Continuing to have issues with this damn server!

[Silman]

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Hey guys,

I hate submitting more threads for this damned issue but i just cant seem to get my home server resolving to the domain name i purchased. Although my home public IP is dynamic it hasn't changed in the week i have been in my new place (im subleasing a summer apartment). I just don't know how to set up the server to get my domain name silmanserver.com to connect to my server and send out the right HTML document!

I would really appreciate if someone could guide me through getting this damn thing up and running once and for all! I even bought 12 credits at zone edit to solve the dynamic IP issue and it doesnt work. I think it has something to do with the server or maybe my ports, i think port 80 is closed even though i set it to forward to my server on the routers network.

Please help! I am so desperate to get this server running! I have been wanting to learn server administration stuff for a while now. I want to use this for a web server, but i also want to learn to set up File servers as well!

[Lazydog]

You can check open ports with Shields Up. If this shows the port is anything but open then I would believe that the ISP is blocking home accounts from setting up servers on their network which would require you to buy a business connection or change the port that you use for the web server. You could always contact them and ask first.

Buying a business account will cost you more money.
Changing the port could cost you customers.

A way around this would be to buy a proxy service on the internet that could redirect traffic which is sent to your web server to the port you have changed the service to.

[mactruck]

Has it ever worked? What web service are you using? Apache2?

[Silman]

You can check open ports with Shields Up. If this shows the port is anything but open then I would believe that the ISP is blocking home accounts from setting up servers on their network which would require you to buy a business connection or change the port that you use for the web server. You could always contact them and ask first.

Buying a business account will cost you more money.
Changing the port could cost you customers.

A way around this would be to buy a proxy service on the internet that could redirect traffic which is sent to your web server to the port you have changed the service to.

Shields up says port 80 is "stealth" so i am not sure what that means...

Has it ever worked? What web service are you using? Apache2?

No it hasn't. I am using Apache2. I used this guide to set it up, but been fiddling around with it since it has seemed to been resolving correctly.

just as a note, i do have an index.html file that i made in mar /www/html folder on my CentOS box. Thanks for the replies guys!

[elija]

stealth means that not only is the port closed, it's so thoroughly closed that the scanner doesn't even know if the computer is there. Which is very good unless you want to let something through...

Make sure that port 80 is open on your firewall and if it is, contact your provider.

[Silman]

I went into my routers settings and now it is told to forward port 80 of both TCP&UDP traffic to 192.168.2.14 which is the servers local IP address. Now I have a question about port forwarding. Does that setting mean whenever traffic comes in on port 80 that it automatically gets routed to 192.168.2.14? And do i have to be on that specific computer when i run the shields up checker?

I guess i'm not 100% sure what port forwarding does, i always knew it made some part of the computer more visible but i still have questions. here is a screenshot of my routers page. (I also have 192.168.2.1 on the DMZ list, if that makes a difference, i heard it was important).

Thanks for your reply.

EDIT: After port forwarding my port 80 to 192.168.2.14 i checked shields up and it says port 80 is closed. I am going to try 8080 now... brb
EDIT: Both 8080 and 8090 are closed after port forwarding them.... This is stating to get aggravating,

[Lazydog]

I went into my routers settings and now it is told to forward port 80 of both TCP&UDP traffic to 192.168.2.14 which is the servers local IP address. Now I have a question about port forwarding. Does that setting mean whenever traffic comes in on port 80 that it automatically gets routed to 192.168.2.14?

Yes all traffic for port 80 should be forwarded to your internal server.

And do i have to be on that specific computer when i run the shields up checker?

You just have to be on any system that is behind that router, i.e., you could do this from your desktop as long as it is behind the router along with your server. You router will redirect the traffic for port 80 to the server and your server should respond.

I guess i'm not 100% sure what port forwarding does

It redirects the traffic for the port to the system you have decided the traffic needs to go to.

EDIT: After port forwarding my port 80 to 192.168.2.14 i checked shields up and it says port 80 is closed. I am going to try 8080 now... brb
EDIT: Both 8080 and 8090 are closed after port forwarding them.... This is stating to get aggravating,

No your ISP is most likely blocking these ports to stop users who are not paying for a business account from setting up a server on their network.

[elija]

I recall having the impression that you were plugged in to another network (back when you were setting the server up) and if that is the case the packets may not be reaching your network as the ports may be closed on that network. Have a word with the administrator of that network to see if anything can be done. I think I can visualise the expression on his face and I really hope he's not a BOFH!

[Silman]

I recall having the impression that you were plugged in to another network (back when you were setting the server up) and if that is the case the packets may not be reaching your network as the ports may be closed on that network. Have a word with the administrator of that network to see if anything can be done. I think I can visualise the expression on his face and I really hope he's not a BOFH!

I was on my schools network, now i am moved out of the dorms and am not. But i still have a dynamic IP (i assume).

Zone edit replied suggesting i do this:

'To get around the port 80 block placed by the ISP, try the following:

* Sign up with ZoneEdit.

*Make your web server listen on port number like "6000" or "5000"

*Check to see if your web server works in a browser by using a URL: http://3.4.5.6:6000/. Use the port number that you're listening on and the real IP address of your machine.

* Add the "IP Address" for your web server in ZoneEdit: "ww2.domainname.com" points to "ip address".

* Add a Web Forward entry for your domain called "www.domainname.com" that points to http://ww2.domainname:6000/

* We recommend turning cloaking off in this case, letting people know they are going to http://ww2.domainname.com:6000 is usually OK, and it allows the browser to perform better.'

But i dont exactly know how to make my webserver listen on port 6000....

EDIT: I may have bigger problems than a blocked port, trying to connect to http://localhost yields a result that it cannot connect to the server at localhost, i think apache might not even be running. Damn this "perfect server" guide! It didn't teach me anything about the server, it only held my hand through installing stuff and not tell me what it is! Can anyone help test if the server processes are even running? I feel like i should just reinstall and install server stuff from scratch.

[elija]

Tto check if apache is running on red hat based distros use the following command

 ps aux | grep httpd

and you should see some output. If apache is not running use the command

service httpd start

to kick it off. To make sure apache starts when you boot up use

chkconfig httpd on

To change the port apache listens on will probably mean editing the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file and modifying the port in there. I can't remember how Centos does it so it may be in one of the files in /etc/httpd/conf.d and in both cases you will need to restart apache.

The perfect server guides are really recipies for what the author does, if you want understanding then there is a lot of extra reading coming your way with quite a lot of time spent trying things out and breaking them.