Problem hosting server behing personal router

Question

I recently bought a domain name lucidcontraptions.com and want to host the website from home. I have a D-LINK router in which I have set up my personal virtual server correctly. My application server is apache2.2

The server works perfectly with the following settings: external ip: 207.172.xx.xx public port:8888 internal ip: 192.168.xx.xx private port:80 if I go to 207.172.xx.xx:8888/ the server works perfectly and my apache page shows up without any issues, both from inside the intranet as well as outside. This setting would not work out for me as I am not allowed port numbers in my DNS management.

Now when I tweak the settings to the following: external ip: 207.172.xx.xx public port:80 internal ip: 192.168.xx.xx private port:80 if I go to 207.172.xx.xx/ the server works perfectly and my apache page shows up without any issues BUT ONLY FROM INSIDE THE INTRANET this page does not show up for people outside the intranet.

On the other hand, an ssh to lucidcontraptions.com works perfectly. so i am guessing port 22 is working flawlessly..

SOMEONE PLEASE!, help me out!

Answer 1

Many consumer ISPs block port 80 so that consumers can't do their own web hosting. You might want to check with your ISP to see if they are blocking it.

Answer 2

If you are doing this from say comcast,time warner,$other_isp then they could be filtering port 80..You'd probably have to upgrade to a business acct to get 80 opened up

Answer 3

Greetings ...

I advise third party hosting if possible .. it is ridiculously inexpensive. DreamHost is doing a deal today (17-June-2009); less than US$10 for a year of hosting on a shared server with unlimited space and bandwidth. It is probably cheaper than the difference between residential and business ISP broadband.

You know about the ISP port blocking problem .. there is not likely a way around it, certainly not a way that doesn't break your contract. If that is indeed the problem I wouldn't mess with it.

You could possible have issues with the router config. Set the web server to another port and see if you can get it all to work on that port. You could also try it at another location (friend or relative?) with a different ISP -- easily done with DynDNS -- and see if that works.

Answer 4

According to http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12111, RCN blocks incoming port 80 for customers who do not have static IPs. This suggests that you can get it unblocked by signing up for the static IP service ($19.95/mth according to http://www.rcn.com/boston/high-speed-internet/extras/home-networking)

A cheaper alternative may be to sign up for a URL redirection service from one of the dynamic dns providers. Zoneedit.com provides such a service for $1/mth. You would be looking for their ManagedDNS and WebForward service. How this might work is that you could set lucidcontraptions.com and www.lucidcontraptions.com to do a webforward to web.lucidcontraptions.com:8888. Other service providers may be cheaper or provide variants of this service, such as an iframe that hides the forwarded url so that visitors don't see the ugliness.

Not sure if you had anonymized your domain name, but according to [link in the comment below], the lucidcontraptions.com domain has not in fact been registered.

I'm also not sure whether hosting websites is against your T&C and AUP. You will have to find out and consider this risk.