setting Apache on a system with dynamic IP?

[stroll]

Hi everyone!
I'm a newbie, I've been using Linux for only 2 months (I love it! :D), and I'm supposed to set up Debian box for web hosting at my school. I know how to set up Apache itself, with PHP support and stuff, but the problem is, that our Inet gateway has dynamic IP adress. What shall I do in order to make my host visible in the net all the time? Or, if it is written down in some man/HOWTO/info/anything, can you tell me where can I find it, 'cause I can't think of any now :(. Thanks in advance!
Stroll

[Sharks Fan]

Basically, it's not possible. Look at it this way - I don't have a permanent mailing address. It changes all of the time. How are you going to know where to send or pick up my mail at any given time?

There are some sites that people have mentioned that supposedly allow one to do this. I've never tried these. I can't imagine that you can really host a web site with these. I just don't see how it could work. However, I have been wrong before. :)

[stroll]

Actually, I've heard 'something' about pinging an external DNS and getting a response. But I wasn't listening carefuly, and the guy saying that was quite busy at the moment AND even if he told me what he knew, and I listened, I still have no idea on how to do it. Maybe someone here know? Or any other ideas?

[case1984]

Sure it's possible. Here is what you do:
Buy a site name (like mycrappyschoolsite.org)
go to zoneedit.com (I'm not advocating, they are just who I use - there are similar sites you can find with google)
go back to the company you bought the site from and enter the DNS ip that zoneedit gave you.
Now, there are a bunch of programs out there that you can download that check your ip every once in a while and work with zoneedit to automatically update your ip in their DNS database. Use either google or look on zonedit to find them.

To use Sharks Fan's analogy, it's kind of like having all of your mail sent to a friends house, who always knows where you are and can always forward your mail to you.

You might encounter more problems along the way, such as port blocking, but I've found there is always a solution.
HTH

[hecresper]

DynDNS.org free dynamic site
Linux updating software or dyndns.org's own updating page. That's what I use and haven't had any problems so far. I'm running, www, ftp, & email servers for personal use and tinkering.

[posw2ksocks]

get dns2go and install it on your system. $20 a year can't be beat. go to their website and read up on it. your gateway router needs to forward http requests to your webserver. when you have the dns2go client installed on your webserver it is always letting dns2go's dns servers know where to reach it. it's like gps tracking for your webserver.

[Sharks Fan]

Not to be difficult :) but I thought that it takes a few days for an IP address/domain name to move throughout the various DNS servers. I remember when I first got my domain name set up it took a few days before every nslookup command would actually get it right.

For personal uses, what's suggested will likely work fine. I'm probably just trying to rationalize the money I spend every month for the static IPs. :) If you've got a router, it will basically stay on all of the time and your dynamic IP will be a virtual static IP.

[case1984]

I think the way that it works (I am by far not an expert, maybe someone who is could clear it up for us) is kind of like a heirarchy.
Lets say I'm at work (I work at LSU, and they have their own DNS), and I go to my website. If I have just been there, and if LSU runs caching DNS, they already know where it is, and forward me there. If they don't know where it is, it goes up the chain to another DNS, that knows where websites are registered. Now it asks the computer where I registered where my website is, and it replies "I'm not sure, but I know you can find the information here..." and forwards the request to my web forwarding/ dynamic DNS provider, which is updated every 2 hours. If my IP hasn't changed, there is no problem. If it has changed in the last few hours, I might have a problem. It's not a solution for a business, but for mycrappysite.com, it's fine. If it was for a business, I would hope the business could pay for a static IP anyway.