Question

Photo of Jaclyn Gagnon

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how do i connect the rock web to godaddy?

2

I am hosting the rock on an sql server in house and we need to connect the external website to the godaddy domain. How do i set up DNS in godaddy?

  • Photo of Matt Stevens

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    1. Identify Public IP.
    If you are hosting the server locally you will need to identify the public IP address of your local server. Please note that you will want to check with your internet service provider, because if you do not have a dedicated IP address with them, then they can change your public IP address at any time.

    • You can use a took like WhatIsMyIP.com to identify your public IP

    2. Access DNS Management

    After logging in to your GoDaddy account you'll want to navigate to your domain and add the DNS records. I pulled the following info off chatGPT as I do not have a GoDaddy account.

    •  Once logged in, click on your name in the upper right corner and select "My Products" from the drop-down menu.
    • Under "Domains," find the domain you want to connect to your server and click on "DNS" or "Manage DNS" next to it.

    3. Add an A Record (From chatGPT)

    • Look for an existing A Record named "@". If you find one, you can either edit it or create a new A Record.
    • To create a new A Record:
    • Click "Add" or "Add Record."
    • For "Type," choose A.
    • For "Host," enter @ (this represents the root domain, e.g., yourdomain.com)
    • For "Points to," enter your server's public IP address.
    • Set the "TTL" (Time to Live) to the default or your preferred value.
    • Click "Save."

    4. Propagate

    After saving your DNS records, it may take some time for the changes to propagate. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours, depending on various factors. (Most of the time its only a few minutes.)

    5. Verify the Connection

    Once propagation is complete, try accessing your website using the domain name you configured in GoDaddy to ensure it's correctly pointing to your local server. 

    If you cannot reach your website after setting this up, most likely you are still needing to setup port forwarding on your organizations network. If you have a network administrator, reach out to them in regards to this.

    If not, the following MIGHT help.

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    Port Forwarding

    When you want to route incoming traffic from the internet to a local server behind a router, the router needs to know which device (in this case, your server) to send the traffic to. This process is usually handled through Port Forwarding. Here’s how it works:


    1. Understanding Port Forwarding

    Port Forwarding: This is a method used to route incoming traffic on specific ports to a designated device (like your server) on your local network. When someone tries to access your public IP address on a certain port (e.g., HTTP on port 80 or HTTPS on port 443), the router forwards that traffic to the specified internal IP address of your server.

    2. Steps to Set Up Port Forwarding


    1. Access Your Router's Configuration Page

    Open a web browser and enter your router's local IP address (often something like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1).

    Log in with your router's admin username and password. These credentials are often on a sticker on the router itself, or you can refer to the router's manual.

    2. Locate the Port Forwarding Section

    Look for a section called "Port Forwarding," "Virtual Server," "NAT," or similar.

    This section allows you to create rules to forward traffic on specific ports to specific devices on your local network.

    3. Create a New Port Forwarding Rule

    External Port: Specify the port number(s) on which the traffic will arrive at your public IP address. For example, if you’re hosting a web server, you’d forward port 80 (HTTP) and/or port 443 (HTTPS).

    Internal IP Address: Enter the internal IP address of your local server. You can find this by typing ipconfig in the Command Prompt on the server, looking for the "IPv4 Address."

    Internal Port: Specify the same port number(s) you used for the external port unless your server listens on a different port internally.

    Protocol: Choose TCP, UDP, or both, depending on what kind of traffic you’re handling. For web servers, TCP is typically used.

    4. Save and Apply the Settings

    Save the rule and apply the settings. Your router may reboot, or the changes may apply immediately.

    3. Ensure Server Configuration

    Firewall Configuration: Make sure that your server’s firewall allows incoming traffic on the specified port(s). You may need to create an inbound rule in the Windows Firewall or any other firewall software you’re using.

    Static Internal IP: Consider setting a static IP address for your server within your local network. This ensures that the server's IP address doesn’t change, which would break the port forwarding rule.

    4. Testing the Setup

    After setting up port forwarding, you can test it by trying to access your server from an external network (e.g., via a mobile device not connected to your Wi-Fi) using your public IP address and the appropriate port.

    *Considerations

    Security: Exposing your server to the internet comes with security risks. Ensure your server is properly secured with updated software, strong passwords, and, if possible, behind a firewall.

    ISP Restrictions: Some ISPs block incoming traffic on certain ports (like port 80) (typically for residential customers). If you run into this issue, you might need to use a different port or contact your ISP for more information.

    I hope this helps! Good Luck!



  • Photo of Shawn Ross

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    Jaclyn, the suggestions from Matt are mostly correct, but some of it is unnecessary and a bit off. It looks like part of it came from ChatGPT.

    What experience level do you have with firewalls, DNS, and web hosting? I want to use terminology that is helpful, but I'm also not wanting to confuse you.

    Is this the first part of setting up Rock for your organization, or do you already have it configured, and are now wanting to add the external/public website functionality?

    With the info below, I'm pretending that you want to use test.mountaincity.church as your public (rock powered) website, and you want to use rock.mountaincity.church as your instance of Rock.

    What you'll need if you don't have them already:

    • Login information for your Godaddy account.
    • Knowledge of how to setup your firewall to handle the traffic being directed to your IIS server for Rock. For example, this is commonly called "Inbound NAT". I recommend also setting up "Outbound NAT" on the same IP.
    • Knowledge (and a configuration in place) so that your IIS server and your SQL server are separate servers, and not the same! This is critical, as you do not want to expose your SQL server to public folks on the internet.
    • The public IP address from your network you will be using for Rock. This should be a dedicated IP that is not used for anything else.
    • Your Rock instance set to listen on the DNS hostname that you want to use at Godaddy.

    Once you have those things together:

    • In GoDaddy, add/edit A record(s) so that it/they point to the public IP address you are using for your Rock server.

    If you haven't already, I'd also recommend getting connected in Rocket Chat. The 'Chat' item on the left menu of the community site will take you there (or you can install the Rocket Chat client and use chat.rockrms.com as the Rocket Chat server name).