Forum OpenACS Q&A: Accessing my page/server

Posted by James Bennin on 08/21/03 03:07 PM

I have installed my OpenACS 4.6.3. on Red Hat Linux 8.0. I have been doing some work and development on it. Now it is time for me to present this project to the rest of my coworkers. The box where I have OpenACS installed is part of the work network, but for some reason, people cannot access my page. What do I need to do?

2: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 1)

Posted by Joel Aufrecht on 08/21/03 03:24 PM

How exactly do people fail? Here are some debugging tools:

Can their computers access the server at all? Test with "ping".

Are their browser requests reaching the server? Test by checking the access log on the server. For example, you can tail the access log (tail -f /web/service0/log/access.log), look at the last line, then go make a request from another computer, then look at the last line again. If it didn't change, they aren't reaching the server.

Is there a firewall in the way? Is there a firewall on the server that blocks remote access?

3: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 2)

Posted by James Bennin on 08/21/03 03:49 PM

First of all, thank you for your prompt response. My boss tried the ping command and it's working, but he can still not access my server/page. He types the address "myservername:8000/" in the browser and he cannot reach the server even. As for the access.log file, I dont even have one under the specified folder. All I have is myservice.log and error.log. I hope the information I provided for you was helpful. So where do I go from here?

Thank you

4: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 2)

Posted by James Bennin on 08/21/03 04:30 PM

Ok, in the config file under "/web/servcice0/etc/config.tcl" there are three parameters that could resolve the problem I am having. These are the parameters:

set hostname
set server
set servername

Now the question is, when people on the network are trying to access my server/page, what is the address they are going to browse to? I know it is something like
"http://*****:8000/" right? But what goes in the "******", is it the hostname, the server or the servername?

Thank you

5: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 4)

Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 08/21/03 04:59 PM

the ***** is your hostname or the IP Address of your computer. So if you have an IP Adress of 192.168.1.43 you will have them access your server at http://192.168.1.43:8000. Safest method, unless you know your hostname and that name is known through the company as well.

To find out your ip address, use "ipconfig" on the unix shell. To find our your hostname, use "hostname" on the unix shell.

6: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 1)

Posted by Dirk Gomez on 08/21/03 05:07 PM

ipconfig is for the windows shell :)

Use ifconfig for Linux/Unix. It usually sits in /sbin/ which usually is not in your PATH. So you may have to call it by invoking /sbin/ifconfig.

7: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 5)

Posted by James Bennin on 08/21/03 05:39 PM

I really do appreciate the help and the insights. I have tried both of the commands (ifconfig not ipconfig) and the values that came up for hostname and ifconfig are the exact same one I have set-up in the config file. And I have been trying, from different computers on the network to access the server, and still have not seen any success. Any other suggestions?

8: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 1)

Posted by Andrew Piskorski on 08/22/03 09:17 AM

Do you have firewall running on your local box? Perhaps Red Hat 8.0 comes with one installed - I bet it does. If so, either just turn your firewall off, or configure it to allow incoming to the port you have AOLserver listening on, port 8000 in your case.

There are lots of old posts about firewalls and stuff, try searching in the Forums. In fact yes, this thread from June says Red Hat 8.0 uses a firewall called "lokkit", so that's probably your problem.

9: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 8)

Posted by James Bennin on 08/22/03 06:56 PM

Thank you for your insight. You were right, I did have a firewall on this box. I read the thread you send me and figured out my problem. People on this network can now access my server/page. Nevertheless there is still a problem, they can only access it with my ip number (such http://10.134100.9:3000) in instead of http://myservername:8000" What is the problem now?

10: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 1)

Posted by C. R. Oldham on 08/22/03 07:05 PM

You have a DNS issue and need to talk to your DNS administrator. 10.134.100.9 does not have a name-to-ip mapping in the DNS.

11: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 10)

Posted by James Bennin on 08/22/03 07:07 PM

That IP, I made it up for example purposes

12: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 1)

Posted by Jade Rubick on 08/22/03 08:06 PM

James, do you have DNS set up?

13: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 12)

Posted by James Bennin on 08/22/03 08:30 PM

I dont think I do. How do I go about setting up a DNS?

14: Re: Accessing my page/server (response to 13)

Posted by Jade Rubick on 08/22/03 11:51 PM

You'll need to contact your ISP, or a DNS provider. You'll also need to register a domain name, like mysuperduperwebsite.com