Web Hosting

After some messing around, here is a solution on how to host simple web site while keeping Webend settings intact, and using minimal resources.

So here we go. Task is - host a simple (html) website on WDTV Live, using only external drive as resource. Prerequisites could be ddclient set up for dynamic addressing if you wish. ;)

1. Use directions from http://wiki.wdlxtv.com/NoPasswordApache to create writable apache config file, but not removing Webend protection. So...

cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /conf/apache-default

2. Edit new file apache-default (using nano for example) and add new section after existing <Location> section/directive, assuming that web page will be located at path /tmp/www-tmp/my_site. This will allow connections without having to input user/password.

<Location /tmp/my_site>
 Allow From All
 Satisfy Any
</Location>

3. Again from wiki page: Create a new file /conf/S00user-script (it may already exist) putting the following into it:

#!/bin/sh
mount -o bind /conf/apache-default /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

4. Restart... not sure if needed, you could just try rebooting apache (/etc/init.d/S66apache2 restart)... but... nevermind:

sync; sync; reboot

5. Assuming that your website directory is placed in a root of external hdd on path /tmp/mnt/12D3-4321/my_website ... (with main page index.html...)

cd /var/www/tmp
ln -s  /tmp/mnt/12D3-4321/my_website my_website

And thats it! You can try to access your site by using WDXLTV IP address or domain name for outside (ex. 192.168.0.4/tmp/my_website). You should not be asked for user/pwd for your site, while keeping Webend protected. ;)

rikifeld