Using a Home server

[Tron]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, if not a Mod may move it.

I have just started to use my home PC as my site server (using no-ip ). In order to get it to work I needed to turn off the Windows XP firewall.

I know some of you have done this in the past so the question is

1. is thre a way in the windows firewall to free up port 80 so the site can be seen and still leave security on the rest of the system?

2. is there a better way to do this, maybe with a 3rd party firewall?

3. with the firewall turned off, just how much problem could that create?

I really like the convenience of doing this, and my PC is on 24/7 anyway. It is so much easier to do updates right at home without the need to upload everything.

any comments please

 

[illumina]

The best firewall, I've found, is a hardware firewall, get a router, and set it to accept port 80.
I dont use any firewall software, I don't need to because my router does the job far better than any software I've had has ever done.

 

[JoeD]

I dont use any firewall software, I don't need to because my router does the job far better than any software I've had has ever done.

Wrong Illumina, you've created a very dangerous situation!!
The reason why I say this that you won't be protected againt outbound traffic. Even if Rick would get Windows firewall to work wouldn't be enough; neither does that one protect you from outbound traffic. Both hardware router and XP firewall have give people a false sense of security. You're not the only one who made the mistake to think to be safe with a hardware router.

Illumina, people right now could be logging you credit card info, your passwords, everything you do or type or downloading files without you even knowing it. B7

 

[JoeD]

1. is thre a way in the windows firewall to free up port 80 so the site can be seen and still leave security on the rest of the system?

Should be possible Rick, but forget about the Windows firewall, it doesn't protect you that well

2. is there a better way to do this, maybe with a 3rd party firewall?

Combination hardware firewall (you can use a router for that, they're cheap) and a software firewall. Read the previous post.

3. with the firewall turned off, just how much problem could that create?

It means you'll have port 80 open 24/7 and that is an increased risk. Running a web server is always an extra risk. Make sure that you're well protected with a descent firewall and router and that you have all patches for both your Operating System and Web Server installed.

One other thing in case you use DSL; upload speed in most cases doesn't equal download speed, be aware of that. In my case I only have an upload that is only 1/10 about what I have available for download. Don't be amazed if you're stuck with only 16KB upload and that tiny bit of bandwidth can really slow down your site a lot when a handful of people are going through your site at the same time.

Btw, no-ip is good choice Rick, I'm using it too (but not for a web server) and it has always been quite reliable, not bad for something that is free

 

[Tron]

Thanks for the info guys.

Joe is there a way to check what my upload speed is?, I accessed the site from my wifes office computer and I loaded instantly, no lag at all.

 

[lindaw]

 

[JoeD]

Joe is there a way to check what my upload speed is?, I accessed the site from my wifes office computer and I loaded instantly, no lag at all.

Use an FTP program to upload a large file to your server and if you don't have one Rick, then download a trial of a program like http://www.cuteftp.com/cuteftppro/
Make sure though that you really go on the internet, not even typing http://xxx.no-ip.info guarentees that you're indeed on the internet (I won't go into detail, rather technical).
I say that, because it's possible that when you're trying to connect to a web server using a client on the same local network (if you use one) that you might see some amazing speeds! That's because instead of your signal being routed to the internet, it will go straight to the server and in that case only the local network bandwidth is the limiting factor.

 

[JoeD]

Throw together a Linux firewalll Rick. For that matter have a Linux box and run Apache from there. Just a thought.

Even better, but most people don't have Linux knowledge. Let's hope that this is not the case with Rick.

Rick, if you ask my honest opinion...; consider a professional hosting company instead;

a) it's less expensive (especially Linux) (mine is about $80/year)
b) more secure
c) lots of extras that are easy to use
d) more bandwidth
e) free support
f) in general more reliable
g) general maintenance is done by the hosting company
etc.

