Home network with Mac mini, Time Capsule, etc.

I'm pretty new at this myself, but here is some of my advice and I'll also pass on some of what I have learned.

If you haven't purchased hardware yet, get the Mac Mini Server. It is a slightly modified Mac Mini that has 10.6 server. It looks like you have this, a good first step. Get Applecare. Apple Care will get you three years of Enterprise level support. The answer to any GUI based server queries are only a phone call away. Applecare for the Mini can be had for $120-150. Enterprise level support is $149 per call. You'll make back your money on the first call. I made my first call the other day and talked to someone for over a an hour. He helped me solve my problem but also gave me good advice. I foresee using my Mini similar to how you will be using yours, so I'll pass on his advice.

Here is a connection diagram as best as I can do in a text world

Internet <--> Cable Router (CR) <-->Time Capsule( TC) <--> Internal Network

The Internal Network would be your Server, other Macs & PC's. The server would have a local static IP address. The other machines would be configured to use DHCP.

TC would be set up to share a public IP address. Its DNS would point to the DNS Server you would set up on your local server.

The Mac server can be setup to handle the DNS information from your local network and then reroute information to your existing DNS chain for information it doesn't know. If you want to resolve the server externally and internally, which is a definite if you want to access the web, server from the outside world, you'll have to do a little more work. Each of these steps can be a project unto themselves.


1/2) Get a static IP. You could do some of these other steps without a static IP, but some of the server setup requires a static IP, especially reverse DNS lookup.
1) Get a Domain name.
2) Get the public DNS configured so the reserve lookup (Public IP Address points to Domain Name) and forward lookup (Domain Name points to public IP address) refer to each other.
3) Set up a "Split DNS". This step was trivial...once I figured out how to do it. You'll have 2 IP Addresses in your Server Zone record, one pointing to the local IP address for the server and the other pointing to the public IP address.

A couple of advantages to this set-up:
1) TC works as a Hardware Firewall. This helps to relieve some of the load on the server, because it doesn't have to waste CPU cycles on Firewall activities.
2) SL Server recognizes the fact that you are using a TC and will be able to configure the TC to open up the ports that it needs open to let in stuff from the outside, like port 80 for web services. For this to work well, you will have to disable the firewall on your CR , but do not fear, the TC will be your Firewall. If you don't/can't disable the Firewall on your CR, you will have to open ports as needed on the CR for outside information to get in.

Hope this helps,

Stephen Magladry