Re: How to make Apache webserver accessible from outside?

[nksahita@softhome.net]

Hello Ray, 

Thanks so much for your tips below. Being a newbie, I don't exactly 
understand all that you mentioned below but it gives me pointers - I will 
try this out and let everyone know. 

As for possibility 3 you mentioned below - the URL I tried from my Home PC 
was http://xyz.dyndns.org and not the localhost. 

Thanks! 

Regards. 

 


Ray Olszewski writes: 

> At 10:16 PM 6/16/2003 -0600, nksahita@softhome.net wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I installed RH9 on my home computer which has broadband connection.
>> I got account with dyndns.org which allows me to get a domain name (e.g. 
>> http://xyz.dyndns.org) that points to the IP address allocated by my ISP.
>> When I try to access this webserver from my home PC - 
>> http://xyz.dyndns.org, it works fine - I can see the home page that I 
>> have setup on my RH9 Apache server.
>> However if someone from outside (my friend for e.g.), tries to access 
>> http://xyz.dyndns.org, he can't do it.  However, if my friend tries to 
>> ping the IP address or xyz.dyndns.org, he is able to do it.
>> I have confirmed with my ISP that they don't block any ports.
>> Are there any settings in RH9 that I need to turn on so that it can 
>> accept incoming web traffic from outside?
>> Thanks for any help / pointer in advance.
>> Regards.
>  
> 
> As you describe this setup, it should work. So let's consider why it might 
> not. 
> 
> Possibility one: Your ISP is blocking port 80. Yes, I know you said "I 
> have confirmed with my ISP that they don't block any ports", but I don't 
> have to believe it just because that is what you say your ISP says. The 
> test: try running apache on a different port (8080 is traditional), then 
> see if someone from outside can access the Web site as  
> http://xyz.dyndns.org:8080 . 
> 
> Possibility two: Your system is running firewall rules that block incoming 
> traffic. I don't know what a naive installation of RH9 does about 
> firewalling. The easiest way to find out is to check for yourself: see 
> what the command "iptables -nvL" reports about default policies and 
> specific rules. While I would always strongly recommend running a decent 
> set of firewall rules on any machine that is connected to the Internet, 
> you might, just as a brief test, try clearing the rulesets and setting all 
> policies to ACCEPT (see the man page for iptables if you don't know how to 
> do this) to see if that makes it possible to connect to your Web server. 
> 
> Possibility three: apache is misconfigured. You write: "When I try to 
> access this webserver from my home PC ... it works fine". What URL are you 
> using to access it? Are you accessing it as  http://xyz.dyndns.org or are 
> you using the localhost interface to access it? Make sure apache knows (in 
> its config files) that it is running on the URL and interface you want 
> your friend to use to connect, and that it is configured to accept 
> connections from the outside. 
> 
> Possibility Four: Your host_access rules (/etc/hosts.allow and 
> /etc/hosts.deny) are blocking the connection. I don't *think* apache uses 
> these access lists itself when run as its own daemon (it has its own 
> access.conf file for this purpose, which you should have checked for 
> Possibiliy Three), but if you run apache through inetd, and it uses 
> tcp-wrappers (tcpd), then these access rules will apply to connection 
> attempts. 
> 
> If none of those possibilites pans out for you, the only things I can 
> think of to do are ... 
> 
> First, give us more specifics next time. Like the real URL and what "he 
> can't do it" actually looks like. What failure does the browser at the far 
> end report? At your end, does apache log the attempt to connect? Oh, and 
> who is your ISP? 
> 
> Second, try running some other service (like ssh) and see if it works. If 
> not, consider (and tell us, if you want more help) how this one fails. 
> 
> BTW, after writing all of this ... on reflection, I really like 
> Possibility One. 
> 
>  
> 
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