[TriLUG] Need Mandrake Firewall help maybe? (WAS: server not working)

[sholton at mindspring.com]

So we toss this back to the list.....

Can anyone assist with a possible firewall problem on a Mandrake install?

The symptoms appear to be:
- outbound connections to other hosts seem to work okay.
- inbound connections appear to be blocked.
   - cannot ping server from remote system
   - cannot connect to httpd : local serving works correctly.

I've never worked with Mandrake. Are there any ports open by 
default, or some other way we could confirm the packets are
making it to the server?

Jason, Merle-

Are we *sure* this Mandrake server is at 192.168.0.105?
>From the Mandrake box, do:
  /sbin/ifconfig -a

Let us know what the response says. 

Also, what version of Mandrake?

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Merle Watts <elremx2 at earthlink.net>
Sent: Jun 17, 2004 1:31 PM
To: sholton at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: server not working

Hello again

Thanks for the reply


I tried http://192.168.0.105 - I get page cannot be displayed

I can put in the address of my linux laptop and I get the apache page from any of the computers on the network, including the one that Jason is trying to set up as a server

I can ping all computers on my network except the server 192.168.0.105  - from windows I get "request timed out"
I can ping other computers on the network from the server

There are 5 computers set up behind a cable router.

All are on the same network - using DHCP 


Also installed Apache for windows on an XP box and I also will work.

The problem is somewhere on the server.


-----Original Message-----
From: sholton at mindspring.com
Sent: Jun 17, 2004 10:01 AM
To: Merle Watts <elremx2 at earthlink.net>
Cc: jason watts <jsnthegod at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: server not working

Greetings, Merle-

> He has a computer with mandrake 9.2 and a fresh install. He is trying to
> set up a web and ftp server and at home that he can access from UNC
> Charlotte.

That's a well-defined project.  It should be possible, or if it isn't, it
should be simple to understand where the failure is.

> He had it working before he reinstalled mandrake.  Had the same version.

> In mozilla (on the server) he types in localhost and it brings up the
> apache page that says it works.

The location "localhost" is resolved by the computer to mean itself. This
is a good indication the http server software is running right.

> The address to the server is 192.168.0.105
> Typing this In on another computer, on the same network behind the router,
>  will not bring up the same page. It cannot find it.  Before this was all
> we had to do.

> We plugged a linux laptop into the network and typed in the address of
> the laptop and we got the apache page with no problems.

When requesting a page from a server, you need to use the form:
  http://192.168.0.105

The "http" part tells the browser to ask for the page from the web server.
The address tells it which server to go to.

If you don't cite the URL in this form, some web browsers will take what
you give it a do various things, such as treating the entry as a word to
be searched for on the web or prepending the "http://" part and trying
to resolve the host that way.

>From the "another computer", try loading the page using the URL
 http://192.168.0.105

Let me know what the result is.

> Usually it just works.  For some reason It wont this time.  The nic
> works fine.  We can get to the internet with no problems.

So the problem we're working on now could be stated:
 The "another computer" can't load a web page from the Mandrake box.

I can think of several possible scenarios which would match your
description.

ROUTE SELECTION FAILURE
  The "another computer" doesn't know how to translate 192.168.0.105 
  into a usable route. Could result from mis-matched subnet masks between
  "another computer" and the Mandrake box.

  To isolate this as a possibility, can you try using some other application
  on the "another computer" to get to the Mandrake box? Either PING or
  TELNET could be useful for this, since these are limited-complexity
  tools.

  Try to ping the Mandrake box from "another computer" and record the
  result.
  Try to ping "another computer" from the Mandrake box and record the
  result.

  The specific error messages would be helpful here. "100% packet loss"
  indicates an entirely different problem than "No route to host".

NETWORK ROUTING FAILURE
 Is there a router on the network between "another computer" and the
 Mandrake box or are these two connected to the same hub?

FIREWALL INTERACTION.
 Is it possible that a software firewall has been set up on the Mandrake
 box causing it to reject connections to web services?

> He's trying to get to to work again with out having to try a
> reinstall.

A reinstall should not be necessary; there's almost certainly a way to
get from where-we-are to where-we-want-to-be.  But it may require some
work and some learning to navigate the path.


-----Original Message-----
From: Merle Watts <elremx2 at earthlink.net>
Sent: Jun 16, 2004 8:58 PM
To: sholton at mindspring.com
Subject: server not working

Thanks for the reply

I am Jason's father .  I'll tell ya what he's doing.

He has a computer with mandrake 9.2 and a fresh install. He is trying to set up a web and ftp server and at home that he can access from UNC Charlotte. 

He had it working before he reinstalled mandrake.  Had the same version.

In mozilla (on the server) he types in localhost and it brings up the apache page that says it works.

The address to the server is 192.168.0.105
Typing this In on another computer, on the same network behind the router,  will not bring up the same page. It cannot find it.  Before this was all we had to do.

We plugged a linux laptop into the network and typed in the address of the laptop and we got the apache page with no problems.



Usually it just works.  For some reason It wont this time.  The nic works fine.  We can get to the internet with no problems.

Havent had much experience with this so we don't really know how to fix it.  It has always just worked before.

He's trying to get to to work again with out having to try a reinstall.

Hope this explains it.

Thanks










-- 
Steve Holton
sholton at mindspring.com





-- 
Steve Holton
sholton at mindspring.com