[Server-devel] trouble accessing HTTP server when using manual network configuration

[Jerry Vonau]

On Mon, 2012-10-15 at 20:37 -0500, David Kanenwisher wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm trying to get the 0.7 of the school server to work on a laptop
> that needs to be taken to different schools which already have an
> existing network. I don't want to run the network setup tool since I'm
> concerned enabling DHCP and DNS will cause trouble on the school's
> network. Sadly, though not running the setup seems to have made the
> HTTP server unreachable and I'm stumped as to why.
> 
> I set the hostname of the server to the IP address assigned to the
> server by the router via DHCP and configured Apache to listen on all
> interfaces. When I run netstat I can see Apache is listening on all
> interfaces on port 80, as configured. I can use wget on the server to
> retrieve the webpage at localhost, 127.0.0.1 and the IP address given
> by DHCP. When I try to wget or telnet to the server from another PC I
> get a message that the host is unreachable even though, using tcpdump,
> I can see packets arriving on the server. Also, I can ssh to the
> server from another PC.
> 
> I feel like I'm missing something obvious and was reluctant for quite
> a while to message the list. I figured I must be close! The solution
> just around the corner, but I realize now that I'm stumped.
> 
> Any help would be much appreciated or if you need anymore info I'd be
> glad to get it.
> 

Some DNS server on the school's network will have to resolve
"schoolserver" for the clients. To fix this without relying on an
outside server that is not under "our" control I think the clients
should use nss-mdns to locate the "schoolserver" in the future. In the
here and now you will have to contact the DNS server's admins and ask
them to make an entry in the DNS for your schoolserver. Hope nothing
else is already called schoolserver.

Jerry

> Thanks,
> 
> David Kanenwisher
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