I am really new at networking and web-hosting. I have not purchased any domains because I simply want to work on learning how to do things before I go public. I have Ubuntu 8.4 with the ispconfig installed. Can you use ISP config locally only? Any tips if so?
Yes you can. Set all domains to something that doesn't exist like domain.tld (for main ispconfig domain) and myclientdomain.tld (as client domain) and give them local LAN IPs. Then you can in Windows edit hosts file located in /windows/system32/drivers/etc/ folder and ad those IPs and domains so you can access them by typing www.domain.tld and www.myclientdomain.tld in browser.
I must be dumb because I can't seem to get thsi to work either. I am running ISPConfig on Fedora 9. I want to use locally to test before going live and paying for static IP and domain names. I have the server running ISPConfig with an IP of: 192.168.1.200 and a host / domain name of server.domain.com I want to set up multiple virtual hosts on this server to practive with ISPConfig. How do I set things up since I have only 1 IP address on the server and how do I setup DNS in ISPConfig to work with the sites. The guid for the perfect server setup is great but after the install there is no help or guidance for DNS or host setup under this local testing type of situation. Any help is appreciated!
you need to add one more IP to ISPConfig Management/Server/Settings>Server IP List: add for example: 192.168.1.201 then define all clent sites with this ip and add all those domains with IPs in hosts file in windows.
Try VMware player and one of Falko's "perfect installation" images Probably the coolest way would be to use the VMware player to run one of Falko's vmware images: http://howtoforge.com/list-of-downloadable-vmware-images You have to join to have access to them, but should be well worth it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the VMware player creates a kind of machine within a machine on your windows computer. Once you install the player, you just run the image--no installation or settings to hassle with--it's ready to go. It doesn't mess with anything on your computer because it's all isolated--just delete it when you're done. I've been using it to try out different flavors of linux in my Windows XP box.
Well I have done this and I still get the Shared IP page. BTW, I have one record in the DNS Manager and that is my server.mydomain.com entry. So far this is the first site on the server and it is the server site that I placed as a client and site under admin. I have not set and resellers or added any other clients or sites yet. I still get the shared IP page and I have only one site so far? I am also confused why I want to make a new IP for the server site. If the server address is 192.168.1.200 would it not have that IP address as the main site on the server? So if I need to have a unique IP fir each domain name then when I go live I would need a real IP for each domain name I register? I thought having virtual sites was the point of sharing 1 IP for multiple domains. I think I am even more so confused now and I still can't get to a page on the server other then Shared IP. My thinking was I would just set up the home page / website for main server itself as if it was a hostign company main page for sales and info. This was the first site I made under ADMIN. I had intended on creating a reseller or several client sites for all of my customers or test customers in this case. I figured the objective of virtual hosting was to have the the various domain names mapped to various actual user accounts / directorys in the webserver therefore hosting multiple domains on one server with only 1 static IP. I must be wrong in understanding what this is all about. All I know is that I wanted to replace the virtual hosting services I am paying for now for 5 differnet domains I own by running a server and hosting them from my office. This is hard stuff. I don't want to give up but I fear I am lost.
Don't give up--router configuration is harder than server configuration ;-) Apache sends the http requests to the right directory, and ISPConfig instructs apache for you when you setup the hosting for a domain. Your only problem is getting the http requests passed through your router. 192.168.1.200 is only an ip for a machine within your network--it's meaningless to the outside world. Go to http://whatismyip.com to see what your ip is to the internet. That's the ip you need to put in your domain settings at the registrar (assuming you're using their dns.) You need to tell your router to pass thru those requests for your real ip to the ip for a local machine like 192.168.1.200. Try googling setup router for home web server http://www.google.dk/search?hl=da&q=setup+router+for+home+web+server&btnG=Google-søgning&meta= And if you're using the dns provided by your domain registrar, you don't need to run dns on your computer, and you don't need to have ISPconfig add a dns entry when you setup a new site. It's better to use the dns at your domain registrar imho, then if your server goes down, you can have your site back up at another ip in a few minutes compared to hours or even days if you have to change name servers in the domain settings. Btw, that "shared ip" message just means that the domain is not in apache--when you add it with ispconfig, it will go to the right directory instead--that message has nothing to do with local dns entries.
Well the good news is that I do have port forwarding setup on my router for port 80 and it does redirect external tracffic to my server 192.168.1.200 without problems. Since I am only test an internal configuration at this time before I go live, I have not switched registered domains over yet. I just want to do a dry run plus I do not have a rela static IP yet. I just want to be able to access the various sites on my server as unique sites. I will go back and review all my settings cause I can't seem to get to any other page that says: Code: Shared IP This IP address is shared. For access to the web site which you look for, enter its address instead of its IP. For questions or problems please contact the server administrator.
to be able to test your sites on you LAN you have to add your WWW DNS to your LAN connection settings Control Panel -> Networking -> properties -> TCP/IP -> use the following DNS server addresses: your WWW box than your Router or DNS Server IP address click ok than flush your DNS and than try to load your sites see if thats works ...
thanks for such a prompt response everyone! I will try some of these things out when I have time. The tips are much appreciated!
You should have one doman and two static IPs for your server. One is used for ispconfig administration and linked to domain and the other one is used for sites in sharedIP.
Yes, if you don't have a local DNS server that resolves your test domains. http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=432&highlight=hosts+file+windows
