business information systems dsc340 dsc 340 mike pangburn domain names & webserver...

Business Information SystemsDSC340

DSC 340

Mike Pangburn

Domain Names & Webserver administration

Agenda

Understand how the domain name system functions, and how to acquire a domain name Register your own domain name

Investigate webserver administration Hosting account Configure domain name to hosting account Configure email addresses in hosting account Install database-driven web application (ex.: Wordpress) File management and database admin tools

What is a domain name?

As far as the Internet's machines are concerned, an IP address is all that you need to talk to a server. For example, you can type in your browser the URL

http://72.21.211.176:80

…and you arrive at ?

The number sequence 72.21.211.176:80 is a substitute for amazon.com, and the :80 means that you wish to contact the server using port (channel) 80, which is the default for web page traffic

Domain names are strictly a human convenience, like maintaining a cell-phone contact list with names and their associated phone numbers.

What is an IP address?

The IP address specifies a network device’s (e.g., a laptop computer, or a server) “location” on a network. One way to look up your IP address:

http://whatismyipaddress.com/

Two types of IP addresses:1. Public IP: Addresses accessible via the Internet.

2. Private IP: Any address in the ranges: 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

Routers on the Internet are programmed to kill data traveling to a private IP address.

http://whatismyipaddress.com/

Domain Name System

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the “phone book for the Internet” Translates human-friendly hostnames into IP addresses Every domain name entry within a top-level domain list (e.g.,

the .com “phone book”) must be unique

There is a single organization that controls each top-level list and makes sure that no duplicates arise E.g., the .com list is managed by the firm Network Solutions

Lower-level domains are controlled independently. For example, Microsoft “owns” hundreds of thousands of IP addresses and host names e,g,, Microsoft maintains its own list (and DNS) for the

microsoft.com domain name space, e.g., someserver.microsoft.com

Domain Name System has “tree structure”

Root level


Top-level domains: .com, .edu, .gov, .net, .org, etc.


Second-level domains: cnn.com, uoregon.edu,

microsoft.com, etc.

DNS – Domain Name “Server”

There are servers throughout the Internet that keep track of all the names and their associated “phone numbers” (read, IP addresses). Such a server is called a Domain Name Server

Or, simply: DNS – note reuse of same acronym A DNS accepts requests from programs & other DNS to convert domain

names into IP addresses

Interesting aspect of the DNS system -- it is completely distributed throughout the world on millions of machines, yet behaves like a single, integrated database!

How does it work? …How do you lookup a name in this global “Internet phone book?” It starts with your local DNS.

Local DNS: The name server that is your machine’s first contact when converting domain names to IP addresses.

Your PC’s domain name resolution process from your apartment

Step 1: IP address of asuo.uoregon.edu?

Local nameserver

Response: I don’t know but let me

look for it…

Step 2: IP address of asuo.uoregon.edu ?

Root nameserver

I don’t know but I’ll tell you the server that handles .edu

DNS’s.edu nameserver


I don’t know but I’ll tell you the server

that handles uoregon.edu names

uoregon.edu nameserver

Here is the asuo.uoregon.edu

webserver IP address!

Here’s the IP address!


Web server basics

A standard web-server needs:

1. A public IP address (one outside of the 3 aforementioned private-IP ranges);

…and, assuming the server will be accessible via a domain name:

2. a corresponding domain name registered within the Domain Name System

3. software that listens for and responds to requests for web-page files

Consider making your company’s website name… “extensible”

e.g., what does Amazon.com have to do with books? memorable Short

The top level domain (TLD) is very significant Country Code Domains (.uk, .de, .jp, .us, etc.) Generic Domains

(.aero, .asia, .biz, .cat, .com, .coop, .edu, .gov, .info, .jobs, .mobi, .int, .mil, .museum, .name, .net, .org, .pro, .tel and .travel)

“the marketplace has spoken” - .com is best

Choosing a domain name

http://www.iana.org/cctld/

http://www.iana.org/gtld/gtld.htm

Generally people advise avoiding: Trademarks Hyphens Numbers

One may not be enough Multiple markets may imply multiple names/sites

Choose/register the name(s) sooner rather than later It’s a global market, with lots of names, but lots of

interested parties as well

Choosing a domain name

Buying a domain name is referred to as “registering the domain” It’s actually a lease, not a purchaseYou register the domain via a company called a

domain name registrar

Lease timeframe generally ranges from 1 year to 10 yearsPrice per year ranges from ~$5 to ~$20

Research the registrar before you choose (avoid scams)

Buying the name

Current lessee has the option to renew name before end of lease

And, most good names are already being leased!

How do you check if a name is available? Any registrar’s site will have a “WHO-IS” search capability

that searches the DNS for top-level domains

How do you check details of lessee? Check registration details within “WHOIS” search

Lessee can pay for private registration, in which case you won’t see their details

Buying the name

Possible to get already-taken names?

