Home Webserver Guide

I recently set up my home server again. I haven’t had it fully functional in quite some time as I’ve playing around with different software packages. This time around I decided to use The Uniform Server as my core and I have been very impressed. I collected a good list of links to the articles I followed to get everything running. Basically this is how it went in a step-by-step fashion:

• Signed up for a free DynDNS account and domain
• Bought an easy to remember dot com domain name at GoDaddy
• Forwarded my GoDaddy domain to my DynDNS domain
• Got my Windows XP server machine ready for use
• Assigned a static IP address to my XP machine on my home network
• Forwarded the right ports on my router to my webserver
• Opened up the right ports on my XP machine’s firewall
• Downloaded and installed DynDNS’s dynamic IP updater client
• Setup and secured The Uniform Server software to host my site
• Completed database setup and WordPress install for blogging

In addition to this, I wanted some advanced functionality. I set up Windows remote desktop so I can access the server from anywhere I have an internet connection. To secure this feature, I also installed OpenSSH. I didn’t realize until later that the SSH software also allowed me to run a secured FTP server for file transfers between machines. Sweet! For those interested, here are the articles I used to accomplish all this:

http://tinyurl.com/27l9t6 (Domain Name)

http://tinyurl.com/5mohge (Router/Firewall)

http://tinyurl.com/av55ub (The Uniform Server)

http://tinyurl.com/a9cnt (WordPress)

http://tinyurl.com/6y6ym (Remote Desktop)

http://tinyurl.com/d67p63 (OpenSSH Setup)

http://tinyurl.com/bgr5f (OpenSSH SFTP)

IIS Remote Desktop Connection

My basement network wiring is now functional thanks to a bunch of DIY cabling and a small switch I bought off eBay. This let me get my home server PC up and running. I think I will host another website from it. I have always used a VNC product to connect to my webserver in the past, but this time I decided to try Windows remote connection.

I found a great article by Tony Northrup on how to accomplish this task. It easily guides you through setting up the IIS components, changing the web TCP port (if you so desire), router forwarding, firewall exception reminder, and how to connect to a remote desktop. I ran right through it and had my remote connection up and running in no time. Now I can securly access my home server from anywhere the internets are.

Lighttpd Versus Apache2

Do you run a LAMP or a LLMP? When I jumped into the server realm I thought that Apache was the natural/right choice to use for my webserver. I found out that this isn’t necessarily true as Apache has some worthy competitors. A very popular one is called lighttpd and it is freely available for download and use. If you run an Ubuntu server like I do, lighttpd is in the repositories and is an easy install/setup.

After reading some blog and forum entries on the Apache versus lighttpd issue, I stumbled across someone who had actually taken the time to speed test different file size transmission rates on both webservers. It turns out that lighttpd can serve pages faster than Apache2. In some cases it was much, much faster. Therefore, I decided to change my LAMP to a LLMP. To accomplish this I had to remove Apache2, install lighttpd, and then configure CGI correctly. As you can see by the following entries, the change was simple and painless for me.

In the terminal, I ran through these four commands:
1) sudo aptitude remove apache2.2-common
2) sudo aptitude install lighttpd
3) sudo lighty-enable-mod cgi
4) sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd force-reload

If you decide to go this route, you can test to see if lighttpd is now working. All you have to do is open your web browser (hopefully Firefox) and go to your localhost address (http://localhost/). You should see the lighttpd hold page instead of the Apache2 ‘It Works’ page. If so, you are golden! Happy lighttpd serving.

Hello Orb & Goodbye TVersity

I gave TVersity another try and could barely get it to function this time on my Wii. The menu system would pop up in my Opera browser and then it would stop working – very frustrating! It is a noble project and I love the direct local streaming concept, but the software still needs some work. I will keep watching the website for improvements/updates.

To fulfill my streaming needs I downloaded the Orb MyCasting program and got it set up. This program uploads/converts your files over the web so they can be viewed anywhere you login from. It is great that the software supports a wide array of devices (like my Wii), but the negative (at least for me) is that it doesn’t stream locally over the home network. This might lead to playback slow downs if your pipeline gets clogged. Overall, I really love the Orb program/service as it was able to handle all the different file formats I threw at it and the playback quality on the TV was great.

TVersity – Wii Local Wi-Fi Streaming

My Wii usually sits next to the TV every night without much use. I have always wanted to watch my internet vidcasts on TV instead of the PC screen, but hadn’t found an easy way to do it. I was listening to an episode of Tekzilla and they briefly discussed the TVersity program as being pretty darn sweet for this exact thing.

I gave it a try and, after configuring my firewall, I didn’t have the greatest time with it. When I attempted to load large video files it would freeze up and nothing further would happen. I was going to throw in the towel, but I have decided to give it one more try. This time I am going to turn off my firewall/antivirus software completely and see if that helps (after I unplug from the web). For smaller video files, such as a Tekzilla episode, the TVersity software worked perfectly through the Wii’s Opera browser.

