Shimpi
Tutoral2: Routers and port routing
Generally, most homes with multiple PCs will or should have a broadband internet service with a router.
The best routers will have a built in firewall (known as SPI - Stateful Packet Inspection), but not all routers do (LinkSys is one such router that doesn't have it). Almost all routers have port fowarding capability which is what you need to host a web site at home.
Generally speaking, routers assign internal IP addresses to all PCs, laptops and network printers connected to it.
Most routers will have a default IP of 192.168.0.1 and assign another IP address to each PC -incrementing +1 for the last octet.
192.168.0.2 to PC1
192.168.0.3 to PC2
...(etc)
However, I have seen some routers that have 192.168.1.1 as its default address and assign 1.1, 1.2, etc. to its network devices.
Step1: Find out which IP address your web server is using.
Opening a command line and typing IPCONFIG will help you determine the IP address of the PC.
Step2: Before configuring port forwarding, make sure that web server gets the same IP address each time it boots up. If the web server gets a different IP address other than what is configured in port forwarding, users will no longer be able to view your site. Most routers should have a menu that assigns static IPs to different network devices.
Step3: Assign port 80, TCP to the IP address of your web server. Save settings.
The thing to remember about routers is, it is very important to always make sure it is using the latest and greatest firmware. Most good companies will have a new version of firmware at least once per year, each version containing new code meant to fix a new network vulnerability problem.
Generally, most homes with multiple PCs will or should have a broadband internet service with a router.
The best routers will have a built in firewall (known as SPI - Stateful Packet Inspection), but not all routers do (LinkSys is one such router that doesn't have it). Almost all routers have port fowarding capability which is what you need to host a web site at home.
Generally speaking, routers assign internal IP addresses to all PCs, laptops and network printers connected to it.
Most routers will have a default IP of 192.168.0.1 and assign another IP address to each PC -incrementing +1 for the last octet.
192.168.0.2 to PC1
192.168.0.3 to PC2
...(etc)
However, I have seen some routers that have 192.168.1.1 as its default address and assign 1.1, 1.2, etc. to its network devices.
Step1: Find out which IP address your web server is using.
Opening a command line and typing IPCONFIG will help you determine the IP address of the PC.
Step2: Before configuring port forwarding, make sure that web server gets the same IP address each time it boots up. If the web server gets a different IP address other than what is configured in port forwarding, users will no longer be able to view your site. Most routers should have a menu that assigns static IPs to different network devices.
Step3: Assign port 80, TCP to the IP address of your web server. Save settings.
The thing to remember about routers is, it is very important to always make sure it is using the latest and greatest firmware. Most good companies will have a new version of firmware at least once per year, each version containing new code meant to fix a new network vulnerability problem.