Option 1: negotiate directly with lessee use WHOIS search to make contact

Option 2: domain name marketplace Several varieties: auction style, fixed-price style,

make-an-offer style. Examples: buydomains.com, afterNIC.com,

sedo.com

Managing domain names

When in a company, be aware of who is listed as the contact person/registrant for the domain name

What if that person leaves the company or is fired? If you don’t managed such transitions well, that person

can make it very difficult for you to get your domain name back under your control

If you are thinking about having your own company, you should registering your domains(s), not an IT person

Let’s register our own domain names

We will visit GoDaddy.com to try the name registration Reputable, world’s largest registrar Good pricing, sometimes discounts are significant

Aside: Use code LKSRTL295J to get .com name for $3 (normally $11)

1 year registration is all that is required, no additional features are needed (although Private Registration is nice $8 option as it hides your details from a WhoIs search)

Agenda



Web hosting

To run a website via some webserver, you need to be able to put your website files (.html or other) on that server’s hard disk So the webserver software can send those files out based on

web-browsing requests

How do you put your web files on a web-servers hard drive? As we have seen with the UofO webserver, there are two basic

approaches: 1. Use a server-side application (e.g., nano editor we used)

to directly create content on the server, or 2. Copy content from our local hard-drive to the server’s

hard-drive via FTP Either approach will require that you have an account on the

webserver

Web hosting

The two most popular webserver operating systems are Unix and Windows Unix is most popular

A web hosting company will give you an account on their server E.g., BlueHost, DreamHost, Arvixe, TMDhosting, many others Typical price is around $10/month to get started, prices increase

with additional bandwidth/processing power

For this term (and up 1yr), I can help provide free hosting on an external webserver No warranty or service plans… but it’s free Your username will be w13duckid

duckid will be replaced by your duckid

Web hosting

A web hosting account has several initial key pieces of information associated with it: username (in this case, based on DuckID, as per last slide) password (you will choose, can change later) domain name with extension (e.g., .com) email address (for confirmation – UofO address is fine)

Please clearly write your DuckID, (initial) password, & domain name on sign-up sheet I will use your [email protected] email address for confirmation

Your username and password will actually be used to create two accounts (both on the same remote server box): A web server account An FTP server account

mailto:[email protected]

Web hosting

Once I have your accounts set up… …you can log in via FTP (e.g., FileZilla)

ftp://ceramic.mysitehosted.com …you can log in via HTTP (e.g., FireFox)

http://cpanel. ceramic.mysitehosted.com

A note about account quotas File storage: 250MB Bandwidth: 2.5GB/month Therefore, audio/video and even large photo files should be

stored elsewhere E.g., photos on flickr, video on Vimeo, etc.

Limits are enough for us to learn about server admin and get a Wordpress blog going

http://ceramic.mysitehosted.com/


Web hosting

Logging in via: http://cpanel. ceramic.mysitehosted.com

…shows your webserveraccount “Control Panel”

We will investigate manyof the features as we goalong

For now, we will leave this an return to GoDaddyto point our new domainname at our new webhosting account


Agenda



Point domain name to web server

We need to tell our Registrar (GoDaddy, in this case) what Domain Name Server is the one that knows about our web hosting account

The Domain Name Server affiliated with our web hosting server has the name: NS1.CERAMIC.MYSITEHOSTED.COM ..and a back-up server: NS1.CERAMIC.MYSITEHOSTED.COM

Let’s now go into our GoDaddy account and configure our new domain name with those two DNS server names In GoDaddy, we go to:

All ProductsDomainsDomain Management Click on your Domain Name and then click on

“Set Nameservers” near lower left Then enter the two name servers listed above


It will take a while (sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few hours) for the change to propagate throughout the world-wide Domain Name System

Once the happens, you will be able to use your acquired domain name to browse to the hard-disk folder for your new web-hosting account

Not much will be there…

Recall: 3 ways to view files in web server folders

1. Via public web browsing (no account required) – prior slide Note: you won’t be able to see the contents of a folder if some one

(e.g., you) puts a file called index.html in the folder Recall that that the web-server provides the file index.html to

the browser (e.g., Firefox), if the browser tries to view a folder without specifying a particular file name in that folder

2. FTP client, such as FileZilla (requires FTP user account)

3. Website user login (requires webserver user account) Can login via basic SSH text-driven Unix command interface, but

that requires looking up Unix commands like: cd, ls, mkdir Most Unix servers support the cpanel “Control Panel” mouse driven

interface commands for common server administration tasks

Agenda



Managing email accounts Use cPanel to manage email accounts

You can create multiple email accounts affiliated with your domain name

The cPanel app we will run will create these accounts on an email server (another big software app., separate from the web server app but potentially running on the same hardware box)

Agenda



Install database-driven software app: WP

cPanel includes some convenient scripts (coding) for installing large software applications within your account

Wordpress is one popular app that can be installed easily by running one of these convenient “Softaculous” scripts

A “manual” install of Wordpress is said to take only 5 minutes, but it usually takes longer, so let’s use the more automated approach via the cPanel Wordpress installer

To begin the Wordpress install, click on Wordress icon under the Scripts heading

Install database-driven software app: WP

After WP install script runs…

To see you blog running, go to As end-user: http://yourdomainname.com/

And specifically, within that domain, your Wordpress folder E.g., if you specified your Wordpress folder as wp,

then you would go to: http://yourdomainname.com/wp

As administrator: visit the wp-admin folder within your Wordpress folder

E.g, http://yourdomainname.com/wp/wp-admin

http://yourdomainname.com/

http://yourdomainname.com/wp

http://yourdomainname.com/wp/wp-admin

http://yourdomainname.com/wp/wp-admin

WP admin interface

Agenda



cPanel file and database management

An FTP app such as FileZilla provides the fastest approach to managing your files on a server

If you have a web hosting account with cPanel access, then the cPanel File Manager app provides a nice alternative (via an HTTP browser, e.g., Firefox)


cPanel also has great apps for managing relational databases To create databases and

database users, use the MySQL Databases app

To perform detailed administration and querying of existing databases, use the phpMyAdmin app


This screenshot from the MySQL Databases app shows that the prior WP install has indeed created both a corresponding database and database user

All Wordpress configuration details, users, pages, posts, and comments are stored in the database uploaded videos,

songs, and pictures are stored as normal hard-disk files

business information systems dsc340 dsc 340 mike pangburn domain names & webserver...

Documents

ip addressesevery domain

ip address of

systemthe domain

pcs domain

domain nameregister

toplevel domain list

private ip address

public ip