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I have an intranet (inside the network) website, but it is somewhat of a pain. First of all, this is a home network, if that helps anyone. I have a computer running Apache web server with PHP, and I want to point 3 URLs on the local network to it. I have had some success, but it isn't always dependable. For DNS and DHCP I have a Thompson Speedtouch ST546 v6 DSL router.

Edit: I need it for intranet websites, not just file hosting, as I do quite a bit with CMSs.

Rewrite for clarity: I have a computer with three subdomains on the local network pointing to IP address 10.0.0.2, abp.bhc.com, wiki.bhc.com, and server.bhc.com, along with the webserver's personal dns name. I use the SpeedTouch for the DNS, and have complete control over it. It usually works, after I fiddle with it for an hour.

My question is whether there is a more elegant solution than manually adding the domain each time I need another one. It usually seems to work, though.

Here is my current VH file:

NameVirtualHost 10.0.0.2

<VirtualHost 10.0.0.2>
ServerName abp.bhc.com
DocumentRoot "htdocs/abp"
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost 10.0.0.2>
ServerName server.bhc.com
DocumentRoot "htdocs/server"
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost 10.0.0.2>
ServerName wiki.bhc.com
DocumentRoot "htdocs/wiki"
Alias /wiki htdocs/wiki/wbhc/index.php
</VirtualHost>

Duh, I figured out my immediate problem. The IP Address was set wrong, apparantly because I recently got a new LAN adapter. My question about whether there is a better solution still stands.

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11
  • What type of URLs - ones you can use on your internal network or public ones for the world at large?
    – Linker3000
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 16:58
  • 1
    @ArlenBeiler: It's unclear what you have tried and what the exact problem is. What OS do you run?
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 17:05
  • Just on the local network.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 17:19
  • @ArlenBeiler: It's still confusing. Is your rewrite the current configuration or is it how you want to have things? Can you give an examples with IP addresses to clarify what the domains are (supposed to) point at?
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 18:13
  • "I have a computer with three subdomains on the local network pointing to IP address 10.0.0.2", how is that computer (the server?) pointing to that IP addreses? By a DNS server, by Hosts file or by VH file? Your other computers are not going to see it you only configure that computer, as they are set to request the router for DNS information which would probably forward the request to your ISP DNS...
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 18:32

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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There's two ways:

  1. Setup your own DNS and configure it.
  2. Add entries the hosts file on each file system you want to access the site.

I'm assuming that you can't change the DNS settings on your router and don't want to setup and configure Bind. To add entries to the hosts file, open up the file (/etc/hosts on Linux c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on Window) and add lines like:

192.168.0.1  abp.bhc.com
192.168.0.1  wiki.bhc.com
192.168.0.1  server.bhc.com
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  • Well, I can change the DNS settings on my router, but I'm not sure about setting up BIND. I'll accept this one since option #1 is the most helpful.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jun 18, 2011 at 20:04
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If you don't have an internal dns server you can put the ip-adress from your server in the hosts file of all clients and the server like shf301 said. The apache have to be configured with virtual hosts like this:

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerAdmin [email protected]
   DocumentRoot c:/www/wiki
   ServerName wiki.bhc.com
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot c:/www/server
  ServerName server.bhc.com
</VirtualHost>

Documentation: apache virtual hosts

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0

A simple solution if it only has to work for a small number of computers is to use the hosts file on these computers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_%28file%29 No need to struggle with DNS then (though your server needs a fixed ip).

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4
  • 1
    That is working fine (or is it, maybe that's the problem!).
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 16:58
  • You'll need an ip for each name you want to set up, unless you don't mind using other ports besides 80.
    – Chuck
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 17:06
  • I am using virtual servers.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 17:07
  • Oops, kasterma, I just realized what you mean. I suppose I could, but I am looking for a bit more elegant solution.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 17:16
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Unfortunately, because your IP is probably dynamic, it changes every few days, and thus any domains pointing to it will become in-effectual. The only way around this is to sign up for some sort of Dynamic DNS system, which is where a small program on your computer tells a DNS server your new IP everytime it changes, thus keeping them in sync. Other than that, you could buy a static IP from your ISP, but that's going to be quite expensive. :(

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2
  • He doesn't need that for an intranet (= local network) host.
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 17:06
  • Oh, you're right. Silly me, I misread his question. Thanks. :)
    – DataWizard
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 18:27
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Purely guessing, your server has a dynamic IP, you might want to consider a static IP instead.

Furthermore, the only way to get the other computer surf to it fine is by setting their hosts files or by setting their DNS to your computer and hosting the DNS yourself, if your server runs 24/7.

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5
  • 1
    I am using a static IP.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 17:09
  • @ArlenBeiler: And the second part of the answer?
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 18:11
  • The DNS is set on the SpeedTouch and it usually works.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 18:23
  • @ArlenBeiler: You've got to provide more detail if you want us to give you an appropriate answer, DNS is a way too broad topic to just say that it's set. As your SpeedTouch isn't a DNS server but rather a DNS forwarder my guess is that you have just configured the SpeedTouch to forward DNS requests to your ISP DNS, some routers allow to forward specific requests to internal domains though but it's unclear if your router does that...
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 18:30
  • The SpeedTouch has its own DNS server, which I configured somewhat.
    – Arlen Beiler
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 18:46
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You can run dozens of domains (websites) on that machine. Instead of sub domains just use folders. Make a folder in htdocs called say 2011. Then create another folder called blog. Install you blog software in there. Then on the address bar, just type 192.168.0.1/2011/blog . It will work fine.

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Set up BIND on the nix server.. and give the nix server a static ip.

If you can, change the DNS servers in your router..

first DNS entry should be the static IP of the nix server. second entry should be your ISP's first IP address..

If for some reason you are not able to do the edits in the router, then simply set your DNS staticly on your network card instead.

This keeps you from having to fiddle with host file on your machine or machines that need to see the intranet site.

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