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Small biz: Stupid beginner Q's

Hi, I am setting up my OS X Server 2.2 for my small biz (or at least trying to) and I run into a couple of probably very basic questions.

I've already set it up recently with a .private and VPN but then my Time Capsule/Router died. Now with a new TC and the brilliant idea that I want to host my own website, I am a bit lost in what I need and how to make it work.

(what I already have done: spent days on the phone with apple care, but they do not give advise in how to set up/ read apple server texts/ watched hours and hours of screencasts)

Do I need to change my host from a .private to a .com if I want to start using the domain I bought for hosting my company's website?
When I do that, do I need to completely reconfigure my settings to make services work?
Is it necessary to link the services I want clients to use on my server, to a website or could they also use VPN that I set up for them?
Could I for instance have a login on my website for accessing services, or is VPN safer/easier?
I am trying to get a dedicated IP address from my service provider for my website, but they have what it seems problems in doing so (Enter stage left: 'Ahaaa Moment) Or is the IP address my router gives my server enough to keep my website and my services accessible by remote networking clients?
if so, this would save me 240 Swiss Franks/yr
Anyone any experience with transfering a domain purchased on namecheap.com to my own server? And to add an external SSL to my certificates?

Any information welcome and you'll have my deepest life long gratitude of course. (Would have baked you a cake, but you're probably too far away)

Thank you,

Rob

MBP mid 2010 / TC 4th Gen / mac mini OS X Server 2.2

OS X Server (mac mini)-OTHER

Posted on Jan 14, 2013 3:36 AM

Best reply

cdustonwebs

Level 1

5 points

Posted on Jan 14, 2013 8:15 PM

Big open questions.

The internet is a network. When people want to find web sites they use DNS; it resolves the site name (www.something.com) to an IP address somewhere on the internet network (like 210.67.80.90). Much like the idea of someone looking you up in a huge addressbook to find out your street addressso they can deliver a physical parcel to you. On the internet there are no double ups, everyone has a unique name and a unique address. So they request starts with a name and gets "resolved" to a physical address.

So if you want a web site to be seen on the internet (host) you will need to:

a. Join the internet network and get an IP address; often termed a "public" IP address because the internet is a public network. This "public" IP address was probably given you by your ISP and is the address you are using when you browse the internet.

b. Get a DNS entry so when people look for your URL (www.something.com) they get your IP address to go to.

How to achieve these big picture goals depends, there are different ways to do it.

What you describe above is your own work or home network. A MBP and a Mac Mini at least and they have IP addresses for the same reasons as I have described, so they can find each other in the network, albeit yours is a smaller network than the internet and not many things to find.

But. Your private home/work network and the internet network are separate networks and need to be joined together if they are to talk. When you "connected" to the internet you probably got a box they called an "internet router" or modem or similar. The purpose of this router/modem/thing is to be a part of both networks, one side plugged into the internet and the other side plugged into your home/work network.

In a small work/home situation this device does two jobs. Obviously the joining together - but also to provide separationt. We generally give that job of separation to a Firewall. Just because I open my door to some people into my house doesn't mean I want any one to walk into my bedroom at any time. By default this router/modem/thing was probably configured to allow everything out but nothing in. A one way door.

So what you are asking is how to get this router/modem/thing to allow web traffic to my private Mac Mini where my web site is. What kind of device is it? Got a brand or model?

Once you work out how to get the traffic in through your router/modem/thing safely (just that web traffic and only to the Mac Mini (if that is where the site is) that's job one done.

Second, who has your DNS records currently? A record will have to made there saying www.something.com means this IP address xyz.xyz.zyx.zyx (whatever it is). If you got into the router/modem/thing it will probably have seen it in there.

Your ISP might be able to help.

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23 replies

Jan 25, 2013 1:25 AM in response to ajm_from_WA

Hey AJM,

Are you getting things done or did you already gave in to the W-side?

After hours on end with a comercial hotline from a Reseller for $4/min, I have been on the phone with a great guy from Apple Customer Care in Cork yesterday.

We tried to get things working, but even after everything looked good, I still couldn't get my Wiki running alongside my website.

Profile manager didn't work anymore and so after 7(SEVEN) hours on the phone with him trying to fix different settings we decided to delete the whole Server HD and reinstall OS X & Server from scratch.

As FromOz said before, I now can fully support him on that: Server is not very keen on getting it's hostname chaged. This might have rubbed off on some system and causing it not to work properly, so starting fresh might be the best option.

You mentioned you have had multiple consultants and none of them could get it to work. (insert stupid question:) Have you/they tried to delete and start fresh? And if yes, how did that work for you?

