Server 4, GoDaddy, and an Airport Walk into a bar...

[Nohg]

Hi everyone,

This may be a long message but I think it's best to be complete.

I am trying to have a go at hosting my small business' needs at home via a spare Mac that is more than equal to the task of some server duties. I am running Server.app 4 and have my domain reserved via GoDaddy.

The problem is that I've quickly discovered the actual nuts and bolts of getting my GoDaddy domain to point to my server machine are somewhat beyond my skill level at present. Here's my situation as far as the setup goes:

FiOS proivder who is okay with me hosting, but provides a dynamic address.

Their included modem/router is connected directly to the Internet and seems to handle all the NAT work.

Next comes my Airport Extreme (AC), which is in bridge mode to avoid any double NAT issues.

That is plugged into the machine I have Server on.

Here is the issue: I am at a complete and total loss on how to get my GoDaddy domain squared with that server. I suppose I could plug it into my "modem" directly, but that still does not solve the issues of forwarding ports for services, and settling my dynamic IP issue re: GoDaddy--to say nothing of Hostnames and DNS (which are things I have no experience with) etc.

This is not to say that I tried for five minutes, failed to get results, and promptly came to throw myself on the mercy of the good old Mac Rumors fora. I Googled, read many "power user" guides, and slogged through the swamps of Youtube to try and learn about Server.

So I, in full knowledge that this is a big ask, am here to throw myself on the mercy and charity of the Mac Rumors members.

And I really do want to learn about Server and how to do this properly, so I'm really very reticent to use 3rd party service at this point.

Any help, guides, PM's, tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[mvmanolov]

Hi everyone,

This may be a long message but I think it's best to be complete.

I am trying to have a go at hosting my small business' needs at home via a spare Mac that is more than equal to the task of some server duties. I am running Server.app 4 and have my domain reserved via GoDaddy.

The problem is that I've quickly discovered the actual nuts and bolts of getting my GoDaddy domain to point to my server machine are somewhat beyond my skill level at present. Here's my situation as far as the setup goes:

FiOS proivder who is okay with me hosting, but provides a dynamic address.

Their included modem/router is connected directly to the Internet and seems to handle all the NAT work.

Next comes my Airport Extreme (AC), which is in bridge mode to avoid any double NAT issues.

That is plugged into the machine I have Server on.

Here is the issue: I am at a complete and total loss on how to get my GoDaddy domain squared with that server. I suppose I could plug it into my "modem" directly, but that still does not solve the issues of forwarding ports for services, and settling my dynamic IP issue re: GoDaddy--to say nothing of Hostnames and DNS (which are things I have no experience with) etc.

This is not to say that I tried for five minutes, failed to get results, and promptly came to throw myself on the mercy of the good old Mac Rumors fora. I Googled, read many "power user" guides, and slogged through the swamps of Youtube to try and learn about Server.

So I, in full knowledge that this is a big ask, am here to throw myself on the mercy and charity of the Mac Rumors members.

And I really do want to learn about Server and how to do this properly, so I'm really very reticent to use 3rd party service at this point.

Any help, guides, PM's, tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

first of all LOL no need for prostration

its a crappy deal that you have a dynamic IP. I know i have one too....
So what you need is a no-ip.com's dynamic dans service. with this you can download their little app and install it on your server which will tell no-ip the ip number that your sip provides and in turn no-ip will resolve this to the host name that you have purchased from godaddy.

some/not all, but some sip routers also would have a Dynamic DNS section which will allow you to enter your no-ip credential and will do the updating of your external ip for you. but as i said if your router does not do this not to worry no-ip have their own little app called no-ip duc which you can run on your server and will do the same thing. just make sure to start it after reboot.

if you don't want to use no-ip, there are other services out there like DynDNS but i've have a much better experience with no-ip

it does suck having to pay the $20 or so yearly fee for the no-ip service but its better than the $30/month my isp wants for a static ip...

by the way, not to fear monger, but if you are hosting a website or e-mail for business purposes, i'd strongly advise to use someone else's hosting service (godaddy offer this as well) simply from a maintenance, bandwidth and security perspective. these large hosting companies exist for a reason... where as a simple IPS/IDS system (which i would strongly recommend especially if this is business related) would cost you quite a bit! you could build your own - see smallnetbuilder.net for some instructions - but i don't recommend this especially as a someone with little experience and especially in the context of a business...)

let me know if i can help in any other way...

oh and couple of more things i found these two sites exceptionally helpful in trying to get my own server up and running:

http://krypted.com/guides/yosemite-server/

and

https://www.yesdevnull.net

Cheers, and good luck mate oh and most importantly have fun...

 

[zorb]

- Check out the python script at http://saschpe.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/godaddy-dyndns-for-the-poor/

- Install all the required dependencies for that script (update the script with your username and password for godaddy account)

- Write a launchctl (or cron) job to run the python script every min/hour/day

- Launch server app and you can configure your Airport Extreme for port forwarding all incoming traffic for SSH, Web, Screen Sharing to you server

Thats it. You should now have a system in place which will resolve the dns to your server and you don't have to pay for any external services like no-ip or dyndns

Hope this helps.

 

[mvmanolov]

- Check out the python script at http://saschpe.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/godaddy-dyndns-for-the-poor/

- Install all the required dependencies for that script (update the script with your username and password for godaddy account)

- Write a launchctl (or cron) job to run the python script every min/hour/day

- Launch server app and you can configure your Airport Extreme for port forwarding all incoming traffic for SSH, Web, Screen Sharing to you server

Thats it. You should now have a system in place which will resolve the dns to your server and you don't have to pay for any external services like no-ip or dyndns

Hope this helps.

Very neat...
I may give this a try actually.

 

[marzer]

Hi everyone,

This may be a long message but I think it's best to be complete.

I am trying to have a go at hosting my small business' needs at home via a spare Mac that is more than equal to the task of some server duties. I am running Server.app 4 and have my domain reserved via GoDaddy.

The problem is that I've quickly discovered the actual nuts and bolts of getting my GoDaddy domain to point to my server machine are somewhat beyond my skill level at present. Here's my situation as far as the setup goes:

FiOS proivder who is okay with me hosting, but provides a dynamic address.

Their included modem/router is connected directly to the Internet and seems to handle all the NAT work.

Next comes my Airport Extreme (AC), which is in bridge mode to avoid any double NAT issues.

That is plugged into the machine I have Server on.

Here is the issue: I am at a complete and total loss on how to get my GoDaddy domain squared with that server. I suppose I could plug it into my "modem" directly, but that still does not solve the issues of forwarding ports for services, and settling my dynamic IP issue re: GoDaddy--to say nothing of Hostnames and DNS (which are things I have no experience with) etc.

This is not to say that I tried for five minutes, failed to get results, and promptly came to throw myself on the mercy of the good old Mac Rumors fora. I Googled, read many "power user" guides, and slogged through the swamps of Youtube to try and learn about Server.

So I, in full knowledge that this is a big ask, am here to throw myself on the mercy and charity of the Mac Rumors members.

And I really do want to learn about Server and how to do this properly, so I'm really very reticent to use 3rd party service at this point.

Any help, guides, PM's, tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I stream my home media library over the Internet using StreamToMe. So I wanted a way to map my dynamic IP at home to a URL associated with my Godaddy domain. My simple solution was to use the free No-ip service.

I created a free no-ip domain, created a CNAME record to map a subdomain under my godaddy registered domain to the free no-ip domain. Then on my media server I run the no-ip utility that keeps my no-ip domain updated with my dynamically assigned IP.