The third alternative is setting up your own dns server (bind, dnsmasq, a million other options) and pointing to it from all your clients. In your situation that's just a slightly fancier variant of your 2).
You could also try IrisCouch or Cloudant, I believe low levels of usage are free in both but do check. Disclaimer: I work for Cloudant. B. On 19 March 2013 22:52, Chris Sphinx <[email protected]> wrote: > Okay, sorry about this I'm a programmer but I don't know anything about > networking. I just want to be sure there's no way to achieve the > functionality I'm talking about without 1) getting a domain name or 2) > setting an entry in the /etc/hosts file on the computer I want to use to > access the page. Is that right? > > > On Mar 19, 2013, at 6:45 PM, Robert Newson <[email protected]> wrote: > >> if you want a name maped to an ip address that works anywhere in the >> world, that's what DNS *is*. :) >> >> If you control all the clients, you can add local hosts files and/or >> point at your own dns server with your own custom zone. >> >> B. >> >> On 19 March 2013 22:40, Chris Sphinx <[email protected]> wrote: >>> I simply want to be able to access an html page from the public IP without >>> breaking the Couch. This is just for my personal convenience, this is not >>> for a public site. But I want to be able to access the webpage from >>> anywhere (like a mobile device or public computer). >>> >>> If I understand correctly, I could make this work if I had a registered >>> domain name? That's fine, but is there any way to accomplish this WITHOUT >>> buying a domain name? >>> >>> >>> On Mar 19, 2013, at 9:22 AM, Robert Newson <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Virtual Hosting is predicated on host names. Vhosting the ip address >>>> is not recommended, for the reasons you've already encountered. >>>> >>>> What are you trying to achieve? It's very odd to direct people to your >>>> site via IP address. Are you trying to use the virtual host feature as >>>> a security mechanism? >>>> >>>> B. >>>> >>>> On 19 March 2013 13:15, Chris Sphinx <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> Sure, here is a secret gist with the relevant files: >>>>> >>>>> https://gist.github.com/chrissphinx/a9e8411fa6efefa9572c >>>>> >>>>> To state the problem again: I cannot access the webpage by hitting: >>>>> >>>>> http://184.75.155.16:5984 >>>>> >>>>> It will simply return the JSON welcome message. However, if I (or anyone >>>>> else I assume) were to create an entry in THEIR /etc/hosts file: >>>>> >>>>> 184.75.155.16 couch >>>>> >>>>> And hit the url: >>>>> >>>>> http://couch:5984 >>>>> >>>>> Then it works. That's great, but it's not what I want. I want the public >>>>> IP to go directly to the index.html file no matter what computer is >>>>> hitting it. The only way I've found to get this to occur is to put in >>>>> [vhosts]: >>>>> >>>>> 184.75.155.16:5984 >>>>> >>>>> The public IP. This DOES work, but it breaks the entire database. You >>>>> can't write nor can you retrieve any docs from the database. This makes >>>>> sense to me because the database isn't at the IP anymore, just the >>>>> webpage. >>>>> >>>>> A sysadmin friend of mine told me that this is why you need a vhost set >>>>> up, but now it's beginning to seem as if I actually want a "reverse >>>>> proxy" which is functionality that is not provided by CouchDB? Or is >>>>> serving a couch app to the public IP possible with only Couch running on >>>>> the RPi? Thank you for the help so far, it is really appreciated. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Mar 19, 2013, at 4:53 AM, Dave Cottlehuber <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Hi Chris, >>>>>> >>>>>> Sorry to hear you are stuck on this! I remember being equally >>>>>> mind-boggled a couple years back. It will "click" soon hopefully. >>>>>> >>>>>> BTW It will help a great deal if you can put a minimal case together & >>>>>> post it back to the list (or via a paste service gist friendpaste >>>>>> etc). vhosts, your CNAME, the design doc including the rewriter rules, >>>>>> and the specific error message in the logfile. >>>>>> >>>>>> I have this setup at home but power's off and I don't have the config >>>>>> handy, if I have a free spot today I'll whip an example up. So this is >>>>>> from memory, >>>>>> >>>>>> Ensure you've got: >>>>>> >>>>>> [httpd] >>>>>> bind_address = 0.0.0.0 >>>>>> >>>>>> [vhosts] >>>>>> cname:5984 = /dbname/_design/ddoc_name/_rewrite >>>>>> >>>>>> in your local.ini, replacing cname, dbname, ddoc_name as appropriate. >>>>>> >>>>>> In your design document, your rewriter key should be something like this: >>>>>> >>>>>> [ >>>>>> {"from": "/","to": "/index.html"}, >>>>>> {"from": "/*","to": "/*" } >>>>>> ] >>>>>> >>>>>> And obviously there should be an attachment called index.html within the >>>>>> ddoc. >>>>>> >>>>>> Check through http://docs.couchdb.org/en/latest/pretty_urls.html and >>>>>> see if that helps you out. I'm pretty sure out of this thread we can >>>>>> put a better example up! >>>>>> >>>>>> Note that you could also set http port to 80 both in the vhost and in >>>>>> local.ini under [httpd] section which would be even tidier. >>>>>> >>>>>> A+ >>>>>> Dave >>>>> >>>>>> On 19 March 2013 09:32, Chris Sphinx <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>>> I have a CouchDB running on a RPi behind a router. I've seen countless >>>>>>> tutorials about "pretty urls", but no matter what I do I just cannot >>>>>>> get this to work for my public IP. All I want to do is be able to serve >>>>>>> a boring webpage to anyone that hits >>>>>>> >>>>>>> http://my.pub.lic.ip:5984 >>>>>>> >>>>>>> But the only way I was able to do this is by putting the public IP >>>>>>> under vhosts in the local.ini file. Doing so breaks the database and I >>>>>>> can't access it in any way until I remove the line from the local.ini >>>>>>> file and restart it. Trying to get at any part of the database results >>>>>>> in: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> {"error":"not_found","reason":"Document is missing attachment"} >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Sure, I can set up something like 127.0.0.1<tab>couch to hook up to >>>>>>> http://couch:5984 on the RPi. I can even load it from another machine, >>>>>>> but I have to set my /etc/hosts on whatever machine I want to use to >>>>>>> include my.pub.lic.ip<tab>couch. What if I want to allow anyone to >>>>>>> access the page without having to hack their /etc/hosts file? How am I >>>>>>> supposed to set this up? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I get the feeling that the only way to do this is to run something like >>>>>>> ngix in front of the database with a reverse proxy, but I'm already >>>>>>> killing an ant with a sledgehammer and I feel that there is just >>>>>>> something I am overlooking here. Can anybody tell me what I'm doing >>>>>>> wrong? Or walk me through how to get CouchDB to serve up a webpage to a >>>>>>> public IP? >>>>>>
