[SOLVED] Configure Web Server Networking

[oranisme]

Hello all,

I am somewhat new to Linux, and only slightly familiar with networking. I am tasked with setting up a LAMP server. At present, Debian Squeeze is installed along with Apache2, MySQL and PHP5. The component that I am currently configuring, and is the topic of this post, is the web server. I have been successful at configuring Apache2 (successfully brought up html page in browser with loopback address), but cannot reach the server from another computer. How do I configure to reach server from the world wide web?

I have a static IP address (66.180.110.114). The server is not behind a firewall or on a local network. I have checked a number of howtos and forums, and it appears that much of the configuration is completed in the /etc/network/interfaces, /etc/hosts, and /etc/resolv.conf. Most of the tutorials direct me to list the 'address' field in resolv.conf as a 192.168.x.x address. Because I am not already part of a LAN, I am not sure what I should choose as this address. Also not sure about what to use for netmask and gateway. Could someone please assist me in determining what information I should put in each of the applicable configuration files?

Also, I started with a tutorial that had me installing Bind9. I stopped this service because I was getting the hint that this is not necessary for me. Could I receive a little guidance on this, too?

Thanks. I appreciate your responses.

[oranisme]

Also, I get the following errors when restarting interfaces:

# /etc/init.d/networking restart
Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not enable again some interfaces ... (warning).
Reconfiguring network interfaces...done.

[oranisme]

Additionally, a reverse DNS does not resolve, but forward appears ok:

# host w.leppertassociates.com
w.leppertassociates.com has address 66.180.110.114

# host 66.180.110.114
Host 114.110.180.66.in-addr.arpa. not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

(ww left out of www for sake of being able to post issue)

[oranisme]

I can now reach my site on the local computer through both the local host and the external IP address and FQDN (fixed the subnet mask), but still cannot reach the computer externally. I'm not sure what to put for the network in resolv.conf.

/etc/resolv.conf

# cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth1
#NetworkManager#iface eth1 inet dhcp
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 66.180.110.114
# gateway
netmask 255.255.255.128
network 66.180.110.128
broadcast 66.180.110.255

[oranisme]

Please help. Was hoping to figure this out today. Sorry to sound impatient, as I know that it has only been 6 hours, but I've got a guy in the field that flies back tomorrow and I need to figure this out before he flies home.

Thanks to all who respond. Let me know what additional info I can post for you.

[oranisme]

Please let me know if I can provide any additional information.

[kabars_edge]

I assume you got it figured out since it's working fine from here.

[oranisme]

Thanks for your response. I have just learned that it does work , but not from within the LAN at my work . The server is not on the LAN, and it can be reached from outside the LAN just fine. It just can't be reached from behind our office router. We previously had a server set up with a different installation (Fedora), using the same IPs, and it worked fine. Any ideas?

[kabars_edge]

Have you tried running a traceroute to it? Sounds like a networking issue to me, possibly a NAT issue, or an issue with DNS. Traceroute to the IP and find out where it's losing the path, then troubleshoot from there. I have quite a bit of networking experience, so if you need some help, let me know.

[oranisme]

When using trace route from a computer on the LAN to the web server (using DOS, tracert), I see that it gets stuck on the first "hop" (terminology right?), the router. It never returns a hop for any other gateways. A trace route to google.com completes successfully. I am perplexed because it worked fine last week with the previous server, which was configured with what I thought was the same basic networking setup.

Thanks for your help. If I become reasonably familiar with Linux and networking, I hope to be able to help others out, too.