Apache Server not accessible from outside.

I would like to set up a web server on my PC. So that I can have
access to my computer whatever my location.
I do not want the computer open for public access and my WindowsXP
firewall is in place with the HTTP and FTP ports left open.

I have successfully configured Apache Web Server, and can view the
webpages when I type http://localhost:8080
However, I cannot access these pages web pages when I type
http://myipaddress, and neither can anybody else.

I asked a friend of mine to ping my IP address and it timed out.
But I get a response if I ping myself.

I've been told by a friend of mine that this is because my IP address
actually belongs to my cable modem, and I will need to configure this
to open the right ports.

Is this true?

If not, can someone tell me what I need to do to access my machine
from outside.

For what it's worth, my ISP is Telewest (Blueyonder) Broadband.

Thanks in advance,

Elle

Elle Brent wrote:
> I would like to set up a web server on my PC. So that I can have
> access to my computer whatever my location.
> I do not want the computer open for public access and my WindowsXP
> firewall is in place with the HTTP and FTP ports left open.

OK. HTTP is normally port 80.

> I have successfully configured Apache Web Server, and can view the
> webpages when I type http://localhost:8080

Are you sure port 8080 is open to the outside in your firewall?
Is Apache listening on all interfaces or just localhost?

> However, I cannot access these pages web pages when I type
> http://myipaddress, and neither can anybody else.

Where's the :8080? No specified port number implies that
http is on port 80. Is Apache listening on 80 or 8080?

> I asked a friend of mine to ping my IP address and it timed out.
> But I get a response if I ping myself.

Ping is yet another port that might also be closed to the outside
by your firewall. That's because ping is popular with hackers
for denial of service attacks and for finding target machines.
Enabling it briefly for testing is OK. I wouldn't leave it enabled
all the time though.

> I've been told by a friend of mine that this is because my IP address
> actually belongs to my cable modem, and I will need to configure this
> to open the right ports.

I don't think that's correct. If you have a router in between
then it might have your DHCP IP address given to you by your
ISP. If you don't have a router then your computer will have
the DHCP IP address from your ISP.

> If not, can someone tell me what I need to do to access my machine
> from outside.
>
> For what it's worth, my ISP is Telewest (Blueyonder) Broadband.

One other possibility that I can think of is that your ISP is
blocking incoming 80/8080 connections to you. Some ISP's don't
like people to set up servers on their home machines without
paying extra money.

--Bill Davidson

Bill Davidson wrote:

> Ping is yet another port that might also be closed to the outside
> by your firewall.

Actually, the Windows ping utility uses ICMP, which is not a "porty"
protocol.

Thor

--
http://www.anta.net/

Thor Kottelin wrote:
> Actually, the Windows ping utility uses ICMP, which is not a "porty"
> protocol.

I misspoke. Wrong terminology but the point still stands. Most
firewalls can (and should) stop ICMP. Better yet, stop them from
a router if you have one.

--Bill Davidson

On 3 Jul 2004 14:05:46 -0700, lbrent22@yahoo.com (Elle Brent) wrote:
>I would like to set up a web server on my PC. So that I can have
>access to my computer whatever my location.
>I do not want the computer open for public access and my WindowsXP
>firewall is in place with the HTTP and FTP ports left open.
>
>I have successfully configured Apache Web Server, and can view the
>webpages when I type http://localhost:8080
>However, I cannot access these pages web pages when I type
>http://myipaddress, and neither can anybody else.
>

I'm guessing the confusion is arising between port 8080 and port 80.
By default, Apache listens on port 80, not port 8080. However, it
looks like you've configured it on port 8080 and so any access from
the "outside world" will need the port specified too:
http://82.43.188.125:8080/

>
>I've been told by a friend of mine that this is because my IP address
>actually belongs to my cable modem, and I will need to configure this
>to open the right ports.
>
>Is this true?
>

I believe Telewest's cable modems bridge at the Ethernet level rather
than routing at the IP level. In practice this means that anything
directed at your IP address is talking to whatever you've got plugged
into the cable modem, not to the cable modem itself.