Jan 25, 2013 6:39 AM in response to Robster de Popster

Haven't defected yet. I reformatted the server last weekend and resintalled all of it. I have one user that seems to be having permissions problems, but the others seem to be working fine, so far.

I'm not running much for services, just DNS, OD, and File Sharing so far.

Will see how it goes.

I'd like to get VPN running, but my stupid netgear router will have to be replaced. It has VPN, but it doesn't work with mac and it will not allow you to port forward the VPN ports so I can't use the VPN service on OSX server. Trying to decide whether to get a Peplink or a Watchguard device

Jan 25, 2013 7:36 AM in response to ajm_from_WA

Looks like heavy duty machines. I use my Time Capsule as router. Very easy to manage with Airport from your server or administrator machine. Click what you want and Server punches holes in your firewall. That is... if the server is working. 😐

Jan 25, 2013 7:40 AM in response to Robster de Popster

I have two WAN connections, a cable modem and DSL. If one goes down, the router switches over to the other one.

Jan 26, 2013 7:27 AM in response to ajm_from_WA

I feel your pain.

I am also a physician and have my practice in South Florida. I am by no means a Server guru, but I have over the years learned to adapt to the Apple Server technology as it evolved across the several versions. No one taught me, and pretty much self-taught myself and occasionally got help here. To my advantage, I kept and maintained older server versions that had certain services working and kept them running. As a result, I rarely got overwhelmed by having to change everything at once. As an example, I am trying to retire an old Tiger Server that I have depended on for several years. I am able to move everything off of it, EXCEPT the iCal publishing. WebDAV was maybe not sexy enough and now we have calDAV. webDAV worked and did a decent job, and until I can figure out calDAV, I am stuck with the old Tiger for a little while longer. What I am saying is that as a non-IT professional, you have to expect to only progress with baby steps and always plan to have a fall back option. And the market for Apple Network and Server Professional Consultants is anemic everywhere.

As far as the latest OS X Server, it seems like Apple is attempting to streamline the server networking and communications protocols in line with the rest of the world by trying to make very technical and convoluted methods and protocols "Apple Friendly". I am not sure how well they've succeeded, because at times, it seems like they've dumbed it down to the point of being counter-intuitive.

Feb 18, 2013 8:34 PM in response to Patrick Abuzeni

It has been painful, but knock on wood, i'm getting there.

I ended up reformatting the server and reinstalling eveyrthing from scratch. then, i resetup the user accounts, and chmod'd all their permissions. so far, things have been working pretty well for about 3-4 weeks.

networked user accounts seem to finally be behaiving themselves

OSX Calendar, Contacts, and Messaging remain useless to me. Calendar and Contacts just didn't work reliably for me. Lots of duplication of records. Was a disaster.

Messaging on OSX server is also useless since there isn't a Great client for iOS devices. There are lots of crappy clients (beejive, talkonaut, monal), but they are pretty crappy. messaging using iCloud accounts is working a ton better for me.

I solved the VPN issue. the answer is to get rid of the netgear router. It just ***** for mac support. their tech support was 10000% useless on the issue. Bought a peplink router for $300. Took about 10 minutes to setup. Very nice. It load balances, with failover, my 2 wan connections very easily. No hiccups in the VOIP or https traffic if either wan goes down. VPN took less than 30 seconds to setup. so rather then spending any more time with the inferior hardware of the netgear, moving on to a better company was the answer.

Next on the agenda:

-trying profile manager to manage preferences on all the client computers and user settings

-trying netinstall to keep all the clients updated so that my users aren't constantlly harassed by the seemingly neverending onslaught of self-updating crap there is to deal with these days.

-offsite backup. i have multiple server backups, and backups of backups. all of this is just for user accounts though. I keep almost no patient data locally, almost everything is cloud based. still, i want an offisite backup. I'm thinking that a pair of lacie cloudboxes will do the trick. seems that one cloudbox can back itself up to another offsite cloudbox which I can put into a locked cabinet at home for less cost than use some cloud based backup and have the benefit of rapid physical access to the remote backup if I ever needed it for restore.

Feb 21, 2013 6:57 PM in response to ajm_from_WA

well, so much for that, it melted down again today.

reinstalling yet again.

Feb 21, 2013 7:41 PM in response to ajm_from_WA

will get a quote tomorrow to get PCs. This is ridiculous. The server becomes completely unusable and needs to be reinstalled once every 45-60 days. no way to run a business.

Small biz: Stupid beginner Q's