Hosting apache2 server on the internet

There is a way. Assuming the following:

• you have a modem with your provider (either via phone or cable or fiber, does not matter).
• behind this modem you have a wifi router.
• your wifi network is set on subnet 192.168.1. It returns IP addresses via DHCP in a range of 192.168.1.1 up to 192.168.1.100.
• your wifi router received an IP address from your provider. Lets say it is 10.10.10.10.
• your system with Apache is on 192.168.1.2, port 80.
• your web pages are available and work properly when you type http://192.168.1.2/ in a browser from another machine on your wifi network.

So now you have a complete setup which allows you to view the web pages from your internal network (the 192.168.1 subnet).

To see your web pages from the Internet, you will have to:

• on a system on the Internet (so not in your internal network!), type http://THE-IP-YOUR-PROVIDER-GAVE-TO-YOUR-ROUTER/.
• So from the information I assumed above, http://10.10.10.10/.
• Now your wifi router will most probably block this, since by default they are all configured to block any incoming requests. They assume connections flows from the inside to the outside.
• Therefore on your wifi router you will have to setup one of:

1
Port forwarding. You tell your wifi router to accept external connections on port 80, and forward them to 192.168.1.2, port 80 (your Apache server IP)

2
Open port 80. If your router has a firewall feature, you can configure it to allow connections from port 80 external, to port 80 internal.

3
Activate DMZ. The system configured in the DMZ is no longer protected by the router. So any connection from the outside will be allowed on that server. Careful, some basic wifi routers (like mine) will allow all requests on all ports!

Final point, if you want to use a domain name instead of your IP to connect to your site. If you are paying for a static IP address from your provider, it is relatively easy to setup a DNS entry for your domain name (which you must register first) and point it to that static IP.

If you do not have a static IP, there is no guarantee that the IP will remain the same at all times. You then have to setup a dynamic DNS. There are a couple services on the web that do that. They even provide you with scripts that will publish your new public IP to them, so you do not have to update it manually all the time. Ex. DynDNS

That last part is left to you to research.

One last point, read the service agreement with your provider. Some will turn off service if you try to run a server (that is accept connections) on your dynamic IP. Some do not care. YMMV!