Create local home network where all requests return status 200

cypher6xx · 21 Jul 2019 at 18:56

Hi

I have an old device that I need to setup (a Boxee Box) and it is looking to ping http://x.ping.boxee.tv/ (x being a number between 1 and 9) to test the network connection. I would like to create a network where a ping to that address or any address for that matter simply return a http status of 200 so the box thinks it is connected and I can set it up. Is this possible?

I have ay my disposal a Virgin Super Hub 2.0, a Synology Disk Station NAS, 2 Apple MacBooks, Ethernet cables and I am fairly tech savvy but not when it comes to networking. The Boxee device can connect using WiFi or ethernet.

Any help would be appreciated and I ma happy to look into buying routers etc if it helps.

I have tried connecting the device directly to my MacBook and setting my host file to point http://x.ping.boxee.tv/ to localhost but sharing my internet on ethernet seems to bypass the hosts file. Sharing the internet via wifi also seems to bypass the hosts file.

Thanks in advance.

Hyburnate · 21 Jul 2019 at 19:06

You need a DNS Server, what router do you currently have?

cypher6xx · 21 Jul 2019 at 19:42

I have Virgin Media Super Hub 2ac which is based on a Netgear (VMDG490/SH2AC). I can run a DNS Server on my Synology Nas.

daz · 21 Jul 2019 at 21:12

Something like a raspberry pi might be best for this. You'd basically be configuring it as a router, so it would create a private network and give an IP to the boxee box via DHCP. T the linux router will also a) serve the DNS requests and b) serve the http requests.

I think a DNS server like BIND or PowerDNS might be overkill but it would do the job. It can then serve a zone for ping.boxee.tv with *.ping.boxee.tv resolving to 127.0.0.1. You then need Apache or Nginx running on that router. You'd just set up a rewrite rule to rewrite all requests to a static page and return a 200 response code (the default vhost should accept all requests so no need to set up a specific entry for each domain). The boxee would then 'see' everything through the linux router. You can probably do everything I've said on a Macbook, but it might just be trickier just because there are so many guides out there for this kind of thing on Linux.

cypher6xx · 21 Jul 2019 at 22:30

Thanks Daz! I think I have got most of what you mean. I don't have a raspberry pi but I think with the DNS Server on the Synology Nas and the web server enabled I can achieve what you have described above. I will give it a go and update here with success or if I am still struggling!

Thanks again.

the-evaluator · 22 Jul 2019 at 07:37

daz said:
It can then serve a zone for ping.boxee.tv with *.ping.boxee.tv resolving to 127.0.0.1.

You'd want it to resolve to the IP address of the Apache/Nginx box rather than localhost. If it resolved to localhost then that'd tell the Boxee box that the webserver were running on the Boxee box itself rather than the Apache/Nginx box.

cypher6xx · 22 Jul 2019 at 17:59

the-evaluator said:
You'd want it to resolve to the IP address of the Apache/Nginx box rather than localhost. If it resolved to localhost then that'd tell the Boxee box that the webserver were running on the Boxee box itself rather than the Apache/Nginx box.

Yes, thanks, I worked that out after localhost didn't work. Just had to set up a web server and a virtual host and it works just fine. The box has been setup again. Many thanks everyone for your help!