My own server in LAN (help!)
I am new to LANs. Networking and Linux so I would like to ask for some help on what I want to do. I'll try to describe that below.
I currently have a Home LAN consisting of 4 computers of which mine also runs SuSe Linux 8.1 (apart from Windows). The aim of my "project' is to create a Server (my PC) serving data in the other computers in the LAN.
In my PC I have installed:
1/ Apache 2
2/ MySQL
3/ PHP
4/ an FTP server
When I run my server (meaning all the above appliances are running) I can connect to it with another PC on the network by using my PC's IP.
e.g. http/://this.is.my.IP in the LAN - will display the contents of the:
/usr/local/apache2/htdocs Directory of my PC to any client in the LAN that requests that page.
BUT: when I ftp to the same location ftp/://this.is.my.IP - loged on as root it will display the contents of the root directory.
My questions are:
1/ How can I get to display the htdocs contents (of Apache directory) when i ftp to my server (as it happens when you ftp to your free website provided by yahoo, tripod etc... - whatever you ftp to you can http also and it's the SAME!)
2/ Let's say that I want to create a small hosting company in my house where my PC is the server and the other PCs are the Clients. How can I give certain locations in my PC (server) a dedicated IP that will be the address that the client PCs will connect to (FTP or HTTP) so they can upload/see their sites? Do I need some kind of IP Assigner if that exists??? lol (Sorry if that's too complicated, just consider a small hosting company in your LAN - doing this to understand how things work)
The ideal solution would be to have a client connecting to an IP (within the LAN - not external on the internet) and being able to upload a website and then when http to it will be able to see the site applying. Imagine that I give my clietns an IP.
e.g. User "Andrew" will have his own site which will represent the home/andrew directory in the server and he will be able to ftp/http to an IP assigned to that location (of the server).
3/ Finally how can I connect my LAN to the Internet so I can get other clients from outside my LAN.
Please let me know if I need additional software that I have not listed above.
A BIG SUPER THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO ARE GOING TO SPEND THEIR TIME TO HELP ME OUT
ANDREW
a rising server admin
