Topic: site is great on LAN, but not on internet

[knownotknow]

Ok, here's a tough one I think. I am trying to set up a webserver at work. I have a domain that I have been using as a test... www.billingscompshop.com

I can see the page just fine on any computer on the network, but none outside of the network. We use a router on a cable connection, but i have demilitarized the computer running apache, have set the router's DHCP outside of the range the webserver is on and manually assigned an IP on the computer running apache to one that the router is capable of serving. I've done much more than this as you can imagine, as it seems that the router may be the cause of my troubles.

I have also contacted our ISP, and they do not block access to port 80. AND... apache is listening on port 80 as well as 8000.

Any ideas? Thanks.

am running:
apache2.2.2
no sql or php....yet
WIN2K sp4

errors=
server reset while page was loading (firefox)
cannot connect to server (MSIE6)

(errors are from the machine trying to access the server from internet)

[Aftek]

I had the same problem some time ago...

You need to first make sure port 80 isnt used anywhere else on
your network,

Then, even if you have DHCP router, you need to make sure
you have a fixed IP in your network
(well it simply would work without dhcp too,
but if you have a lot of computers on network,
you'll have to configure each computer ip one by one...
just to get yours fixed... without a lot of computer i
guess this isnt a real problem )

And finally, the router must have 'port forwarding' options...
(maybe some other name for a different brand... im using netgear)

I wasnt able to do this until i get this netgear router,
before that i was using an smc and it wasnt giving
any options to redirect port, or even get a fixed ip
with router still in dhcp.

the netgear router offers me to 'reserve an ip adress' to a
specific mac adress. so my computer is always 192.168.0.2
(in my case)

then under 'port forwarding' i only need to set up a specific port,
or a range of port to be redirected to me (at 192.168.0.2)

i do not know of any other way, though i know some 'old' routers
won't allow you to do such things...

i hope it helps

[knownotknow]

Ok, I fixed it today. It was a small, newbie error, but I figured it out and decided I should post it here for others in my boat.

I was using the IP of the machine, set to static in the router on my network. This wasn't working because there are millions of routers out there using the same few IP's to serve, while the Router's presence on the internet uses an IP served by the connection provider.

So...
1) Set the DNS on your webhost/parking to point to your connections IP,

2)set your apache machine with a static IP from your DHCP server (router),

3)set apache to listen to your connections IP and on port 80 and,

4)set your router to allow access from outside on the static IP of your apache machine on port 80


If apache listens to the IP assigned by router to itself, then the website will only be available on the network where the apache server is located. If you and i both have routers that serve IP's in the same range, and have our DNS pointing to our apache machines IP, and you go to MY website, it will take you to your own, lol. So there you have it. Newbie error that is easy to overlook. I really hope this helps someone else.

[groundzero2010]

Seems like a lot of people are having problems with routers and apache.

I'm having this same problem where I can access the server locally (from computers on my router), but not from the internet (I'm having a friend type in my ip in a browser which isn't bringing up my website)

Here is currently what I'm running:
Software:
Windows XP Media Center
Apache 2.2.3
PHP 5.1.6
MySQL 5.0.24
Norton Internet Security

Hardware:
Belkin Wireless Router - F5D7230-4

---------------------------------------------

Currently to access my apache web I have to type in my local ip my router assigns my computer that has the apache server on it (192.168.2.3) This is from local computers on my network. All seems well doing this.

If I type in my web address (splaudio.net) which is forwarded to my connection ip (the ip address my internet service provider gives me) from a local computer on my network, it takes me to my router config page.

If someone outside my lan tries connecting to www.splaudio.net nothing appears.

I've done the following tasks from earlier in this thread...

[knownotknow]

Not sure if you have apache up now, or if your site is on another host, but I just followed your URL and I see it just fine. I had the same error with Listen xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 and things are working just fine with Listen set to plain old "80".

What router are you using (brand and model number)? As I understand it, some are toughr than others. I had to set up a virtual server on my router to serve web requests to my apache's ip as well as allow access. I even went as far as Demilitarizing my apache machine so the firewall didn't touch it. Later found out that was unnecessary. Hope that helps.

[Jorge]

If your router is setup to pordforward port 80... an d it doesn't work... try by uninstalling (yes uninstalling- norton, it seems to be the bad guy in a lot of cases

[knownotknow]

[JimEKessler]