How to setup a website from scratch! I have Server 2008 STD

I have a website that I want to setup. The domain name isn't taken and isn't
registered to anyone also.

I have Windows Server 2008 STD, a WAN static IP, and knowledge of webstie
creation and design.

However, I do not know how I should go about acquiring the top level domain
name, and making it work with IIS.

Please help.

 

Register the domain through the registrar of your choice. Register.com,
Network Solutions, Tucows, etc. It's really up to you. I personally like
DynDNS.com for both registrar & public DNS.

Re "how to make it work with IIS" is something to ask a webserver person,
which I'm not.

 

In

Hello 98formulaLS1

In a nutshell:

Register the domain name through your choice of Registrar, as Lenwench suggested. I personally like Network Solutions, but that;s up to you.

Once registered, change the 'www' record that the registrar automatically setup in your DNS hosting section of your adminstration page or ISP's control panel (each ISP has their own terminology as far as how and where to setup it up at their webpage. If you are not sure how to do that, contact them. They will be more than happy to guide you, You want to change the IP they setup to your WAN IP that your ISP gave you at home. If you are not sure what your IP is, ask your ISP or check your invoice/bill.

In your router, create a port remap rule to remap port 80 to the internal IP of your server. If you are using SSL, create a map for 443 to the internal IP of the server. Make sure the server has a static (not automatic or DHCP) private internal IP. In your router, disable UPnP, which you don;t need to make this work. How to do that with your router depends on the model. Check your documentation.

In IIS, and keep in mind 2008 uses IIS7 and is very different than the previous version, you want to make sure the binding is set to Any Available IPs and not the server's IP. Create a hostheader called www.yourdomainname.com for the website.

Now you will probably need DNS installed internally. But this complicates matters if this is your home network and not a corporate network. If a corporate network, then DNS is already installed and running. Contact your admins to create the necessary name and IP. This is because when you setup the hostheader, it must resolve to the internal IP so you can get it from internally. Otherwise, when you type in your website name, such as www.domain.com, it won;t be able to find it inside. This is because the router will not do a 'u-turn' when there is a port remap and you are using your ISP's DNS addresses in your properties.

If this is a home network, and not a company with AD, instead of DNS, you can also get away with using a HOSTS file entry (system32\drivers\etc\hosts) by making a www.domain.com entry and giving it the IP of the internal server. Follow the example in the file. Use notepad to open it.

Create your website internally. Make sure it works be connecting to it with a web browser inside using your hostheader name (www.domain.com).

Good luck!


--
Ace

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Wow, thats a lot of good information, THANKS!

One more quick question, once i register my domain name, what do i need to
do to configure my incoming mail to go to my exchange server? I know that I
would normally change my MX record with Yahoo, but will that exist if I just
register my domain name?

 

No, the registrar will not create an MX record. You will have to do that. Create a record called 'mail' under your domain, then create an MX record pointing to mail.domain.com.

If Yahoo is hosting your domain name, change it there, but if you register a new one with the registrar, then you will have to change/create it there.

Glad to help!

Ace

 

I would also suggest that you set up an A record for the domain name its
self and point it to the IP of your web server. More and more people
are expecting "domain.tld" to go to the exact same place as
"www.domain.tld". Further, they think things are broken if it does not.

I've had problems with port forwarding on 2wire modem / router in such
as they will not port forward unless it is to a dynamic (DHCP) IP in the
internal LAN. IMHO this is a design flaw of 2wire's.

I've not messed with IIS7 or 2008 so... Are you saying that IIS7 will
not answer queries if it is only bound to the server's (internal) IP?
This seems extremely odd to me.

I've run in to more than one router that will indeed support the
so-called "u-turn".

I would suggest that the OP setup DNS internally as well. DNS is not
that difficult to administer and is so much more scalable than limited
and difficult (read: annoying) to maintain hosts file for things like
this. Not to mention that I've run in to some spy ware scanners that
get bent out of shape if a hosts file is being used for this. (I
believe this to be a design limitation of said spy ware scanners.)



Grant. . . .

 

Wow, Ace Frehley! I wondered where you ended up.

To the OP: While you can do all this, there are very few folks who can
justify running their own web server on the public internet. Almost
everyone will find it cheaper, safer, and more practical to pay a
hosting firm.

Once you open up port 80, you have to get very careful about security.
You WILL be probed, you WILL be tested, you WILL be DDOS'ed, etc.
You've also opened up a hole into your internal network, unless you
put the server in a DMZ and have two cards in it. Even then there are
some risks as Windows does not isolate IIS very well.

If you are serving customers, you now have a 24/7 support job. Not to
mention, you now chew up the bandwidth yo might have used for other
functions with traffic to the web server. Lastly, if you don't have a
business arrangement with your service provider, they will have shut
off port 80 already or will find you when the traffic gets high and
shut you off. Very few ISP's allow the running of a significant server
on their network without a business contract.

For most of us, we're better off paying someone who does this all day
long to manage the server and it's network (a hosting firm) and
spending our own time on web development and/or our primary business.

YMMV,

 

Cutting a new album without Gene!
http://acefrehley.com/home/

Ace

 

If you want to be extra nice, set up ww. and wwww. to point there too.