Linux 7.3 Webserver

[impakt]

Ok, i have Linux 7.3 running off my linksys router. I have port forwarding for 80 on the router. The problem is that certain people cannot access it from the web. I've had people behind massive firewalls access it as well as people off AOL. The problem has to be on my end because the LED's flash from the request. Every file and directory leading up to /var/www/html is wide open for anyone to do anything with. I checked the error log for apache and i'm not too sure what the syntax means but it looks as though it trys to access something that resides their own system. There are too many people that can't access for it to be something that would matter. Like i said it has to be on my end because there are also a lot of people that have no problem. The pages are pretty much basic html, no dynamic pages whatsoever. Its fairly important that i get this up and running so if anyone has any insight it would be greatly appreciated.

[HighOrbit]

Is it possible that you might have iptables running on the linux box which filters out certain addresses?

[impakt]

Nope, iptables was running but the problem is still not resolved after i stop it.
Originally posted by HighOrbit
Is it possible that you might have iptables running on the linux box which filters out certain addresses?

[HighOrbit]

When you say "certain people cannot access it ", what exactly do you mean? Are they getting a 404 not found, or a 403 forbidden, or a "can not find server/DNS error"?

Depending on the error type, the problem could be how your httpd.conf file is setup. There are several directives that can be applied either server-wide or to a specific directory that could cause the server to refuse to serve pages to certain addresses.

[Hayl]

Originally posted by impakt
Ok, i have Linux 7.3 running

just to clarify, the lastest "stable" linux kernel is 2.4.20 therefore linux 2.4.20 is the latest version. there is no such thing as linux 7.3. i assume you have Red Hat 7.3?

[impakt]

The people that can't access can't access get the "can not find server/DNS error." I've tried finding documentation on how to modify it but nothing is very helpful. If you could tell what has to be changed and how to compile it that would be very much appreciated. Thanx a lot.

My bad, ya, i'm referring to red hat 7.3.

[HighOrbit]

I'm thinking that maybe the problem is at thier end, and here is why. You said that a lot people could get your page just fine but some can't. So that means your machine is serving up pages and that your connection is fine. You also said that shutting down your firewall did not fix the problem, so that rules out that your machine is filtering out tcp connections based on addresses. If apache itself was denying access based on its own configuration, it would typically give a 403 forbidden page or show as a refused connection. Since the people who can't get the page get a "can not find server/DNS error", they simply are not connecting at all. This same error would show up also if your firewall was dropping the connection or if you ISP was blocking port 80, but you already ruled that out. So I am going to guess that perhaps they are mis-typing the URL/IP address.

That is all that I can think of, but maybe someone else can think of something else. Anybody?

[impakt]

I really appreciate all ur help. I really do. This is turning out to be more of a headache than its worth. They can't be typing the URL wrong tho cuz i give 2 people the same like and you know the deal, 1 works & 1 doesn't. It may sound stupid but they're request is definately getting here because the LED's on my hardware flash from their hit. So IDK, i'm starting the whole thing over from scratch and crossing my fingers. I'm gonna bring 1 of my friends puters to my network to see if he can access it there. I figure if he can access than that rules out hardware. If anyone has any suggestions i figure i can never have too much information.

Originally posted by HighOrbit
I'm thinking that maybe the problem is at thier end, and here is why. You said that a lot people could get your page just fine but some can't. So that means your machine is serving up pages and that your connection is fine. You also said that shutting down your firewall did not fix the problem, so that rules out that your machine is filtering out tcp connections based on addresses. If apache itself was denying access based on its own configuration, it would typically give a 403 forbidden page or show as a refused connection. Since the people who can't get the page get a "can not find server/DNS error", they simply are not connecting at all. This same error would show up also if your firewall was dropping the connection or if you ISP was blocking port 80, but you already ruled that out. So I am going to guess that perhaps they are mis-typing the URL/IP address.

That is all that I can think of, but maybe someone else can think of something else. Anybody?

[impakt]

Yep, incase any one still cares i ruled out browser compatibility because i brought one of the computers that couldn't access it over to my network and it didn't have a problem. Is there any way it could just be that the computer is stupid? I formatted and reinstalled the entire OS from scratch but its still the same people that can't get to it.