Re: hosting a secure website accessible from only a few IP addresses and users

From: sponge (yosponge_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/24/03 

Date: 23 Jun 2003 15:48:22 -0700

On 22 Jun 2003 15:37:24 -0700, cal_2pac@yahoo.com (2pac) wrote:

>Hi
>I need to create a website for my family (spread across different
>countries) to share their calendar and personal journal. Since some
>info may be confidential, I was wondering if I can establish a secure
>website that is accessible by only a few IP addresses and user.
>To date I do not know of any webserver that can restrict access from
>some IP addresses (haven't checked in IIS - but I am scared of using
>it anyway).
>
>one way would be to host the web site using apache with a software
>daemon listening on port 80. This daemon will accept only connections
>from certain preconfigured IP addresses and will then forward the
>data to apache.
>The web server will then do its own user level authentication.
>Is this technique secure?
>
>Are there any websites that will host my website and will also let me
>configure IP address and user level auth for free?
>Thanks for any suggestions

If you're talking about running your own server you can simply
firewall the thing with something like Kerio and configure it to
permit only the IP addresses you want and block all else. Of course,
that presumes that all your family is on static IPs; if not, you'll
have to allow the entire network of those who are not static, but it
will cut down on the possibilities. Take things a step further and
require access on a non-standard port. I don't know of any specific
hosting service that will do this for you as it would require a
dedicated server, but you could look into some collocated hosts.

Why not just require a secure login? Many sites do that, and
presumably your family has browsers capable of SSL.

Sponge
Sponge's Anti-Spyware Source
www.geocities.com/yosponge

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