How to make my webserver name accessible

**var777** · 10-23-2009, 05:05 PM

Hello Guys,

I need some technical assistance. I have installed my control panel in my webserver and I would like to have the name of my webserver's control panel accessible to the public users. I can access the control panel using my ip and the open port (xx.xxx.xxx.xx:[port]) but not the actual hostname. I don't want my public users access the control panel through the ip with the port. I would like them to access through the webserver's hostname with the port. How can I do that?

I do not use a router but a switch directly hooked to the modem with a dedicated STATIC IP. I have several STATIC IPs.

Please advice.

Thank you.

**beezlebubsbum** · 10-25-2009, 11:54 AM

Try using a dynamic dns service such as dyndns.org, I use that on my own web server. They have free subdomains (such as ttgale.dyndns.org) or paid ones, such as ttgale.com. You then install an application to update your address if it's dynamic, or just fill it in if it's not. Then it should be all good

**var777** · 10-25-2009, 03:27 PM

Thanks but I have stable static IPs so why should I use a dynamic IP?

My question here is what should I configure to make my webserver using hostname + port [host.domain.com+port] accessible as opposed to static ip + port [xx.xxx.xxx.xx+port]?

I need to know if this has something to do with my Linux's /etc/hosts/, /etc/resolv.conf, configured my /etc/named.conf?

This is what I would like to know. I need a guide to make to changes to make it accessible.

Any other webserver genius out there to give an input?

Thanks.

**peter** · 10-27-2009, 02:50 AM

Sounds like you need to get your webserver's hostname in external DNS and assign it to one of the many IP addresses so that users can access it from the net.

**var777** · 10-27-2009, 04:07 AM

You mean I have to sign up somewhere to get the external DNS?

I am using Fedora 11 O/S. F11 has BIND package that I can install in my system. Can I just configure BIND in my webserver?

I would definitely appreciate your further input.

Thanks.

**peter** · 10-27-2009, 04:45 AM

You could do either way. Most domain registrars will provide external DNS as a free service for your domain. You could run your own DNS server after setting up the domain at your registrar to point its NS record to the your server so that your server handles all DNS for the domain. For few DNS entries the registrar will be faster unless you want to practice on your own. The DNS tutorial on this site will help.

**var777** · 10-27-2009, 07:14 PM

Hello Peter,

I successfully set up two of my servers to serve as an authoritative and slave DNS servers. I followed your site's guide to do it. Okay, my webserver is separate from my DNS servers. I hope I am doing the right thing.

So now I used my own DNS server IP for my webserver, but still i cannot access the hosting control panel using the hostname + port. I also disabled the firewall and SELinux security. I am missing something?

My webserver's network looks like this:

hostname: mywebservers.domain.com
Primay DNS: xx.xxx.xxx of my DNS server
Secondary DNS: XX.XXX.xx of slaver server

How come I cannot still access the webserver's control panel using the actual hostname? I can only access it through the ip + port. Since the firewall is disabled, I guess I don't have to open the port anymore. My webserver is also directly connected to the switch (which splits all the STATIC IPS from the modem provided by my ISP) Which part am I missing? Do I have to do something with Apache? MyDNS configuration?

Please give further advice. Thanks.

**peter** · 10-28-2009, 03:44 AM

Your client is probably using the wrong caching DNS server in its configuration.

Have you tested the DNS configuration using host or nslookup commands from your client? There could be a misconfiguration somewhere. Are the results of the commands what you expect?

**var777** · 10-28-2009, 02:57 PM

Hello Peter,

When I did the nslookup, host, and dig for my webserver's hostname, these are the results:

#~nslookup webserver.hostname
Server: ip (of my DNS server)
Address: ip (of my DNS server) #53

** server can't find webserver.hostname: NXDOMAIN

#~host webserver.hostname
host webserver.hostname not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

#~dig webserver.hostname
flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

question section:
webserver.hostname IN A

AUTHORITY SECTION:
domain.com (my DNS server FQDN) 3600 IN SOA DNS server nameserver names

QUERY time: 0 msec
Server: ip(of my DNS server)#53 (ip of DNS server)

Okay, that's the results there. And I can see some problem but I don't know what to do to fix it. When I checked resolv.conf, an error message showed as:

NO DNS ip and Domain name entered. There was an advice there that said you may enter DNS ip and DOMAIN in ifcfg-eth0. So I did.

When I did some rechecking again with host, dig, nslookup I still get the same problem. I have to use my ISP provided DNS ip as I end up not able to access the internet if I only use all my DNS server's static IP. Right now, just so I can access the internet, I have to use my authoritative DNS server's IP as the primary DNS with the ISP's DNS ip as secondary so I can access the internet. If don't use the ISP's DNS, I lose my internet connection. Because I find it weird that I can only access the control panel of the webserver inside and outside the network but not the internet.

One more, I don't use BIND or named in my webserver for my DNS but I am using myDNS application. does this has something to do with this problem?

I hope you have the whole idea on what's going on right now. I really need more assistance on this.

Thanks again.

**peter** · 10-29-2009, 05:39 PM

Looks like DNS for your zone isn't setup correctly on your DNS/Webserver.

Resolv.conf should only have the IP addresses of caching DNS servers. These can be dedicated caching DNS servers or authoritative DNS servers for domains configured to do caching also. Are you pointing to the correct DNS servers?