Web Hosting Pains

[Morford]

I'm trying to run a web site and mail server, among other things, off an old laptop I have. I have DSL internet coming through a Cisco 678 modem/router, and split through a hub to two computers. For argument's sake, we'll say the router's external IP number is 172.29.140.65, its internal IP is 10.0.0.1, and the laptop is 10.0.0.3. I also signed up for a free DNS server, and have a name mapped to 172.29.140.65.

I'm using Apache 2.0.43 for my web server, WFTPd 3.10 for FTP access, and Merak Mail Server 5.4.2 for e-mail. The laptop runs Win98 SE as its OS.

Based on my research, I found that the laptop needs to access port 80 for the web server, port 21 for FTP, and ports 25 and 110 for SMTP and POP3, respectively. As such, I gave my router these commands:

set nat entry add 10.0.0.3 80 172.29.140.65 80 tcp
set nat entry add 10.0.0.3 21 172.29.140.65 21 tcp
set nat entry add 10.0.0.3 25 172.29.140.65 25 tcp
set nat entry add 10.0.0.3 110 172.29.140.65 110 tcp

After starting up the various server programs, I am able to view the web site from the machine it's hosted on, using the localhost alias, as well as the other computer, using the 10.0.0.3 address. Both machines are able to access the site using the DNS name I provided. However, any machine outside my home network cannot access it, either from the DNS name or directly at 172.29.140.65.

I have not yet tested the FTP software, but I am able to send e-mail from the server. I'm not able to recieve any e-mail from it, and no rejection mail is sent back.

In addition, my MSN Messenger service will automatically disconnect from its server after approximately two minutes of idle time. WinMX does this as well. I'm not sure if this is related to the above problems or not.

Now that I've thoroughly confused you all, does anyone have an idea regarding any or all of these problems?

[Greg12]

many dsl companies require you to sign up for a "server" package and do not allow servers on residential lines

[liquid217]

among other things, your server "laptop" needs to have its gateway pointing to the router (10.0.0.1 in this case). that way, after an http request comes in for the webserver, the webserver knows to send it to the router.