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Hi forum

I subscribed with Etisalat Al shamil internet services, and I'm wondering if I can create my own home server,, because I would like to create my personal webpage or site that I have full controll with it.
is it possible? by the way Im using unix for my webserver..

Thank in advance

Not sure how it works actually. You'd have to get a fixed IP I suppose. Not sure if Etisalat offers static IPs. Then you'd have to get whatever ports you need opened, plus you're serving through a crappy internet connection.

Either way, you're still behind the Etisalat Internet Filter so you don't really have full control.

I would recommend you get hosting in another country. You can get simple web hosting from anywhere for pretty cheap. That is fine for a simple webpage. I use GoDaddy for mine. For blogs, Blogger lets you create a blog using their editor then it can FTP to your site.

If you want to run your own apps or host a lot of data then you can buy either a virtual server or real server somewhere. Not as expensive as you might think, especially for Virtual Servers but you'll have less/shared memory if you're running something intensive.

I've been looking into something similar because I'm playing around with Ruby on Rails at the moment and I'm looking at hosting space for that. Apparently it takes a little too much memory (for fast page loads) to run Ruby/Rails on a simple Virtual Server so you either want to get a VS with a gauranteed amount of memory or a real server.

Was talking to someone today who has a real server in the US. Full control for 170USD a year.

as for the IP Address issues, you can use dynamic dns if you are looking to host custom applications

like captain suggested, its more ideal to get hosting done abroad.

+ you wont ever get proper upload speed (256Kbps / 512Kbps ?) if you run a server on a al shamil connection (regardless of your connection speed )

You also have security issues to consider. If you're a server admin then maybe you could deal with it yourself. But I don't think you'd have asked the question in the first place if you were .

I've seen acceptable hosting for as low as $5 per month, and there's even cheaper available. Don't bother with free hosting.

The first thing you'll need is a dynamic dns account. These can be gotten for free through sites such as dyndns, no-ip, and others. You'll need to use port forwarding on your router and select some unused and unblocked port. Etisalat blocks port 80 by default so you can't use that. I chose 8000. I run mine just for fun and the speed's decent as long as you're not getting too much traffic.

@gamercowboy

Etisalat doesn't block port 80. They do only if the host is being accessed by its ip address directly & not the host name.

@ahamed

Is it? I wasn't able to get it working until I switched ports. I don't know the intricacies of IP/networking enough to know this for sure but my guess was that accessing by, for example, dyndns counts as "access by its ip address directly" since all it does is redirect to your ip address.

i have a dynamic dns host pointing to one of our servers behind a business1 connection. It can be browsed from locations abroad and within UAE.

Dynamic dns creates a PTR record / A Record for the ip address, you update to their dns servers. It is different than redirection. I believe you are talking about URL Redirection.

So to sum it all up.

1. Go to Etisalat or Du and ask for a NORMAL HOME connection (single user, 1 MB should be enough)

2. If you want to have your own WEBSITE content management system. Google "Joomla". Takes time to learn, but is feature rich and free.

3. If you want an EMAIL system. Google "ClarkConnect" or "Desknow"

4. Or you could even have BOTH installed togather.

5. Register for DYNDNS at dyndns.com
This will help your home IP address to get updated to a domain name eg. www.yoursite.com for everytime you restart your internet. (You dont need fixed IP).

6. You definitly need help, consult an IT expert. You do not need to pay a fortune, just find the right guy, to teach you how to implement the mentioned above system and how to maintain them on your own, for a small fees.

ahamed wrote:i have a dynamic dns host pointing to one of our servers behind a business1 connection. It can be browsed from locations abroad and within UAE.

Dynamic dns creates a PTR record / A Record for the ip address, you update to their dns servers. It is different than redirection. I believe you are talking about Redirection.

Yes, I'm using redirection for my home server. I'm going to try this out tonight and see if I can get it working on port 80.

Thank you guys for the reply. I will try all your suggestions and idea. anyway, I want to learning unix security thats why I want to deploy a server that I have full access in it, I think thats the first way I will learn more about security.

@gamercowboy what wifi/router you are using? Im using what Etisalat had given me, and I think port forwarding is not working for me.

nullpointer wrote:Thank you guys for the reply. I will try all your suggestions and idea. anyway, I want to learning unix security thats why I want to deploy a server that I have full access in it, I think thats the first way I will learn more about security.

@gamercowboy what wifi/router you are using? Im using what Etisalat had given me, and I think port forwarding is not working for me.

Cool! i spent 6 months messing around with Linux. And this is what i learnt.

Ubuntu rocks! there is home version, and Server version.
For big servers like HP ML's or Bladerserver...which we wont be using here, they use "Centos Enterprise" because that supports these advanced hardware....but for us, i think you should start of with Ubuntu Server. Just remember, server edition has no user inteface...its all command prompt

So google up some comman lines like "sudo apt-get gnome" etc to load up what you need.

Port forwarding: dont see why u facing trouble with that, should be straight forward.

6. You definitly need help, consult an IT expert. You do not need to pay a fortune, just find the right guy, to teach you how to implement the mentioned above system and how to maintain them on your own, for a small fees.

I am ready to assist as long as i get my cigarettes & coffee

@gamercowboy
The etisalat alcatel-lucent router is big time $hit.

@ahamed
sure dude! lolz!

@Not_Sure
Im using BSD (openbsd for specific). I often used console, I use GUI for entertainment(watching movies,mp3 and picture browsing ).

I will try to buy new router this comming salary,I hope that will help. coz I think that $hsss router of etisalat dont work, it even keep me disconnecting.

I got a Netgear something or other. I don't remember the precise model number. They're all pretty crappy at this price range but the nice thing about this Netgear is that it came with a built-in dyndns updater. That saved me from having to set up the client but that's a small factor to consider.

I'm not sure how much you know about unix security but just in case you don't know this: before you allow external ssh connections to your server, set up passkey authentication and then disable logins by username+password. There are lots of brute-force attempts on open ssh ports. You could also change from default port 22 to something else but that's not as effective.

aH uNIX !!

i AM a windows Guy !!

I'm a windows guy too, but if you work in the industry long enough you get exposed to everything after a while. My first job was working on VAX/VMS programming in FORTRAN 77 and ADA 86, then a system combining C# .Net 1.1 on Win 2000 and C++ on Solaris Unix 8 and 9, then a system combining C++ on Win Server 2003 and C# .Net 2.0 on XP, and now I'm doing Flash Actionscript 3.0 of all things... and I'm only 29!

Got to be open to everything... except Macs, unless you're gay.

Im lucky im not using mac.. lolz! but i think mac os is based on unix and adopt unix security. that's why they doesnt have too much viruses. well thats what i heard..