy... but you should be able to login to their site at some place to edit the DNS record for your domain and tell it to point to your IP.

after that propegates, you should be able to type in your domain in your URL area

btw.. that 192.168.1.100 is a local address assigned by your DHCP server, not your actual IP address. you should let IIS assign the IP for the webserver, but as far as godaddy is concerned, you will need to give them your real IP (and if this isnt static, you are gonna have to resubmit it every time it changes and that is going to give you problems). comcast offers static, but its usually only for the business connections and is spendy.

[qquizz]

Okay, I will give all this a spin this week and return here w/ results.
:)

[chestertb]

If you want something simple, try Abyss Web Server.

It's installation is quick, easy and very clean. It's installer is tiny... just 150kb, and you will be up and running in 5 minutes.

I'm sure it probably doesn't have the power of Apache or one of the more widely used servers, but it works. It also doesn't assume a knowledge of unix in its install instructions (the others do, to varying degrees... I wish the programmers who write the manuals would get someone else to write the manuals).

We use it here for development and testing of software in server dependent scripting languages like PHP.

One question though... um... tell us it's none of our business (actually, you made it our business by coming here for help), but...

Originally posted by qquizz
I wanted to do this to give me more hard drive space for email and pictures

Exactly what sort of email and pictures?

CTB

[qquizz]

I want multiple email accounts and enough hard drive space to publish pics of high definition (1MB +) of rare U.S. coins...perhaps hundreds of them.
Thanks for the tip on Abyss, I might try that first.
As for the email, I am tired of running out of space everytime I receive a few high res pics b/c my ISP only provides 10MB.
I require much, much, more space than hosting services will provide w/o charging me an arm and a leg.

PS at some point I plan to setup e-commerce, but for now, just simple site that requires a lot of MB. The site will have other functions too.

[spufi]

I assume you mean 10MB in terms of space vs. bandwidth. Either way, that's really low. What kind of bandwidth and storage space are you talking about?

[qquizz]

This is hopefully going to start off as a simple website with many large high res pics. I have a 40GB hdd that should do fine. My upload is 256Kbps. Download will soon be 3+ Mbps. I don't initially expect huge a huge amounts of hits or downloads from the site. My main concern is having large storage capability for the pics and an email account to that other coin collectors can simply send attachments of their high res pics to my web/mail server. If for some reason the site gains in popularity, I can then purchase more upload, which I can use for other purposes than this site too.
I hope that answers your question.

[qquizz]

I am A+ certified. I troubleshoot/build/upgrade PC's and Workstations on a daily basis, so this is an off-shoot of my current knowledge. Hopefully, I haven't bitten off more than I can chew here but all indications are that I should be able to do this. Furthermore, I am eager to have my own web/mail server, and I am willing to put in the time to get it up and going and keep it going. Fortunately though, it is NOT a mission-critical situation, and I can do it whenever I feel like it. For that matter, I can turn the server off and the sky will not fall. Hopefully, I will have some good results in about a week or so. I may dabble with it on this computer, but I first have to build my server and do some installations, and then transfer the html over to the dedicated server.

I felt it necessary to first find out some info before I started building the server to make sure that I can reasonably obtain my goal. So far this forum has been the best. I have gobs of mobo's, ram sticks, hdd's, etc. lying around from past computers, and will just make a hybrid from those. It will likely be just a P3 1GHzw/ 512MB RAM. I might upgrade to the Tualatin 1.4GHz later when and if the price drops on those, and if I deem it necessary.

I enjoy all the replies, and thanks for the questions and info so far.

My current machine uses nForce 2 w/ Athlon XP 2700+, 512MB Corsair low latency RAM, WD 80GB hdd w/ 8 MB cache, GF3 video, Creative Labs Extigy Sound. Antec case.

[Askalon]

wow, I am surprised that no one even mentioned dslwebserver.com (http://www.dslwebserver.com). It has a guide that is very good. If you need help, email me as I currently host three sites off of my dsl connection, two of which can be found in my signature.

Good luck.

Clayton