How to Configure a Web Server in Packet Tracer | How to Configure HTTP Server in Packet Tracer

A web server is a server that delivers a webpage to a user when requested using a browser. When we surf the internet, we are actually making a request to a web server for a web page or file.

A web server uses two basic protocols to render its service: HTTP/HTTPS and a DNS service. HTTP/HTTPS is a protocol used to send or receive data between a website and a browser. On the other hand, the Domain Name System (DNS) is a service that resolves a hostname (domain name) into an IP address. Normally, a web server is identified with an IP address over the internet; however, remembering this IP address for each website a user visits poses challenges. Hence, DNS helps to mitigate this by mapping the IP address of a website/web server to a human-readable name that users can use to surf on the website.

In Packet Tracer simulation software, one can simulate a network that allows a user to access a web server using HTTP/HTTPS requests and plain domain names.

In this post, I will show you how to Configure a Web Server in Packet Tracer.

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Network topology

The network topology we will be making use of in this post is shown below. As you can see, it is a point-to-point connection between a PC (which will serve as the client) and server. I decided to make this very simple to reduce complications in configuration.

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a network topology comprising of DNS server and a PC

In this demonstration, we will Enable both DNS service and the HTTP/HTTPS service on the server. As we know, the server in packet tracer is a multipurpose server; hence, we can use it for DNS and HTTP services.

Here is a video on how to configure a web Server in packet tracer;

How to Configure a Web Server in Packet Tracer

Here are steps to Configure a Web Server in Packet Tracer;

Step 1: Configure the Interface IP addresses

For both PC0 and the web server to communicate, we need to assign an IP address to their interfaces. As we have labeled, PC0 has 192.168.1.2 as the interface IP address and 192.168.1.1 as the DNS server IP address.

Configuring interface IP address to the PC

The webserver, on the other hand, has 192.168.1.1 as the interface IP address and 192.168.1.1 as the DNS server IP address.

configuring interface of webserver

Step 2: Enable DNS service on the Webserver

For the server in our topology to serve a webpage, when requested with a domain name instead of an IP address, we need to enable DNS service and add a DNS record.

Adding DNS record

In the above image, we made the IP address; 192.168.1.1 which is the IP address of the webserver to resolve to netizzan.com. We have detailed post on how to configure DNS in cisco packet tracer.

Step 3: Enable HTTP service on the webserver

HTTP/HTTPS allows a client to send and receive data (a webpage) between the webserver and the client’s browser.

To Enable HTTP service on the webserver, go to services>HTTP

Enabling HTTP service on the webserver

Step 4: Create the Webpage

As shown in the image above, we have up to five default webpages that can be served by the webserver. Those are created by Cisco; you can customize them or delete them. In this demonstration, I will delete every other webpage except “index.html.”.

Editing the webpage

I will edit the index.html with the following code;

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”UTF-8″>
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″>
<title>Welcome to Netizzan</title>
<style>
body {
font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
text-align: center;
margin: 50px;
}
h1 {
color: #007BFF;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to Netizzan</h1>
<p>The best networking blog.</p>
</body>
</html>

Editing the code inside index.html

Step 5: View the Webpage

Now that we have enabled DNS service and HTTP service on the webserver, we can view the webpage we created using an HTTP request and a domain name instead of an IP address.

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Go to Services>Web Browser on PCO.

Go to web browser of PC0

Then enter the domain address we added to the record of the DNS server.

viewing the webpage on packet tracer

As shown above, the webpage we created was displayed by typing netizzan.com on the web browser rather than the IP address of the web server, which is 192.168.1.1.

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