However, if you have some kind of extra router or firewall device
plugged into your modem it will be recieving the packets directed at
your public IP address. Unless you have your PC connected to the cable
modem directly you will need to arrange for whatever *is* connected to
your cable modem to forward the packets back to your PC. How you do
that depends on what exactly you've got plugged in there.

As a side note, you should probably be aware that Telewest operate
scanning software which probes customer PCs looking for public web
servers which are disallowed by their terms of service. If you wish to
run this server in the long term, Telewest requires you to configure
the server to require a username and password. It's been a while since
I read the terms and conditions, though, so I advise you to read them
yourself and decide how they affect you.

Take care,
-Claire

Thank you so much everyone for all your help.

I have tried reconfiguring Apache onto port 80 which I know is open on
the firewall, but still nothing.

I have a feeling, Telewest is blocking acess to port 80 and will be
speaking to them to find out exactly what their terms of use are
regarding setting up web servers.

Claire Tucker <fake@invalid.com> wrote in message news:<fi0he0dsf9k4sf23ohgdv1153hh3aasq0j@4ax.com>. ..
> On 3 Jul 2004 14:05:46 -0700, lbrent22@yahoo.com (Elle Brent) wrote:
> >I would like to set up a web server on my PC. So that I can have
> >access to my computer whatever my location.
> >I do not want the computer open for public access and my WindowsXP
> >firewall is in place with the HTTP and FTP ports left open.
> >
> >I have successfully configured Apache Web Server, and can view the
> >webpages when I type http://localhost:8080
> >However, I cannot access these pages web pages when I type
> >http://myipaddress, and neither can anybody else.
> >
>
> I'm guessing the confusion is arising between port 8080 and port 80.
> By default, Apache listens on port 80, not port 8080. However, it
> looks like you've configured it on port 8080 and so any access from
> the "outside world" will need the port specified too:
> http://82.43.188.125:8080/
>
> >
> >I've been told by a friend of mine that this is because my IP address
> >actually belongs to my cable modem, and I will need to configure this
> >to open the right ports.
> >
> >Is this true?
> >
>
> I believe Telewest's cable modems bridge at the Ethernet level rather
> than routing at the IP level. In practice this means that anything
> directed at your IP address is talking to whatever you've got plugged
> into the cable modem, not to the cable modem itself.
>
> However, if you have some kind of extra router or firewall device
> plugged into your modem it will be recieving the packets directed at
> your public IP address. Unless you have your PC connected to the cable
> modem directly you will need to arrange for whatever *is* connected to
> your cable modem to forward the packets back to your PC. How you do
> that depends on what exactly you've got plugged in there.
>
> As a side note, you should probably be aware that Telewest operate
> scanning software which probes customer PCs looking for public web
> servers which are disallowed by their terms of service. If you wish to
> run this server in the long term, Telewest requires you to configure
> the server to require a username and password. It's been a while since
> I read the terms and conditions, though, so I advise you to read them
> yourself and decide how they affect you.
>
> Take care,
> -Claire

Finally.
I figured out exactly what the problem was.
It had nothing to do with Telewest though.

In my apache config file,
I had
Listen 127.0.0.1:8080
#Listen 80

I didn't realise that I needed the second "Listen 80" line,
but when I took the comments out it worked perfectly.

Thanks so much everybody.

Since it's listening on port 80 I an no longer sure why I needed to
specify ":8080" as in 127.0.0.1:8080 as opposed to just 127.0.0.1
though.

Can someone explain this please?

On 6 Jul 2004 14:05:31 -0700, lbrent22@yahoo.com (Elle Brent) wrote:

>
>In my apache config file,
>I had
>Listen 127.0.0.1:8080
>#Listen 80
>
[snip!]
>
>Since it's listening on port 80 I an no longer sure why I needed to
>specify ":8080" as in 127.0.0.1:8080 as opposed to just 127.0.0.1
>though.
>
>Can someone explain this please?

Before you were only listening on port 8080, and you had the loopback
interface (127.0.0.1) specified so the server was only available by
local loopback.

Now that you've got Listen 80 in there it should bind to port 80 on
*all* interfaces (loopback and Internet-facing, plus your local area
network if you have one) so you shouldn't need the first Listen
directive for port 8080 anymore unless there's some reason why you
can't use port 80 on 127.0.0.1.

Take care,
-Claire