161 lines
8.0 KiB
HTML
161 lines
8.0 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>Setting Up Your New Domain Mini-HOWTO.: Obtaining Your Connection</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Domain-5.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Domain-3.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="Domain.html#toc4" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Domain-5.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Domain-3.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Domain.html#toc4">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="obtain-conn"></A> <A NAME="s4">4. Obtaining Your Connection</A></H2>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="choose-provider"></A> <A NAME="ss4.1">4.1 Choosing Your Provider</A>
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</H2>
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<P>As with anything, shop around. Determine which services are available
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in your area, as well as the costs associated with those services. Not
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all locations are wired to accept DSL, and some locations may not be
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suitable for wireless connections due to constraints of the landscape,
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architecture, or environment. Be prepared to provide the street
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address of the location where your hookup will be installed, as DSL
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speeds are strongly dependent on your distance from the switch, and
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ask specifically about such details as bandwidth between your machine
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and the provider, what has to be done to install the connection, and
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what hardware is provided in the quoted monthly rate. Also, you should
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have some idea of how many IP numbers you need for your own machines
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(remember that not all IP numbers in the block you get from the
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provider will be available for attaching your computers). Ask the
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provider what their total bandwidth is out to the outside world, as
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the quoted speed is only between your site and theirs. If the provider
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has insufficient bandwidth to the outside, the customers will suffer
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bottlenecks within the provider's network.
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<P>
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<P>Once you have narrowed down a list of candidates, ask around, see if
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anybody can provide you with recommendations for the services you're
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considering. Ask them what sort of bandwidth they get to unloaded
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sites. Also, if you intend to have fast connections between the new
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domain and local ISP accounts from home, for telecommuting, or just
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remote administration, it is essential that you do a
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<EM>traceroute</EM> from your home ISP account to a host operating on
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the service you're considering. This will tell you how many hops, and
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how much latency you should expect, between home and the new
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domain. Latencies much above 100 to 200 milliseconds can be difficult
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to use for extended periods of time. The <EM>traceroute</EM> should be
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run around the time of day that you expect to make use of the network
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connection between home and the new domain.
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="prepare-hw"></A> <A NAME="ss4.2">4.2 Preparing For Hardware Installation</A>
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</H2>
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<P>After you have chosen the provider and service type for the new
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domain, ask about installation details. You may require service calls
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from the telephone company as well as from the ISP in order to install
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the service, and the technicians may need access to controlled areas
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of your building, so inform the building engineer of the installation
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requirements.
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<P>
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<P>Before the ISP technician arrives, ask for the network parameters,
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specifically the IP number, netmask, broadcast address, gateway
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routing address, DNS server address, and also what cabling you need to
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connect to the hardware delivered by the technician
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(i.e. straight-through or crossover RJ45 cabling, etc.).
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<P>
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<P>Have one machine available for testing, and put it close to where the
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network connection hardware will be installed. If possible, configure
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it before the service technician arrives, setting the IP number and
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netmask, and have the appropriate cabling ready so that the
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installation and testing can be done quickly.
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="test-conn"></A> <A NAME="ss4.3">4.3 Testing The Connection</A>
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</H2>
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<P>With your test machine attached to the ISP's hardware, make sure that
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you can ping sites beyond the ISP. If not, a <EM>traceroute</EM> to
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the outside can help to show where the connection is failing. If
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traceroute shows no successful hops it indicates that your test
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machine's network configuration (default route, interface address, NIC
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drivers, DNS, etc.) is incorrectly set. If it shows one hop, that could
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mean that your router is not correctly configured to communicate with
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the ISP. If it shows several hops before failing, the problem is
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almost certainly in the ISP or in the outside world, and beyond your
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immediate control.
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="dynamic-ip"></A> <A NAME="ss4.4">4.4 Using A Dynamic IP</A>
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</H2>
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<P>The benefits of a corporate connection, with a static IP block and
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various hosted services, comes with a cost. It can be more than ten
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times as expensive as a high speed home connection on DSL or cable
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modem. If the budget can't support a corporate connection, or if no
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such connections are available in your area, you might want to try to
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set up a domain on a dynamic IP. Instead of a range of IP numbers, you
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typically get exactly one, which means that your private network
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gateway machine will also have to host any incoming services from the
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outside.
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<P>
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<P>First, you might want to check the legality of it. Many companies'
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user agreements explicitly forbid setting up externally-accessible
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servers on personal accounts. They may enforce this with packet
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filters blocking incoming connections on the http and FTP ports. You
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should also be aware that the quoted connection speed for personal
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accounts such as home DSL or cable modem are the downlink speeds, and
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that the uplink speeds might be much slower. The uplink speed is what
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is important for serving up FTP or web content.
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<P>
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<P>If you have a dynamic IP, and you want to have incoming connections,
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you will have to subscribe to a dynamic IP hosting service, such as
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one of those listed at
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<A HREF="http://www.technopagan.org/dynamic/">Dynamic DNS Providers</A>. These services typically work by running
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software on your machine which passes your current IP number on to the
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company's servers. When your current IP number arrives at the servers,
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their DNS tables are updated to reflect the new value. You can either
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get a domain name under their domain name, such as
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``example.dynip.com'' or ``example.dynhost.com'', or you can register
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your own domain and set the primary DNS authority to point to
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the company providing this service (usually at a higher cost).
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<P>
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<P>There is also a free hosting service, at
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<A HREF="http://www.dhs.org/">Domain Host Services</A>. They seem
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fairly new, and there are few details on their web site at the moment,
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but you might find it worth a look.
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<P>
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<P>If you have set up a dynamic IP, and subscribed to one of these
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services, it will affect some of the decisions you make in section
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<A HREF="Domain-6.html#which-servs">Deciding Which Domain Services You Will Host</A>. In particular, there is little point subscribing to a dynamic
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IP hosting service if you do not plan to host at least one of web or
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FTP services. You will have to set primary DNS authority to point to
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the company you've chosen. You should not have a <EM>named</EM> daemon
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answering requests from outside your private network. Other details,
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such as handling of email, will depend on the specifics of the service
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you've subscribed to, and can best be answered by the support staff of
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that company.
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<P>
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<P>One final note: if you want to have remote access to a machine with a
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dynamic IP, but don't need it for hosting other services, the
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inexpensive solution is to create a ``drop box'' on a publicly
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accessible machine with a static IP, and have your dynamic IP host
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send its IP number there, either in email or simply by writing it into
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a file on a shell account. When you want to access your machine
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remotely, first extract the current IP number from the drop box, then
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use <EM>slogin</EM> to attach directly to that IP number. This is,
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after all, really all that a dynamic IP hosting service does, they
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just do it automatically over standard services, saving you some
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steps.
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<P>
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Domain-5.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Domain-3.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Domain.html#toc4">Contents</A>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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