Web Server Tutorial – Part 1

I was rethinking my server tutorial and decided there was an important step to cover before jumping into the VMware server install – thus the part 1/2 change. The important step I allud to is the planning stage. That is, what is the infrastructure going to be for your website to function correctly. Here is the basic outline of my plan:

Public Website (www.whatever.com)
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Masked DynDNS Website (www.freedyndns.account.com)
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Home Router (port 80 forwarded to web server)
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Web Server (ddclient updates home IP for DynDNS account)

This looks kind of cryptic, but once you dive into the world of servers it will become much clearer. Basically, I have a public web address purchased through GoDaddy.com. This is what everyone on the www sees. I then have that address forwarded to a free/masked DynDNS web address that can accommodate my dynamic (changing) home IP address.

My DynDNS account connects to my home router and looks for my web server that operates on port 80 (standard web server port). My router is set up to forward these requests to my web server machine. The web server then serves up the requested page to the public web address. The ddclient program operates in the background and updates my DynDNS account if my home IP address changes (assigned by the ISP). This is how DynDNS always knows where to look for my web server.

Web Server Tutorial – Part 2

For some crazy reason I decided to resurrect my home web server. I have been playing around with virtualization lately and see how it is wonderful for server management/server consolidation. I just tested out the VMware Server software and it is awesome.

I decided to blog the steps I am going through to set up my live web server so I have it for future reference. It might even help someone else who wants to give this a try. The first step in getting this all going is setting up the VMware server client on a minimal XFCE Ubuntu server installation (to keep it lightweight). Here is how I accomplished this:

Install – Ubuntu Server
1) Download the Ubuntu Server 8.04 edition and burn it to a CD
2) Put it in your PC/server’s optical drive and set the BIOS to boot via CD
3) Install Ubuntu, but only select the SAMBA server software (nothing else)
4) Complete the install, reboot, and login to your system

Terminal – Get Your GUI
1) sudo aptitude update
2) sudo aptitude install xfce4
3) sudo aptitude install firefox-3.0
4) sudo aptitude upgrade
5) startx

The following part of the tutorial was taken/modified from here.

Firefox – Get Serial Number
1) Register and get your free serial number here.

Terminal – VMware Server Needed
1) wget -c http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
2) sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-kernel-devel linux-headers-generic xinetd
3) sudo aptitude install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Terminal – Unpack and Install
1) tar xf VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz
2) cd vmware-server-distrib
3) sudo ./vmware-install.pl
4) accept all the defaults (just keep hitting enter)

Terminal – Symbolic Links
1) sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.2.3/libgcc_s.so /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1
2) sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0

VirtualBox – Ubuntu Server 8.04

I have been playing around with VirtualBox and the Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS distro for possible web site hosting. Everything installs fine for the Hardy Heron server, but when the reboot comes to get into the new system, I get the following error message:

This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: 0:6

I first tried changing the OS Type in VirtualBox’s settings area, but that did not help. I then did some forum searching and finally found an answer that worked. I had to go into the Settings >> General >> Advanced tab. Once there, I checked the ‘Enable PAE/NX’ box in the Extended Features section and tried the virtual machine again. That fixed the error message and my new server sprang to life. Thanks forums!

Crazy Busy Update #4

I can’t believe it is February already! This year seems to be flying right along. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. I started my home IT consulting business, but then I also had to return to college. I have had to kick my time management skills back into high gear to handle everything. I also stopped hosting my website at home. The time it took to maintain the system and drives is something I didn’t have. Now I am hosted as a WordPress blog masked behind my MojoTechBlog.com domain name.

On the tech front, I moved my main dual core system upstairs so I could work on my school and business stuff more efficiently… and to do some gaming every once in a while. My toddler loves the blue LED power light on the case and thinks it is great fun to push it on and off when the system is running. Luckily I remembered to configure the power button in XP to not shut down my system automatically when she does this. Now she can click to her heart’s content.

MSDTC Crash

My webserver went down the other day for no reason. I checked the application log and noticed that an event called MSDTC had occurred. This program was the apparent cause of my OS crash. I had never seen this before so I jumped onto Google to check it out so I could make sure it wasn’t a nasty trying to hurt my system.

It appears that this executable program is called the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator and has to do something with how data is used or shared in the server environment. I also found another source that stated this program is related to software that uses the .Net framework. I recently installed the framework for a needed webserver app.

I hope this was just a rare anomaly and that it doesn’t happen too often. I would really like to keep the application that uses the .Net framework. On the positive side, it has been a few days since this problem occurred and the server was rebooted. I haven’t had any further trouble, but I will still keep my fingers crossed and an eye on the log.