[Xitami] Neophyte seeks Info 101

[Paul Reid]

> I would like to install an elementary web document just for
> testing purposes, and log onto it from the public library.

Open the stock top-page that comes with Xitami (default.htm or
index.htm) with wordpad or your HTML editor, scribble "Hello from
selinvict!" on the top, and verify that you see the change with
http://127.0.0.1 (and http://localhost should also work.

Now... to see the page from anywhere else in the world, you need to
know your IP number. If you are on hard-wire, DSL, Cable etc, that
info may be hidden in Network Neighborhood or any special toy that
comes with your net-connect. If you use phone-modem, you get a
different IP number every time you connect. (This may be true of
some high-speed links too, but they stay connected for long
periods.) And some versions of Windows seem very reluctant to tell
you the IP number presently assigned to a phone-modem connection.
What may be easiest is to find a Web-Forum that not only logs IP
numbers but tells you what your IP is.

Anyway, find out what your IP number is. Say the dial-up gave you
321.123.12.13. Leave the dial-up connected and run over to the
Library quick (before the dial-up drops the line or times-out).
Enter http://321.123.12.13 at the library websurfer and you should
see "your page".

Or maybe not. Dial-ups go down a lot. MANY home ISPs block
webservers. They may be using a proxy, where the IP you see at home
is not the IP that is seen by the outside world (and the proxy
server translates packet IP numbers on the fly).

In today's internet, putting up a webserver on a home connection is
not always easy. You rarely get a Fixed IP number with a Home
account. Home webservers tend to be bandwidth hogs, so the ISPs
costs are high. Also ISPs _sell_ Commercial Accounts, so anything a
home user doesn't really need (like fixed IP) is deliberately foiled
to urge you to convert to a (more expensive) Commercial account.

 -PRR