About a month ago, I bought a web server and set it up, ever since then I have been working on my website. Yesterday I called my friend to see what his opinion was on the web site I created, but he could not connect to my web server, I can access it through my Local area network without a problem. I have purchased a domain name & have all the DNS setting set up. I cannot figure out why I can't connect to it if I am not on my own LAN.

Server information:
listening Port: 6000
Server service: Apache 2.2.3

Any advice would be appreciated!

This is my first time posting here, so if I did something wrong, please let me know!

1.) Have you ever been able to view your website from outside of your home network?
2.) Is the Apache web server setup to listen to standard port 80 requests?
3.) Have you forwarded all outside requests from your router (or switch) to the internal ip address of the server?
4.) Are you running DHCP?
4 a.) Has the lease for the local ip address expired & a new one was assigned?
5.) Has the lease on your external (routable) ip address expired & a new one was assigned?
6.) Can you resolve the ip (& verify it is the correct ip) from outside of your network?
7.) restart the Apache service.

[edit]I just noticed that you are listening on the non-standard port 6000, are you forwarding port 80 requests to that port?[/edit]

This post has been edited by no2pencil: 21 Jan, 2008 - 04:26 PM

No, I have never been able to view it outside of my LAN

Apache is set up to listen to port 6000 requests

Yes

I don't think that I am running DHCP, I don't know what that is

No


How can I do that?

I have

Yes, I am useing "ZoneEdit's" "WebForward"


Thank You

The standard port for requesting websites is port 80. You absolutly must listen for this port on your outside (resolvable) ip address. When someone makes a request for a website, it resolves the domain name to the ip address. Once the viewer has that ip address it'll make a request to port 80, of that ip address. That is your cable modem/dsl modem, or whatever device that you have that connects your network to the rest of the world. That device is handing those port 80 requests to your internal network device that shares that external traffic device. This is probably a router or a switch. From there the port 80 address needs to be told which internal ip address to send the port 80 request. You need to forward the port 80 requests to your web server.

From there, if you insist on having Apache listen on port 6000, you'll need to forward all port 80 requests to port 6000. This will need to be done on the actual server. You'll need to look up how to forward ports for which-ever OS is running on this server.

I hope this helps, post if you have any more problems.

Ok, I changed the Listening port to 80, I can view it in my LAN, but I don't have a way to test it outside of my Network, I can give you the link to the server if somebody will try it for me.

Thanks!

Post your external ip address (the one given to you by your isp).

Do you have the router forwarding port 80 requests to the ip address of the server?

external ip: 192.168.1.3

Yes, port 80 requests are set up to be forwarded to the server

Thank you

192.168.1.3 is not an external ip, that is an internal non-routable ip address. Meaning, it only exists on your lan. What someone will need to view your site is the ip address that is assigned to your cable modem/dsl modem or whatever device that connects your lan with to the internet.

For example :


There are 3 non-routable ip address ranges.

For more information on non-routable ip address Wiki <--

Answer the other part... Did you forward the ports from your router to your server.

Also; does your ISP allow web hosting?

ARG! This is how I always screw myself. I forget the easiest & simplest of solutions/questions.

Thank You! I did not know that was the wrong ip address! (I'm new to this)

the external ip is: 68.63.133.5


Thank you!

Congrats!

Just keep in mind that your isp can (& will) change your ip address. There are a few ways to work with this, but it's easiest to either pay to have a static ip address, or to buy commercial service.

Or you can use a service that will adjust your changing ip address. It'll run on your server & notify the dns provider that the ip has changed, & they'll up date on their end.

I forget whom all offers these services, but I know that it has been posted here numerous times before, & I'm sure that someone else can fill them in again. A quick Google search should turn up a bunch of web sites that offer this service.

This post has been edited by no2pencil: 21 Jan, 2008 - 05:47 PM