The Presence of the Running Machine on the Internet

Everything has a start, and has an end.

Deploying a server over the Internet is different from setting up a local server without being revealed to outside people. For a server to be unknown on the Internet by fully-qualified hostname, it requires some registration processes. Furthermore, since the server is known to the public, some security measures should have been taken to avoid the abuse of the server.

This package includes basic elements for network operation, for example, DNS, FTP, firewall, backup storage server, VPN (Virtual Private Network) and Email .

We start from the introduction on Domain name registration with the following diagram:

1. Purchase domain name from the “vendor for domain name registration”

The “Domain Name Registration Vendor” usually will provide a Web interface for you to query your desired domain name. You may find some of the domain names you like have been acquired by other people. It is necessary for you need to find a domain name that is not being occupied. And then make the purchase of the domain name from the “Domain Name Registration Vendor” to complete this step.

2. Purchase Internet bandwidth and obtain “static” IP addresses from your local ISP (internet service provider).

Usually, the ISP will give you a set of IP addresses that may include a list of public IP addresses, the netmask, and the default Gateway. This IP information will be used when you install the software and configure your server. You shall keep the information in a safe place once you obtain that from your ISP.

3. Find a legitimate “DNS host provider”

It is to host your domain name (which you get from step 2) and the associated static IP address (which you get from step 3) record so that everybody on Internet can use your domain name to reach your server. Usually, the “DNS host provider” will provide a Web interface to allow you to input your domain name and the mapped IP address record into their hosted server. This step is completed after you have entered the data into the web page.

4. Update the record at the “Domain Name Registration Vendor” server with the IP addresses of the “DNS host provider”.

At this step, you need to access the website provided by “Domain Name Registration Vendor”. If you do not know the DNS server’s IP addresses of your “DNS host provider”, you can do as follows at your Windows command prompt (the command prompt is reached through Start > Run > cmd), issue the command

　　C:\>nslookup DNS-server- name-from-your-provider

The system will respond with the IP address of your “DNS host provider”. Usually, you need to find two IP addresses of the two DNS servers provided by “DNS host provider” (one is called primary DNS host server, the other is secondary DNS host server). The two IP addresses will be entered into the record in the place of “Domain Name Registration Vendor”. We suggest using primary DNS server and secondary server from different places. The Azblink server package also provides DNS server. But to allow people all over the world can query your domain, you should have your domain name placed in different DNS servers to alleviate the load.

5. Wait until it is in effect.

In general, it needs 24 hours to 72 hours to have your domain name record of the server populated across the world so that people can use domain name to access your server.
Those are the general steps as long as you want to have your own private server(s) on Internet.

Basic Web Setting

After the system installation be finished, take the CD out, reboot the machine, and then start the basic network setting for the system.

There are two modes to configure the host, one is console mode on the local host, and the other is Web interface mode on Client. You can choose the one you like or just by the network environment of that time.

Console Mode --- configure on local host

A. Input account and password to login into console configuration interface.

　login：reset
　Password：root123

B. You will see 7 options after login in

　1. IP Address：192.168.19.185
　2. Netmask：255.255.255.0
　3. Default Gateway：192.168.19.1
　4. Save and Reboot
　5. Reset to CD setting (DHCP) and Reboot
　6. View Current Active Values
　7. Exit without Saveing Changes

C. Is there any fixed ip ready for configuration?

　 Yes, type fixed IP address, Netmask and Default Gateway into option 1.2.3. severally. You can use up
　　and down arrow to choose the option who needs edit, and then press enter to configure. After option 1.2.3
　　be correctly configured, you can use option 4 to save these changes and reboot the machine. (If you have
　　no idea about the Netmask and Default Gateway, you can just refer to the Completion List provided by your
　　ISP.)

　 No, if there is a DHCP server providing the IP assignment services in your network, you can just use option6
　　to check the IP address assigned by the system. After checking eth0, please write down the IP address, and
　　remember to use option 7 to quit the Console interface.

D. By the IP address you set or the one obtained from DHCP, you can view the configuration page of the
　　 system host via Web browser on remote Client.

※ DHCP server exists in your network, but if you find eth0 shown as IP 1.2.3.4 when you check current system value, please check if your network cables plug into wrong place (eh0 and eth1 may been exchanged), or if there are some problems on other equipments. (Refer to Q&A in the manual)


Web interface Mode --- configure at sub-network

A. Is the host, which you installed system on, connected by other hosts?

　 Yes, please confirm the host is the only DHCP sever (that is to say the network should not have other
　　DHCP servers, e.g. IP distributor), and then start from C.

　 No, please complete basic network configuration according to B’s instruction.

B. A network cable makes host’s eth1 port and the Hub connected. And use another cable to connect to
　　Hub, let the other end of this cable link to a common Client computer.

