problem with webform app

[richf...@gmail.com]

Hi, I am new to webform development, and am having a problem.

PB 11.5
SQL Anywhere 11
Winxp

I built a small and simple webform app, all it does at the moment is
provide a login screen, and connects to my database. It is hosted on
my laptop, and runs successfully. All the pc's on my home network can
see it, but nothing outside my network can.

Being new to this, what am I supposed to configure so that it is
visible to the outside world?

TIA

[Bruce Armstrong [TeamSybase]]

I'm assuming you're got a wireless router for your home network. The
issue is that all the computers in your own network are running in a
private network. To the outside world, your "network" is one IP
address, and that's your router. The computers in your network can
reach out to the internet and initiate a connection, but (without a
bit of work) computers outside of your network can't reach into your
network and initiate communication with anything other than the
router.

The bit of additional work is setting up port forwarding on your
router so that communications to it at a certain port are redirected
to one of your computers (e.g., your laptop). And with most routers,
the only way you're going to be able to do that is if you used fixed
IP addresses within your network. Port forwarding doesn't work well
when the IP address you want to forward to can change dynamcially.

Speaking of which, if you want people outside your network to be able
to reach into your network, you're going to want to have a fixed IP
address for your router (not only the one within your network, but the
one the outside world sees). Most ISPs charge an additional fee for
that.

You might also have to consider bandwidth. If you've got a typical
home broadband connection, you probably have a fairly high download
rate, but a much slower upload rate. Computers from outside your
network accessing one of your machines and bringing content down
(e.g., your webform) are going to be "uploading" as far as the network
traffic goes. You might find performance less than ideal as a result
unless you look at getting a higher upload rate.

By the way, this section is actually for older web app technologies
(e.g., JSP). Webform targets are discussed in the
sybase.public.powerbuilder.net.webform section.

-----------------------------------

My Web 2.0 Stuff

Blog: http://bruce.pbdjmagazine.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Armstrong/1600223798
Fotki: http://public.fotki.com/brucearmstrong/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bruceaarmstrong
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bruce_armstrong
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/brucearmstrong