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pythondjangonetwork-programmingserverip-address

Locally hosted Django project for long-term use in local network

I am currently implementing a Django web application, which will be used only locally but long-term. I already managed to start the Django server on my local machine using python manage 0.0.0.0:myport and I am able to connect from any mobile device using MyLocalIPv4:myport.

In best case I only want to start the Django server once, establish a connection between a mobile device and the web app and let the web app run for an undefined long time on that mobile device

Now my assumption is, that MyLocalIPv4 will be changing over time as it is a dynamic IP address, which will force the user (or even worse myself) to look up the new IP address and re-establish the connection.

My question are: Do you know any mechanisms on how I can avoid this type of behaviour using another (maybe static) referral to the web app ? What do you think about this web application in term of security issues ?

Solution

  • DNS is the way to go. What you want is a (internal) domain that would map to your computer IP address.

    There are many ways you can achieve that but I suggest going with whatever tools you have available. I assume that for your home network you're using some sort of a consumer-grade home router with wireless access point. Very often this type of hardware offers some way to "map" the hostname of a machine to its internal-network IP address.

    For example, at home I'm using a RT-AC1200G+ router, which runs an internal DNS server and maps hostnames of clients of my network to their IP:

    $ dig +short @192.168.1.2 samu-pc
192.168.1.70
$ ifconfig |grep 192.168.1.70
inet 192.168.1.70  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255

    Alternatively, one of the easier solutions would be to ensure your IP does not change. You could assign a static IP to your django-server machine, OR if you want to continue using DHCP - use your routers functions to make a static assignment to a specific, static IP address using your network card's MAC address.

    Disclaimer: There are other, more "professional" ways of solving service discovery within a network, but I would consider them overkill to your home network setup. Also, if you care about security, you should consider running the django app behind a reverse proxy with HTTPs on the front, just to ensure nobody in your internal network is trying to do something nasty.