Connecting a Video Server

[rayfree]

I have the following setup, and it is working fine in my SOHO:

Workstations--->Ethernet--->ISDN router--->INTERNET

The ISDN router does NAT. It gets one IP address via DHCP when
it calls my ISP. It is NOT a DNS; that is done by my ISP.

Now I'm thinking of adding a video server to the Ethernet above.
There are various kinds of these, but the ones I'm most
interested in seem to require that either a static IP address be
set for the server or a static name (URL). I like the protection of being behind a router doing NAT. When the video server is added, the whole setup should probably go to being "always on" versus "sometimes on" as it is now. My questions:

1> If my ISP will put an entry in their DNS, would that take care
of it? ("sometimes on ")
2> If I replace the ISDN router with a combination router +
DNS server + firewall, and then configure my own DNS,
would that be another approach which should work?
(Still "sometimes on")
3> Would it be easire/better to move to a static IP setup
completely? ("Always on".) What would be the tradeoffs?

 

[Brooks]

You will have to have a static IP, since it can sometimes takes as much as 72 hours for DNS information to propagate out from your ISP to the other servers on the net.

You might could try one of those dynamic dns services. Usually what happens with them is that you download a small utility, and whenever your ip address changes, you use the utility to contact the dynamic dns provider to let them know the new ip address. They inturn set the things so that the surfer is automatically redirected to your url. Then when the person comes to your address, the are directed to the dynamic dns provider who automatically directs them back to you.

Now, since you are sitting behind a nat box, you will have to setup a forwarding scheme in the router so that when somebody comes to you from outside that it is routed to the correct box behind your NAT.

One question, is the server going to be for external web surfer access, or just for internal for editing purposes and serving up video to local machines?

 

[rayfree]

Thanks for the notion about the Dynamic DNS server; I have looked at some of them .. food for thought.

The eventual purpose of the video server is for customers to access live video across the Internet. It looks like static IP will be the simplest way to go. The Ethernet's connection to the Internet will be upgraded at some point to either a>TWO ISDNs, or b>Satellite or c>Cable modem - maybe VPN. (No DSL available.)

NAT was (& is) attractive because of the security it offers. Going with static IP, I'll have to get into figuring out firewalls and so forth.

I'll be out of town for a week and unable to check this forum, but would like any inputs folks have about security with an "always-on" connection to the Internet.

 

[Brooks]

I am not certain if this would work with the smaller routers like those linksys routers, but with our cisco routers, ours is set so that the first router in the network is connected to a small switch which our webserver is also on. It is set so that any communication that originates from outside of the network is directed to the webserver. Any requests that originated from inside our network is sent back to another router which is NAT enabled that then sends it on to the appropriate private ip address. We are also running dual firewalls. The first is a small software based firewall on the webserver which only has port 80 opened. The second is a hardware firewall for the second router.

For always on, firewall firewall firewall. NAT, multiple routers


And don't forget a good virus scanner, especially for the servers. I would look at one that can get automatic updates on its on.

 

[rayfree]

If I understand you right, you are suggesting having “public” and “private” internets at my location.

On the public Ethernet I could put any static IP address needed such as the video servers. The workstations would have the protection of both a hardware firewall and NAT. Two questions:

1>Why have TWO firewalls – one hardware and one software?
2>I know port 80 is one of those “well-known port addresses”, but it is not well known to me. What app uses port 80?

Thanks for your reply ...

 

[Brooks]

The firewalls are protecting two different things. One (the software based) is protecting the webserver while the hardware based one is protecting the rest of the network.

Port is 80 is the default http port. Basically almost all http traffic goes through that port.