Help with Web Sharing (Firewall?)

P

pfhorseti

Registered
Hi,

I'm trying to make Web Sharing work via the Sharing pane.
The process is pretty simple, and I've got it working before with the same computer and cable modem. But for some reason it won't work anymore.

Perhaps it has something to do with the other cable modem that got installed in the same house recently? Maybe something to do with firewall?

I can view it locally using my IP in a browser, but when I give it to someone else he/she can't connect to it.

I haven't the slightest idea what's wrong.
Sorry for not being able to specificy problems.

Any suggestions?
 
a lot of cable ISPs do not allow web sharing. they block port 80. in this case i suggest switching apache to use 8080, or some other port. you can change the port that apache uses in /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
 
Thanks, just one thing... I couldn't find the httpd file with Sherlock. How do I access it? Do I need to use the Terminal?
I'm sort of new to the Unix stuff, so if possible, a friendly instruction would be nice :)
 
finder hides a lot of the UNIX stuff from you, which is why sherlock did not find it. so basically, yes, you have to use terminal.app

so here are step by step instructions:
1. open terminal
2. type 'sudo pico /etc/httpd/httpd.conf'
3. go to the part where is says 'Port 80'. in pico you can search to that line by typing ^W (control-w), enter 'Port 80' and then hit enter. it should jump right to that line.

4. change 80 to 8080, or some other number
5. type ^X (control-x) to quit, and when it prompts you to save, hit 'y'
6. now we have to restart the web server, to make it reread its config. it will happen if you restart your computer, but that is the old OS9 way. here is the UNIX way to restart a process:
7. type 'ps aux | grep http | grep root'
8. hopefully you will see one line return from this command, and it will be the parent web server process. the second column of the returned answer will be a number. what is the number?

9. type 'kill -HUP thatnumber'
10. we re all done! now the last thing to remember is that when you give people the link to your website, give it as mydomainname:8080, since just mydomainname defaults to port 80, which we are no longer using.

OK, so let me know if this works. if you can access your webserver from your computer or your LAN, but not from the internet, then i think this is the most likely cause.
 
OK, i am being an idiot. i completely didn t even notice that you mentioned you are behind a firewall.

so the other cause of this problem could be that your firewall doesn t know how to forward http requests to your mac. i just finished addressing that issue on another thread

this thread tells you how to forward X requests. and you want to forward http requests. otherwise the process is identical. you just have to tell your firewall to forward port 80 to the IP of your local machine.

so i think you should try this before you try changing what port apache runs on. you may have to do both. i have cable modem (cablevision optimum online), and i have to do both.
 
Thanks a lot for the friendly instructions :)
Actually all I had to do was change the pot to 8080 in the conf file.
I knew that I can use for exaple port 2000 (SnapperHead) with my IP so I presumed that meant "http forwarding" is working for me.

:)
 
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