Mac Mini Server via Static IP & Domain

Hello All,

I am setting up a server with a Mac Mini purchased a few weeks ago. Everything up to today was really easy. I hooked it up to a switch with the airport extreme, printer, all computers, so on so forth, setup the user accounts, and we had the local server running.

I then proceeded to register a domain through godaddy with SSH, add an A record with our static IP, configure the server with the domain name, make sure the airport is set to "trunk" or something like that (following apples instructions). Yet, when I go to the domain it provides nothing.

Could it be that the nameservers are still set to what godaddy originally had?

For the A type DNS the first field was @ and then the second was the IP.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

What services are you providing?

You need to forward those serve ports through your Airport so traffic will flow to the server.

80 and 443 for HTTP and HTTPS

25 Mail

22 SSH

500 4500 1701 for L2TP VPN

etc etc etc

Be sure you configure the services on the Mac server, then forward the appropriate ports in the Airport. If you have any DNS concerns, contact GoDaddy support. They are very helpful.

All of the ports (according to the airport extreme) are set up properly. So I'm guessing this is a DNS issue?

When i go to the domain or even to the static IP both in a browser and through finders "connect to server" it does't work.

Can you explain what you have set to static? If it is the Mac Mini - you probably have it setup wrong. If you have a static IP address - it would be on your Airport - especially if you are port forwarding.

Usually you get 1 IP from your ISP - if you paid for a second static IP - then you'd want to setup your Mac Mini on a DMZ - and let it get it's IP/DCHP from your ISP instead of your Airport.

The static IP is for the Airport, and that now seems to be working properly (pointing to the server via port forwarding).

However, the main purpose of this server is to access files while out of the office.

At home (and at the office where the server is) I have used Finder's "Connect to Server" option and typed in the domain (https://domain.com) and it doesn't mount the drive.

It pops up, asks me to login, which I do, then proceeds to throw up an error.

There was a problem connecting to the server “domain.com”. Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator.

Click to expand...

When I'm in the office, and I use the servers local IP it works fine. So I know file sharing is enabled.

I've also tried the IP the domain is pointing to and it doesn't mount the drive.

Sorry if this isn't making any sense, it's a bit above my understanding (if you can't tell).

Any ideas?

First off https://domain.com will not mount a drive, it might bring you to a webpage in Safari but http(s) is not for file sharing.

If file sharing is what you want to do remotely there are a few ways to do it. Though using a Mac server there is really only one secure way that is both easy to setup and end user friendly.

VPN

You'll need to configure the L2TP (ipsec) VPN on the OS X server.
Forward 500, 4500 and 1701 through the Airport to the server.
Configure the clients to connect to your VPN from outside using the IP or domain name.

Once connected it will be as if they are on the same network. The only issues will be the lack of Bonjour browsing ability and of course the latency of being on the internet VPN versus the LAN.

Is file sharing your primary goal with this server?

File sharing is the primary goal for this server. All of the extra bells and whistles are just nice little extras that we'll implement as we grow.

I am able to ping the domain and get the correct IP, and also access the site via browser (running the secure webhost included with lion server)

I also am able to VPN in, then connect to the server using the local IP address, it's just that the main use of this needs to be as idiot proof as possible (freelancers and low-tech bosses) so I would rather just be able to teach them, command-K, address, login, here are the files.

Thanks again for the continued support, it's been a savior knowing that I'm not stumbling through this alone.

finally called apple, they were incredibly helpful and we are up and running fully, mostly thanks to you guys, partially to apple. Thanks again!

Can you post what you finally did? It would probably help the next guy trying to setup a server.

Ah, I knew I was forgetting something!

Disable "File Sharing" under the "Disk" menu in the Airport Utility. Then setup your port forwarding either through the Server app or the Airport Utility.

Just a quick question, how are your work and home internal addresses set up behing the router, if they are both using 192.168.0.XXX then the two private networks will clash

You need to setup your work private network with something like 192.168.55.XXX - where 55 is just about any number you choose. Most home networks use 192.168.0.XXX or 192.168.1.XXX, so you need to give your work network a different private address scheme so it is guaranteed not to clash with any home network

Ah that's great to know! Thank you.