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Set Up YoDJ For External Access

You can access your YoDJ browser from another computer inside your network. We need to configure your router to allow access from the outside

You should have a router between your Cable or DSL modem. If you do not - stop right now!!!.

Why a Broadband Router is so important:

When you are running a broadband connection, it is absolutely critical to have a broadband router between your PC's and the outside world. It is dangerous to do without. You are naked and exposed. Your PC is directly connected to your Cable Modem or DSL modem and as such can be directly port scanned and probed by any hacker. Have no doubt about it. Someone will attack your system. This is an invitation to attack. Broadband routers are very inexpensive these days. There are several brands available. I like Linksys, but any brand will do. A simple four port router will cost less than $60 (wireless enabled routers cost more) and you should get one regardless of your use of YoDJ.

If you do not have a router, do not pass go - run immediately to your local computer store and buy one. Please.....

Now that we have that polemic out of the way. You need only set up your router to pass web traffic to the PC where you set up Apache YoDJ. Almost every ISP will block normal HTTP traffic by default. HTTP traffic defaults to port 80, but we can use other ports.

Your router has an external address and an internal address. The external address is the one that your service provider gives you. The internal address is the one that PC's behind the router use.

Most routers allow you to do by IP address routing and port mapping. All of the routers that I have seen provide a simple web administration page to manage this sort of thing. Consult your router documentation for details.

You need to configure your router to route external traffic on port 8080 to the internal address of your webserving PC at its internal address on Port 80.

Below are the steps for a Linksys router. Most other routers will have similar procedures.

  1. Bring up the admin page. This is usually the internal address ending in 1. By default this will be 192.168.1.1
  2. The default password is "admin". I hope you have changed this
  3. On the linksys router, you will see the external address on the status tab
  4. Go to the forwarding Tab
  5. If the entries under forwarding are blank, most of your forwarding is controlled under the button UPnP
  6. Under application enter httpext
  7. Under external port enter the port you had chosen, presumably 8080 and protocol TCP
  8. Under internal port put 80 and enter the webserver's internal IP address. This tells the router to pass traffic coming from outside on port 8080 to your webserving PC on port 80
  9. Make sure that the enable checkbox is checked
  10. Click Apply and you are done!

Check your router documentation for other brands. Please update me on the steps so I can include them here

For Example:

Lets say your external address is 207.232.37.24:
You can access your webserver both inside and outside as http://207.232.37.24:8080
YoDJ as http://207.232.37.24:8080/yodj.yodj.php

The router is smart enough to loop back to the internal address and never go outside.

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Last Modified  03/15/2010      Questions? email