home web windows server 2003

[plolic]

Hi Folks - Hoping someone can help me out here - please.
I am having trouble with setting up a home webserver using 2003 server. I have read lots but that just seems to confuse me more.

I have a server with two network cards and a netcomm nb9w router. The server is setup as a dns server and also as dhcp. All computers connected to it are fine and can access the internet etc. I can't seem to connect to my website from anywhere though.

I have an isp static ip which I have setup with my domain registry as ns1.myweb.com and ns2.myweb.com. I am using the isp static ip address for these name servers.

The network cards are as follows -

ip - 192.168.1.11 (server ip)
sm - 255.255.255.0
gw - 192.168.1.1
dns - 192.168.1.11

ip - isp static ip
sm - 255.0.0.0
gw - isp static ip
dns - 192.168.1.11

I have setup port forwarding for port 80.

I know it could be my router setup or dns setup but if I knew as a start that my cards are setup right then I might be able to go from there but otherwise I will never know where I currently stand.

Cheers

[antioed]

First things first...make sure all the web services are up using the IIS admin management console. A quick and dirty test which should work no matter what if the services are running would be to go to the server itself, open a browser and try these sites:

http://<static ip>
http://192.168.1.11
http://localhost

They should all work...knowing if the one with your static IP works will be most important for later!

Quick IP/DNS basics tutorial:

In the interest of alleviating problems, always use IP first when troubleshooting! DNS is a whole world of its own, as I'm sure you found. You have been given a static IP from your ISP. Though you may have correctly registered DNS with whoever is hosting your DNS (I will show you how to check that) it is possible that DNS has not updated or there is a problem with the entry. Always use IP! Or at least first check DNS to make sure this is not the problem. Checking DNS is simple, and you may be familiar having already set up a DNS server. Bring up a command prompt, type nslookup...press enter...nslookup should default to your local network's DNS server. Assuming you have your DNS server @192.168.1.11 configured properly you should be able to resolve your website's DNS address here by typing site.myweb.com (whatever your site's address is) and hitting enter. If DNS for that site is working properly you should get a response back which refers your site's address to your static IP. Entries look like this:

Name: www.daniweb.com
Address: 74.53.219.188

Anyway...if this works then you can move on to troubleshooting IP connectivity. If it does not work try typing server 207.172.3.8 which will switch you to a publicly available DNS server. Try the query again there. If this works then it's probably the DNS on the local network, the ISP or port setup on the router.

...so if it's not DNS:

Check IP connectivity. From one of the other computers on the network, see if you can hit your webserver at the static IP address on the port 80 (http) using telnet

once again, from the command prompt:

telnet <your static ip> 80
(note there is a space after <your ip> before the 80)

If the webserver is accepting requests on port 80 then you should just get a black screen (ctrl + right bracket returns you to telnet prompt; type q to quit). If you get a message saying "Could not open a connection to the host on port 80: Connect failed" you have some sort of networking or configuration error keeping you from hitting the site. Try going to the site using both the static IP and the local network IP on one of the other computers and the server itself. Never hurts to get as much troubleshooting in as possible in case you need to come back here again. What you find in these tests should lead to the culprit...please make sure you report back exactly what you find. Sounds like it could be DNS or your port forwarding. Some ISPs block port 80 traffic...Comcast does this still I believe...if you have not confirmed or denied this, you should check.

[plolic]

Thanks Antioed
Just to let you know that I have disabled one network card (the isp static card) as I was getting messages of wrong/same subnet , gateway etc.

Here is what I have from testing.

http://<static ip> (No Luck - Cannot Display Page)
http://192.168.1.11 (Success)
http://localhost (Success)

nslookup (Can't find server name for address 192.168.1.11)
(Default server unknown)
(192.168.1.11)
nslookup mysite.com (Can't find server name for address 192.168.1.11)
(Default server unknown)
(192.168.1.11)
(Name: mysite.com)
(Address: 202.124.241.178)

Telnet isp static ip - (No Luck)
Telnet 192.168.1.11 (Success)

Cheers

[antioed]

Sorry - I meant to say something about that static IP configuration last night but didn't get back to it. You probably need to put the gateway of your router here. That would be something to check with the ISP, actually. You would want to double check with them that you have the correct subnetmask and gateway for your network and setup. Check that first and see if you can get that card enabled and working properly. You will need that to work before doing the other tests!