And if you want to support our Canadian economy ; http://www.monsterhosting.ca/
That's the one I use for almost a year now, highly recommended.
Need a domain name? Best place in my opinion; http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp (good and cheap)

Hey, but if you still want to set up a local server, no problem, just let us know if you have any more questions

 

[Tron]

Thanks everyone

Joe I already own my domain - thephotoshopsaloon.com - and for a while now I have been trying to use free hosts - cheap bastard that I am - but although they provide php ad sql there are still limitations - so I thought why not, just for the H of it i would try to host it on my own, money being tight and all, and I'm not getting a lot of hits right now anyway - this is a learning experience for me - and a hobby that will not ever generate revenue - so i am just experimenting,. I back up everything and if it comes to a disk reformat and reinstall well that is the price I might need to pay.
Why would want to hack into my files is a mystery as I have nothing to offer., and besides i share freely. I will take your advise and check out the host link you provided and we will see what comes from that

Anyway thank you all for your input. 8))

 

[illumina]

Wrong Illumina, you've created a very dangerous situation!!
The reason why I say this that you won't be protected againt outbound traffic. Even if Rick would get Windows firewall to work wouldn't be enough; neither does that one protect you from outbound traffic. Both hardware router and XP firewall have give people a false sense of security. You're not the only one who made the mistake to think to be safe with a hardware router.

Illumina, people right now could be logging you credit card info, your passwords, everything you do or type or downloading files without you even knowing it. B7

Nope, they're not. I don't keep any credit card info on my computer, I don't have a credit card, they're evil plastic minions of satan :/

But even if they did, I know what to look for, I manually check my computer once a week with DOS utilities, scanners, anti-virus, anti-adware/spyware programs, check the processes, system32 folder, WINDOWS folder etc etc, didn't realise so much could be done with the command prompt until my husband showed me how

 

[JoeD]

Every major company that I worked for as a network professional checked for outbound traffic. These companies, but also millions of users, want to know whether their OS or applications are hiding that they're actually connecting with the outside world. Virus scanners or anti-spyware don't stop an OS for example from making outbound connections.

Everybody who wants to be well protected and who is concerned about privacy needs application level protection. Having a software firewall is also an extra level of defense and in almost all cases they also offer different protection techniques that a simple home hardware router doesn't offer. It's also an extra defense against trojans and worms that are not recognised by anti-virus software or treats that are coming from other clients on a local home network.

I sincerely advice people who have one of these inexpensive routers to continue to make use of a software firewall, that is, if you do care about security and privacy. A better solution is however an application level gateway like most businesses prefer, but that's in most cases too expensive or complicated for ordinary users.

But hey, it's all about how precious your data is that you store on your server or computer.


Always remember people, because many have made this mistake so many times;

a) the Windows XP firewall does not protect against outbound threats!
b) most hardware router firewalls do not protect against outbound threats!

For those who want to know more, try these sites;

http://www.firewallguide.com/overview.htm
http://www.uksecurityonline.com/

 

[Tron]

Joe I thank you for all the info - I don't understand the term 'Outbound threats' could you explain?

 

[JoeD]

Joe I thank you for all the info - I don't understand the term 'Outbound threats' could you explain?

You're welcome Rick.

Outbound threats are threats that originate on your local system. These include malware installed by downloaded software, outbound packets containing personal information from installed software, keyloggers, etc

Btw Rick, if you're looking for a web server; I've tried this one in the past:

http://www.keyfocus.net/kfws/

It's free, has lots of options and I found it stable and secure.
You can set it up as a service and you won't even notice it's running.

 

[Tron]

Thanks Joe.
At present I am using an integrated program called Appserver and is working well for me, I will check your link and have a look 8))

 

[JoeD]

At present I am using an integrated program called Appserver

Now a question for you Rick; what is Appserver? Do you have some more info. I tried to look for it on the internet, but "Appserver" leads me to all kind of pages that don't seem to be related.

Thanks.

 

[Tron]

AppServ is the Apache/PHP/MySQL open source software installer packages.

Objective : - Easy to buid Webserver and Database Server
- For those who just beginning client/server programming.
- For web programmers/developers using PHP & MySQL.
- For programming techniques that is easily to be ported to other platforms such as WindowZ
- Single step installation , no need to perform multiple step, time consuming installation and configuration.
- Ready-to-run just after you've finished installing.ready-to-run just after you've finished installing.
- If you hate and boring M$ IIS Webserver


http://www.appservnetwork.com/

8))

 

[JoeD]

Thanks Rick, that sounds interesting. I will have a look at it, thanks a lot!