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I want to install a local copy of WordPress in Ubuntu 14. My partner and I want to use this to write journal entries / scrapbook in a collaborative way.

I'm fairly certain about how to install WordPress locally using LAMP.

What I don't want is to have done this in such a way that the WordPress site is accessible to the world-at-large.

Of course, I can password-protect the site, but still: how do I ensure that I have not created a publicly-accessible web server in the process?

(Note: I'm only interested in answers to this question, not recommendations on better ways to organize our collaborative journal efforts.)

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2 Answers 2

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If you have a computer that acts as a server in your home, and you access the Internet through a router that does NAT (like any standard ADSL router), then the computers inside the network won't be visible from the outside world, unless you explicitly do some port mapping on the router. If your server-computer never leaves the network, then you should be safe.

If the site has to run on your laptop and you plan bringing it to the outside world, then you should secure it with at least a password, or shut off the webserver, because people on the same network could access it. The same is true if you plan to have guests on your network (they could be able to access your local website).

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Short Version:

Usually the modem/router you use to connect to your home computers to the internet will control what gets into your network.

For an external entity to gain access to your internal WordPress installation you would generally need port 80 forwarded to your WebServer/WordPress install. This is something that can only happen if you (or someone else) explicitly allows. Without that, the world at large won't be accessing the install.

By Installing the basic tools of LAMP and WordPress and no other "features", you will not be sharing your install externally, and it will be safe.

That's not to say you shouldn't take extra precautions (for example, attacks from within your network), but largely you are covered.

Longer Version:

There are a number of ways that an external person CAN connect to an internal WebServer, but they all involve explicitly creating an entry point, for example:

  1. (as mentioned) forwarding of port 80 (or other) from the outside world into your network (this would allow the world at large to connect to your WordPress install),
  2. a VPN setup (which would allow only the authorised users access to the internal network).
  3. a SSH tunnel (again, very explicit users), or
  4. an entry point created via malicious means (malicious email attachment, malware file, etc)

If you and your partner are operating on your own secure network and already have a connection method between computers in your network (NAT within the router) then setting up WordPress as an internal CMS is very easy to do with several great resources out there to achieve that (I know you said you're probably fine with the installation, but I will share one great resource for installing WordPress on Ubuntu, and that is Digital Ocean's:

About the only other consideration would be if you were installing it on a Windows machine, or a machine with an overly aggressive software/OS firewall, but you've mentioned Ubuntu and this will allow the share for you (once setup correctly).

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