Running a web server on Time Warner cable
August 7th, 2016
Two problems. It’s against Time Warners TOS, and my IP changes at least once a day.
Will Time Warner notice if I have a small web server that isn’t visible to the whole world? Is there anything I can do to hide the fact that it’s a web server, and not a skype call or some other app that uses data?
What can I do about the constantly changing IP’s?
Does anyone else here have a web server on Time Warner’s cable modem service?
Apache + NoIP free dynamic DNS
http://httpd.apache.org/
https://www.noip.com
Setup custom port for your webserver. Use one that’s commonly used for an allowed service. ISP won’t know any better.
Hey , I’ve been on TWC for over 15 years. I have been running both a mail server and web server. Both are very low bandwidth non-commercial. I haven’t had any problems running them. My IP doesn’t change very often, sometimes I’ve had an IP for a year or more until they reset the modem remotely.
Officially they will tell you its against their TOS, but off the record, one of the techs told me they don’t really care, but you are responsible for any abuse you may receive and you won’t receive any official support unless your being DDoS’d. Just don’t ever tell them your running a web/mail server. They can actually see it in their logs remotely anyhow so you cannot hide it from them. Again, on the record its against their TOS because they want you to subscribe to their Business class. Off the record they actually don’t really care, as long as your not commercial high bandwidth.
Just setup your site. Either buy a real domain or use a dynamic redirector like DYNDNS. And use a program that checks your world IP ever X minutes and when a change is detected it sends the update to your redirector or your domain registrar (if you bought one). I personally use ‘DirectUpdate’ which is not free or you can use one from DynDNS, the one I have used before and is free is ‘OpenDNS Updater’.
Also Best practice is to set your web/mail server behind a NAT Router and not directly to the net. By this I mean the order of your connection should be, Your Cable Modem goes into your Router, Your local machines hookup to the router. Give the server a static address from your router not DHCP, like 10.0.0.25 or 192.168.1.25 depending on your LAN subnet. Use Port forwarding in your router to redirect all necessary ports to that IP you just assigned such as port 80.
This won’t affect your surfing from another machine. It only means that any traffic pointing to ‘yourdomain.com’ gets redirected to your IP at port 80, your router interprets this and redirects the traffic to your fixed IP address of the server.
Just a caveat, if you use a real full registered domain name, you must setup the necessary redirection for your domain to IP resolution. Some domain registrars require you to setup your own nameservers (I use ZoneEdit) and some do not but all must be set up to redirect to your local IP. Which is just setting a simple A record to point from ‘yourdomain.com’ to ‘xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx’ with x being your actual real world TWC assigned IP address.
This can be done automatically with above programs or by manually editing the entry at your domain registrar (assuming your name servers are located at the same place). If your name servers are separate like I do, you must go to your name server location and update the A record manually or use software like ‘DirectUpdate’ to do it for you. That software is very flexible and works with almost any service.
With a router in line between your server and the modem, you are shielding your PC from harsher real world attack vectors (your still vulnerable to attack but the router is the front line). You also will keep TWC from rotating your IP so frequently. TWC cycles unused IPs after a few hours of no use, about 24 hours. So your router keeps the connection alive and your IP then become almost static. I once had my IP for a year and a half before TWC did changes to their systems and refreshed my modem which reset my IP.
If you have any other questions simply ask.
My advice. Don’t do it! They will find it through the amount of bandwidth you use for the site. That will breach your contract and they will shut you down and sue you if they want. Run server on dedicated IP, it’s very cheap these days.
I’ve never had any issue with TWC and I use a lot of bandwidth with all the machines in the house, upwards around 20 plus gigs a month for over 10 years.
The web/mail server doesn’t see much traffic, its very low bandwidth but we use a lot of bandwidth between p2p, youtube, itunes, soundcloud, chat, mail, streaming etc…. and since my bandwidth is mostly consistent for many years they don’t notice or care.
I have also talked with several techs, not desk jockeys, and they assure me that even tho its a violation of TOS on a residential IP, TWC doesn’t really care and won’t enforce it unless you start running a real Commercial/Enterprise/High Volume business or company. For the average home user with a private mail server and web site, they tell me that you will fly under the radar. And considering I have had the servers for 15 or so years, and they do know about them, the IT guys that handle the RoadRunner internet side of things tell me as long as I’m not truly commercial but like small home office type and don’t make gigantic waves, the TWC policy is, they will generally ignore it.
Of course there is always that risk depending on where in the country you live. each state has its own corporate policies on how to handle things. So it is risky, however in my experience, TWC is fairly liberal about running your own personal server. Just don’t call them and ask for web/mail type of support, depending on who you talk with, they will tell you not to mention it to them, because calls can and are monitored for quality assurance. There is a slim chance, and I have heard of it happening, mostly to those who try and cheat and run a commercial service on residential that get busted. I have heard of certain cable companies changing the terms of your service and switch you to business class and charge you for it automatically, where it shows up on your next bill.
So its just a word of caution. And to be honest I have never heard of TWC ever doing this but they will warn you usually before taking action.
The companies I have heard of doing that are Charter and Comcast.
Good luck to you.