node.jsiisintranet

Need specific domain name when hosting node app for Xbox over intranet


I have a local network I set up with my Xbox and PC. The PC is running Windows 10 and currently acting as the router (Internet Connection Sharing with the Xbox through a switch). On my PC, I have a node server running to host the application that drives a dev UWP app on the Xbox.

I have tested all the connections. The Xbox can talk with my computer and v.v and my other computer can pull up the application hosted by the node server. The only problem is that anything connected to this network can only access the node app using the IP address of the my PC.

This is problematic for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of CORS and the fact that the UWP app requires pointing to the node app using a specific domain on the local network.

Now, if I could somehow just pull up the hosts file on the Xbox and modify that, then my problem would be solved. However, that does not seem possible. On the other hand, I could set up a site in IIS, but the files are hosted virtually by the node app and so there is no physical path to set.

What I need to do is somehow map the IP http://xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:8080/ => http://myurl/ on the local network.


Solution

  • This turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. All I had to do was to modify the host file.

    Initially, I had one entry in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

    127.0.0.1 mydomain.com
    

    So, I added a second entry that points it to the IP address the clients have for my computer:

    127.0.0.1 mydomain.com
    192.168.137.1 mydomain.com
    

    Because ICS is on, the clients already have my PC set as the DNS.