[PLEASE HELP] setting up home server network

uberwebguru · October 2012

I need help setting up my home server network
I will try to be very detailed as to what i want to do

# ROUTER STATUS #

Here is what my home router status shows
NOTE: The exact IP is changed for security reasons

Internet Port
MAC Address 84:1B:5E:CA:53:BD
IP Address 76.81.236.171
DHCP DHCPClient
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.248.0
Domain Name Server
167.206.245.129
167.206.245.130

LAN Port
MAC Address 84:1B:5E:CA:53:BC
IP Address 192.168.1.1
DHCP On
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0

# 2 SERVERS and 1 PC #

I have 2 Dell 1950 servers and 1 Dell laptop PC
What i want to do is setup a network so i can access files from each of the servers and laptop locally within the network, so i can share like an iso image for network install or something like that.

One of the servers have vmware 5.1 esxi on it and the second one has centOS6.3/kvm on it. the laptop windows 7.Also the laptop will use wireless. Another note is there are 2 other PCs using wireless connection of the router but those computers will not be in my network setup. My network setup will only have the 2 servers by ethernet cable and the laptop by wireless/sometimes ethernet cable.

# REMOTE ACCESS #

I will like to be able to access one of the servers remotely. So lets say i go to another location, i can access the server with an IP address. How do i go about doing this? What IP do i use? Where do i get this IP? Is this IP going to be the same IP of my router? This is the most important part i need help with.

If i missed anything that will help give me a solution please let me know.
So where do i start from?
Thanks.

MentholMoose · October 2012

To access the servers remotely, you need to setup port-forwarding on your router. The rule will allow remote access to a particular service (SSH - 22/tcp, HTTP - 80/tcp, RDP - 3389/tcp, etc.) on a particular server. Once that is setup, to access the server and service when you are remote, use the appropriate client program to connect to the public IP of the router and the port configured in the port-forwarding rule. Your router documentation should have instructions explaining how to create a port-forwarding rule.

log32 · October 2012

Hi uberwebguru.

My suggestion for this task is as follows:
set static IPs (either via DHCP server on router or locally in the network device properties of each computer)

Router IP address is (already): 192.168.1.1
Dell Server 1950 (with CentOS): 192.168.1.2 subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Dell Server 1950 (with ESXi): 192.168.1.3 subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Laptop Computer: use auto configuration so it will get ip from the router (dynamic, not static)

let's say that the Dell 1950 (running CentOS) will be the one you connect to from the web (IP 192.168.1.2) and once you log on to it remotely, you will have access to the rest of your LAN.
the next question is, how do you to connect?
if it's via command line then you need port forward on your router port 22 to 192.168.1.2 machine.
if you wanna use VNC (not very secure) you need ports 5900-5901 to the machine.

to share, just put the ISOs on your CentOS machine and mount it wherever you like with either samba(windows) or use normal linux share.

onto your primary question, you will need (not a must) to have a dynamic DNS in order to connect to it from the web (unless your ISP provides you with a static ip that never changes but again, this isn't a must to have), you can use dyndns.org's services for that matter, they could for example have the address webguru.dyndns.org resolve to your own IP. that way you won't have to remember your IP address each time.
and then, you need to open putty client (if you picked ssh) and type in 76.81.236.171 after you opened port 22 tcp in your router.
that's basically it i guess.

[PLEASE HELP] setting up home server network

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