C. Choose one Client computer from the sub-network which connected to the system host.

D. Open command prompt on the Client (suppose it’s a Windows machine), type “ipconfig” and then press
　“Enter” button, check whether the Default Gateway is 172.16.9.1 or not?

　 Yes, just close the command prompt, enter into next step.

　 No, type “ipconfig/release” to release the old IP in your computer, and then type “ipconfig/renew” to get
　　new assigned IP.
　　(If you are still unable to obtain new IP, please check if the network has other DHCP sever or not, or maybe
　　TCP/IP of this Client does not use the mode of “Obtain an IP Address Automatically”.)

E. Open your Browser, and type http://172.16.9.1 at the address bar to link. When you visit the page at the
　　first time, you will see 4 items;

　　Host Name：Please set Host Name for this host.
　　Admin Password：Default password is admin123.
　　New Admin Password：Please set new password.
　　Confirm Password：Please confirm your new password.

F. After you enter into system page, go to System>>Network, choose Internet or PPPoE depending on the
　situation.

　 Choose Internet. At the Internet Interface, mostly, you should set the values for IP address / Netmask /
　　Default Gateway and then submit, restart your machine and you will find it already connected to Internet.

　 Choose PPPoE. If you use PPPoE, remember to check the checkbox of “Turn on PPPoE”. Fill in the account
　　and password provided by ISP and submit, reboot your computer, then you can connect to the network.
　　(Please refer to the sections of Configuration and Q&A in Quick Installation Guide if you have any questions.)

Configure Via Web Browser

 But how do we know the IP address fetched by the DHCP client on the server in order to access via Web Browser ?  There are many possible ways to know that: if you have “NetBIOS” or “Client for Microsoft Network” installed on your PC, you might use the hostname “azstart” to try

http://azstart/apps/
( login: admin, password: admin123 )
( This is admin account from Web interface. You are required to change the password at the first time you access that page. )

The system will display a page to ask you to change the hostname and admin password at the time you first login. You will be asked to enter our pre-defined admin password ( which is “admin123” ) and the new password you are going to set and re-type the new password to confirm it.

Please note that if DHCP client fails to obtain IP address, the server configuration page will not be accessed from your Web Browser. In that case, you have to use “Console” to configure the server first.

“Azstart” is the predefined hostname for the server after the CD installation is done. If you like to use the console, you can just login to the server from console by typing

# login: reset
#password: root123
( this can only be used on console )

But this method is only provided for you when the network is not working.

“Console” is the term that we use to describe the “direct” input/output device attached to the machine and allow people to issue commands and view the system response messages without going through the network. In other words, it is just that you connect your monitor to your machine’s Video port with the keyboard there.

However, it is advised that you should use Web interface to configure the server even though you are familiar with Linux or Unix ( the password for “root” user is “root123” ). This software package has been developed based on Linux, but the configuration is not exactly the same as the other Linux systems you have seen elsewhere. For some easy things like “adding user” or “setting IP address”, if you do not use Web interface or the procedures described here, it would break the data integrity and the system can not function well.

The account “admin” from Web interface is for you to configure the system. It is with the password “admin123” at the moment when you finish the installation from CD.  Other User IDs can be created via Web interface from “admin”. We will introduce that later. But the other User IDs do not have the privileges to modify the system configuration; they only can use the system functions without touching the modification to affect the basic operation of the system.  So, it is very important that you should protect your “admin” account by changing the “predefined” password from CD.

If you do not have DHCP server running on your network, or for some reasons, you still can not access the server via the method mentioned above, you can just set IP address via the console of the server.

The console tool is provided for the use under the environment without DHCP server or you make mistake on network setting so that you can not use Web interface to configure the system.  To use this simple console tool, you have to login from console by the following user ID:

#login: reset
#password: root123
( this can only be used on Console )

After that, you will see some messages similar to the following:



1  IP Address: 172.16.1.3
2  Netmask: 255.255.255.0
3  Default Gateway: 172.16.1.1
4  Save and Reboot
5  Reset to initial CD setting (DHCP) and Reboot
6  View Current Active Values
7  Exit without Saving Changes
8  Reset Border Control Setting Only and Reboot

Option 1, 2, and 3 is for you to set IP address on the interface eth0 so that you can use the Web Browser to continue the configuration. After you supply the correct data on Option 1, 2, and 3, you can use 4 to save the result and reboot the machine. Option 5 is to restore the initial network setting we put on CD – it means DHCP client will be running on eth0.  You can just use arrow keys to move to the items you are going to modify and hit “enter” key on the keyboard.

If the network is still not up and running, that could mean the software package does not support your Ethernet card.  You can use option 7 to check if “eth0” is present in the listing. Or you might also login as “root” from console and issue the command

# ifconfig –a

And check if you can get “eth0” or “eth1” on the list. If none, that means the software can not detect the Ethernet card(s).