Mac Mini Server

So I've looked and looked and still don't understand what I'm doing really. I recently purchased a domain from godaddy www.justinlbannister.com, bought a Mac Mini and want to use it as the server. I guess I'll start off with question number
1: How do I point that domain to my IP on my mini?
I know the IP from the entire network or from Charter, which is 97.80.157.188. The router IP is 97.80.156.1 and the Mini's localhost or IP is 10.0.1.2.
From what I've read it has something to do with port forwarding/mapping on Port 80 and then Port 20 for FTP, which I also want to use.

I know that you must turn on Web Sharing and what not, but I don't know exactly what to do on the godaddy end of things. If anyone has a detailed tutorial on YouTube or something I'd appreciate it. I guess have come to a stand still.

I just found something else too that TotalDNS control on godaddy lets you put in your IP address so that the domain points towards that, but again I don't know how to get that to the site folder on my mini.

Here are some links to info about setting up your own server:

http://www.macminicolo.net/ebooks/InitialSetupEbook.pdf

macosxhints.com - A basic guide on setting up a home-based web server

MAMP: Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP

I guess my question would be that unless it's a hobby or learning experience, with all of the low-cost hosting options why would you want to go to the trouble of setting up and maintaining your own server? Having run commercial servers I can tell you that it can consume a lot of time and effort. Since you're already using GoDaddy, why not let them do all of the heavy lifting?

I just wanted to do it as a project and thought it would be cool to set it up and use FTP as well.

Since you have a choice, the recommendation would be to use sftp instead of ftp. You get both encrypted login and encrypted transmission.

There are sites like EasyDNS and DynDNS that allow you to remotely update the IP that your name server points to. Look them up for more information. The 'trick' is that you set your nameservers at your registrar, GoDaddy, to point to the name servers at one of those locations you use, eg: nameserver1.easydns.com. Then on that site, you set the IP to your home public IP address. I haven't looked at my Godaddy account to see if they can dynamic IP changing. I don't think so. What happens is when someone types in yourdomain.com, that is forwarded to the nameserver, which responds with the IP address, which your browser then goes to.

JBannister said:

I just wanted to do it as a project and thought it would be cool to set it up and use FTP as well.

Click to expand...

Ah, a glutton for punishment eh? ;D