Exposing your server to the world

If you've been following along with these examples and testing the servers on your own machine, the connection is practically guaranteed. The IP address we've used, 127.0.0.1, always points to the local machine, which typically allows connections from itself without question. However, the purpose behind building a server is to provide information to a wider audience rather than just ourselves. This final section of the chapter will briefly discuss some methods and considerations to bear in mind when you are making a server app publicly available. Additionally, we will test them by modifying the MyParks app from Chapter 10, Cameras, the GPS, and More, and actually using our new park lookup feature at an actual park.

First, if you have one available, run the server of your choice from this chapter on another computer on your network and try to connect to it. Any Windows or supported Linux computer will do; I have a Windows server on my network...