Keith,
I'm with David and Eric: I wouldn't set up a web server on my daily
driver. Especially if that computer is a laptop you take out sometimes
and connect up to some public network somewhere.
I have a tower at home that I use as a Samba server and KVM virtual
host. When I'm away from home with one of my other, not-daily-driver
laptops, I get to it via my VPN. If I were to add a web server to it, I
would definitely use a localhost random port.
-Tim (Paws Prime)
On 7/14/25 12:00, [email protected] wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Configuring a web server on one's daily driver
([email protected])
2. Re: Configuring a web server on one's daily driver (Eric Oyen)
3. Re: Configuring a web server on one's daily driver
(David Schwartz)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2025 15:00:33 -0700
From: [email protected]
To: Main PLUG discussion list <[email protected]>
Subject: Configuring a web server on one's daily driver
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
Hi,
A friend sent me an article about a guy that always configures a web
server on his desktop. I did some work with a guy who configured his
daily driver MAC as a web server and used it for development.
I'm running Kubuntu on my desk top and Ubuntu on my virtualization.
I could configure my desktop as a web server.... however I an not so
sure I want to.
My main concern is security.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks!!
Keith
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:10:52 -0700
From: Eric Oyen <[email protected]>
To: Main PLUG discussion list <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Configuring a web server on one's daily driver
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Honestly,
I would rather the web server be on it?s own dedicated vm with minimal other
services running and it?s own internal IP address on a virtual bridge
answerable to the external ethernet interface. This is actually similar to what
I ran post 2000 using VMWARE.
External ethernet card 1: unposted by host OS, linked to OpenBSD vm as internet
interface
2nd ethernet interface was attached to internal virtual bridge that was also
connected as a second interface to the openBSD vm. Host OS was linked to
virtual bridge along with all other vm?s. This way, all instances and the host
OS were protected behind the OpenBSD instance which acted as the firewall. One
of those instances was a web server that hosted a simple website (one of the
many things I tried to learn how to do).
At the time, that configuration for VMWare was not even supported, let alone
documented. So, I had a pretty unique setup (and I did document it eventually
and submitted it to the dev team at VMWare). Oh man, were they surprised.
-Eric
From the Central Offices of the Technomage Guild, Virtual Environments
Coordinator Dept.
On Jul 13, 2025, at 3:00 PM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
A friend sent me an article about a guy that always configures a web server on
his desktop. I did some work with a guy who configured his daily driver MAC as
a web server and used it for development.
I'm running Kubuntu on my desk top and Ubuntu on my virtualization.
I could configure my desktop as a web server.... however I an not so sure I
want to.
My main concern is security.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks!!
Keith
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------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2025 01:43:29 -0700
From: David Schwartz <[email protected]>
To: Main PLUG discussion list <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Configuring a web server on one's daily driver
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
I found that article and forwarded it to Keith. It was specifically about
setting up and running a local web service for your own personal needs. The guy
was not a developer. In fact, a couple of things he said he uses this for
suggest just the opposite. He very briefly mentions external access, but that
was clearly not the focus of the article.
But I think Keith's question has to do with security implications of running a
local web service on your main machine for LOCAL use at localhost.
I?ve got a LAN at home and I?ve given some thought to what it would take to run
a server on one machine ONLY for internal access. I almost set it up at one
point, but changed my mind, but I haven?t ruled it out.
That article includes a single command you can run on a Mac to turn on your web
server.
Windows includes IIS, and he shows how to activate it. Newer versions only
install it if you request, and it?s easy to start it up as a service.
But MAMP, WAMP, and similar solutions have been available for about 20 years
now and I haven?t heard much about any security issues simply from running them
on localhost / 127.0.0.1 .
Is there anything to worry about?
-David Schwartz
On Jul 14, 2025, at 12:10 AM, Eric Oyen via PLUG-discuss
<[email protected]> wrote:
Honestly,
I would rather the web server be on it?s own dedicated vm with minimal other
services running and it?s own internal IP address on a virtual bridge
answerable to the external ethernet interface. This is actually similar to what
I ran post 2000 using VMWARE.
External ethernet card 1: unposted by host OS, linked to OpenBSD vm as internet
interface
2nd ethernet interface was attached to internal virtual bridge that was also
connected as a second interface to the openBSD vm. Host OS was linked to
virtual bridge along with all other vm?s. This way, all instances and the host
OS were protected behind the OpenBSD instance which acted as the firewall. One
of those instances was a web server that hosted a simple website (one of the
many things I tried to learn how to do).
At the time, that configuration for VMWare was not even supported, let alone
documented. So, I had a pretty unique setup (and I did document it eventually
and submitted it to the dev team at VMWare). Oh man, were they surprised.
-Eric
From the Central Offices of the Technomage Guild, Virtual Environments
Coordinator Dept.
On Jul 13, 2025, at 3:00 PM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
A friend sent me an article about a guy that always configures a web server on
his desktop. I did some work with a guy who configured his daily driver MAC as
a web server and used it for development.
I'm running Kubuntu on my desk top and Ubuntu on my virtualization.
I could configure my desktop as a web server.... however I an not so sure I
want to.
My main concern is security.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks!!
Keith
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********************************************
--
Thanks,<br />Paws Prime<br /><><a
href="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</a>
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