Sorry, but these seem to be the best forums on the net, no one else can help me! I know this is a game development fourm--- but I just had to post this here, I know that you people are very smart here! Note, has nothing to do with gamming at all! Okay, a breef(sp?) backgrond: I'm only 14 and have limited support to certain tools, so please don't tell me I should choose something else... Ok, the problem: I want to learn as much as possible before I hit that age where I have to do something with my life--- so I've decided to try to host some friend's web sites. I'm in no way trying to make a professional, or even secure setup here. But I'm having trouble. My plan is to give my friends FTP accounts to folders where they can store the information and such and use .tk domains to forward to it. I do not have a main domain(http://www.computerfourms.org type of thing) yet only an IP--- this has worked fine in the past. Now, .tk domains only allow a web site to be forwarded once, to get around this--- I need to make those things(lol not sure what to call them really(why im here) but those thingys like... media.somesite.com) so that it is a differnt site. Now, using Win2k3(server system) I've added verious roles to my server--- and have found my way around most every(I'm a normal Apache user, but I think I can handle IIS). Anywho, I have made this subdomain type thingy successfuly, but, it simply forwards to the same site as the primary one(my IP, or, locally, my computer's domain). What I need to know: I need to know how to setup my DNS server(perferably through the management console or w/e) to do the following: http://www.brent.(MyIP)/ Needs to read it's data(the web site) off of wwwroot/brent What I've done so far, and anything information that may help anyone willing to assist me: I've gone in my DNS server through 'Manage Your Server' and made a new Host named brent that goes to 192.168.2.4(my internal IP) and there is no option for a spasific(sp?) directory to read from... I'm using Windows Server 2003 Standard, any help would be apreshated(sp?), thank you. Oh, also my computer is configed as: DNS Application Server File Server Mail Server(POP3, SMTP) Domain Controller(:D for my small home network! lol) DHCP Thanks again, --RedHatCore(not an often linux user, but love the OS ;) )

A) waaaay of topic
B) I don't believe you can do subdomains off from IP addresses. for example http://maps.66.102.7.147 isn't a valid url, because the webbrowser will try to DNS resolve the TLD 147, which will fail.
http://www.google.com resolves to 66.102.7.147

If your using something like no-ip as your subdomain you have another issue, you don't control their DNS servers so you can't add subdomains at will a incoming user will never know how to hit your DNS server.

MustEatYemen is correct. You cannot subdomain from IP addresses. You can only subdomain from a DOMAIN.

Here's what you can do:

1. Get the DNIP Software. This allows you to have something like yourname.dnip.net as an address and also keeps itself updated as your IP changes (Dynamic DNS).

2. Because your domain is not registered with Network Solutions and you are not hosting your own DNS, you cannot create aliases of your domain using your DNS server. This is because Network Solutions does not know to forward all requests to yoursite.com because your DNS servers are not registered with them. If it were registered and you were hosting your own DNS, you would create an alias entry (A) called whatever.yourdomain.com and point it to the same IP. Then in IIS, you would create another website, then go to the Advanced Web Site Identification properties and add the alias as a host header. This allows IIS to forward anything that goes to that alias to the newly created site. This is how you achieve multiple websites using the same IP (in Windows only, not sure about Linux).

3. If you are 14 and have a limited budget, how did you afford Windows Server 2003 Standard?

The real way to do this is to get a hosting service like UUNET or Covad and get a DSL hosting package from them. Depending on how many IP addresses you need and the speed of the connection you require, packages start at $69 a month. You need at least 4 IP addresses to host websites. 1 for the router, 2 for DNS servers (you must have a primary and a backup) and 1 for your web server. If done right, any other servers that you need can use reserved IP addresses (e.g 192.168.*.*, 172.*.*.*, etc...) and you can forward using DNS or your router's routing table or by using NAT.

Find a good article on how DNS works to get a better understanding why you have to register with Network Solutions.

Ok--- so will I have to change ISP's or somethin?

A friend gave win2k3 to me.

I currently have DSL(my parents don't even have enough money for cable TV, let alone cable internet). I understand, now, that I cannot run it off an IP--- and I'm looking now for a domain to buy, something cheep. On top of that, I have no clue how to set it up :P... I've already setup NAT and my router and stuff, but I don't understand the concept of the multiple IP's, can't I just run all of it on one system?

You can run DNS on the same box as your webserver, but in order to register your domain with Network Solutions you need 2 different IP's for DNS servers. I guess you can multihome the one server, but you still cannot host your DNS using DNIP.

You can get "DNS secondary" from many ISPs (I know Speakeasy does mine). This means that they run the second machine, and it slurps your DNS Zone files when the serial changes. You'd still run BIND (or some other DNS server) on your main machine.

Some ISPs sell DNS service yearly for fairly affordable rates -- I think about $30 for a low-traffic zone.

To serve more than one domain name from the same server (say, www.foo.com and www.bar.org) you typically turn on "virtual hosts", which is easy in Apache; don't know about other web servers. Then make sure that foo.com and bar.org point to the same machine.

However, all of this has already been solved. All of the virtual web hosting companies have software that does all of this alread. In fact, they can lease you a machine, with the ability to serve sub-domains, and automated scripts to configure and manage everything. You start paying monthly at that point, of course.