Topic: Web not visible - - please help!!

[C. Bryant]

I just installed e-smith 5.0 and upgraded to Blade 3. I have to use DHCP to connect it to the internet since I can't get a static IP, but I also plan to use DynDNS.org to point my domain name to it when I get around to registering it.

Right now, when I give out my IP address, no one can get to it. I looked at the configureation page on the e-smith page, and it told me my IP (xxx.xxx.24.25), but when i visit a page that tells me my IP, it's different (xxx.xxx.25.105).

I can see my web page using that second ip address, but only me on my network, no one outside my network can see the web page. when I try and look at the web page using the IP address I get from the e-smith admin page, Netscape can't find that host.

Can some one help me please?

tia!!!

[Tyrone C. Miles]

When you you are using DHCP from your ISP your e-smith server will not tell you what the IP is that you get from them. Sounds like the IP you are seeing is the internal IP.. If you can get to the web from a PC behind your server (Or inside your local network) Go to tracert.com and and click the traceroute button on the left to get your IP.. You should see the IP on the top left of the page in a box. And you can then run a trace (If you like) To make sure that comes back to you.

[C. Bryant]

Thanks Tyrone, I tried that, and that site showed my the same IP address that I see using 'ifconfig'

I can ping and do tracerts to my external ip address, but that's the only thing that works. When I'm on a different network, like at school, I can run ping from the command prompt and get successful results. But I put the IP address in Netscape, and it says page not found. I even tried to ftp into my server using the IP address (I opened ftp to external, btw), but it said it couldn't find the host.

Do I have to do something special to make e-smith serve pages for that IP address? It seems like (I'm just guessing) that when some one tries to view a web page at http://xxx.xxx.25.105 (my external ip address according to tracert.com), the e-smith server doesn't know that means this server, since the e-smith configureation page says the external ip address is xxx.xxx.24.25, and that ip address doesn't work, since it's "really" xxx.xxx.24.105

Any body have an idea how to fix this problem?

tia!!!

[Tyrone C. Miles]

Check that you didn't set your server to: Use as private server and gateway. In the configuration setup. If you did that it blocks traffice to FTP and to webpages.

[C. Bryant]

Thanks, but that didn't help either. It was set up as apublic server.

But it makes me wonder about that whole external ip address thing. Is there a way to make e-smith accept anything? The reason I ask is maybe it's only denying ftp and web requests because it expects them to address the bogus ip address, and not the real ip address (the one that tracert.com and ifconfig reports to me is my ip address)

Maybe if e-smith is incorrect about its own ip address, it will show me the wrong ip address in the e-smith web admin panel, and it will also refuse any thing that isn't addressed to that bogus ip address.

[Tyrone C. Miles]

What kind of connection are you using? Also maybe if I had the IP of your server (You could e-mail directly to me) I could see what's going on from the outside. I have a tool called Hydra that is good at scanning to see what services are doing what.

Also if you are using DHCP to get your IP from your ISP then you should not see any IP address in your config tool for your external network card. If you do then something is for sure configured wrong.

But I have used every version since 4 came out and I have never had a problem setting up a site etc.

[Quade]

You know, I've been having the exact same problem as C. Bryant.

I've been able to find a short-term solution, but it's really, really inelegant, and you probably won't like this for a number of reasons. But....

Boot up and obtain an IP address via DHCP, and jot down the gateway. Then, reconfigure e-smith to use a static IP and use the IP and gateway addresses that were assigned to you initially.

Here's what's going on: When my server boots up, it starts up the network services daemon, starts a few other things, then starts the dhcp daemon. Somewhere in there (init 7) the e-smith server is attempting to negotiate an IP from my ISP's DHCP server--for some reason, my server uses a temporary internal network IP (192.168.65.17, in my case -- don't ask me where this comes from), THEN receives a routable IP address by the time the DHCP daemon is initialized.

So, what happens is all the host and conf files (httpd.conf, hosts.conf, etc...) are written with the incorrect IP address. Therefore, my server (web, FTP, ssh) will not respond to any requests addressed to my domain name or external IP (except for ping, which DOES work).

Once I boot with the "static" IP address, the config files are written properly.

The only thing I worry about is since I've stopped requesting IP addresses from my ISP's DHCP server, I may loose the lease on my IP address, and have to restart every few days or weeks.

One possible solution is to change the init order in /etc/rc.d/rc7.d so that dhcpd starts sooner, or network starts later, or whatever writes the conf files starts much later. But I need to do more research on this before I do. I'll report back here once I know something.

[C. Bryant]

OMG--that worked. I can't believe it.

Thanks QUade. Let me know when you find a permanant solution for this.

[Tony De Keizer]

Hi,

I noticed this thread on the forum and I thought I would provide some insights I found when I experienced the same problems after upgrading from 4.1.2 to 5.1.2.  

My E-smith box is connected via Telstra cable which, on boot up, requests a DHCP address from the Nortel cable modem. The connection requires you to stipulate sending the Ethernet mac address as an identifier to the DHCP server and for many moons I have received the same static IP (obviosuly linked to the mac address).  On booting up 5.1.2 for the first time I noticed the normally static IP address had changed and was now x.x.x.254.  At the same time I also noticed I could no longer receive smtp mail or link to the http server.  It was obvious that the external IP being used was incorrect (yet still within the range of the ISP).

On investigation (digging around in /sbin/ifup - specificaly around the DHCPCD server stuff) I noticed that the DHCPCD command being issued was sending -h and -I switch and therfore it was sending the user name rather than mac address as an identifier.  I then checked the /home/e-smith/configuration file and found that ExternalDHCP entry to be set to On rather then dh as it was in 4.1.2.  I again ran the admin utility, selected DHCP using ethernet address and again this entry was set to On.  The result being the DHCP request fails due to the invalid identifier and, by some means, you receive a default DHCP address from the cable modem.  

I have rectified the issue by editing the configuration file manually and changing the on to dh.  This works.  Someone in development will need to modify the admin program to make sure it saves the correct settings.

I hope this all makes some sense.  

Regards
Tony De Keizer