Server not serving pages

[Rida Alhasan]

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Hi,
A couple of days ago I installed the Alpha Five Web Application Server v11 (WAS11), configured it for port 8080, activated my license and set it up with a dynamic DNS Provider (www.No-IP.com). I then executed my application from a browser, calling the domain provided by No-IP. The WAS11 served the requested web pages perfectly. But the next day and today, I have not been able to make it work. As far as I know, I have not changed any setting in the router, firewall or WAS11.

To see if my router and my firewall allowed the request to come in, I tested with an "open port check tool", http://www.canyouseeme.org/. canyouseeme.org/ says it can see my service (the WAS11 service) at the specified IP address and port. Anyway, I have checked and re-checked my router and firewall settings to see if anything was amiss. All seems well.

In case it was a problem with No-IP, I have also tried typing directly in the navigation bar my IP address and port (http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/index.a5w). After a while, the connection just times out.

If I try to access locally, WAS11 serves the pages without a problem. It is as if the WAS11 didn't want to serve pages when the request comes from the Internet.

I have no clue on how to fix this. Any suggestion will be appreciated.


Best regards,
Felix
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[cptutrecht]

Re: Server not serving pages

A long shot. Do you perhaps have an vpn connection active at the box where the Was resides which wasn't active when the Was was serving pages. I encounter that some vpn connections block the acces to the computer and some don't. Never figured out why :-)

[GGandhi]

Re: Server not serving pages

hello

another long shot
is port forwarding to the computer that houses the was done properly and is functioning still.

[Clipper87]

Re: Server not serving pages

are you sure that you have put an exception in your firewall for the WAS executable ?

[Rida Alhasan]

Re: Server not serving pages

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Thank you all for your suggestions.

Ger,
I do not use VPNs nor have any knowledge on how to set up one.


Gowindan,
I guess port forwarding is OK since the WAS11 service in my PC can be "seen" from the Internet by http://www.canyouseeme.org/ .


Frank,
I have told my firewall and my router to allow requests from the Internet to access my WAS11 service. I suppose that to verify it works, http://www.canyouseeme.org/ is enough (or maybe not ... ?). I've checked and re-checked both firewall and router to see that everything is OK.


Another piece of information: when I verify with http://www.canyouseeme.org/ that my service is "visible" from the Internet, an event is logged in my firewall and also an event is logged in my router. When I call my application by typing in the browser's navigation bar my dynamic IP plus port 8080 (i.e. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/index.a5w) nothing gets logged, neither in the firewall nor in the router.


Best regards,
Felix
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[2ninerniner2]

Re: Server not serving pages

Felix -

I am no "expert" on these sorts of issues, but basic "Troubleshooting 101" would indicate an issue with your dynamic DNS provider.

- it was working perfectly when you initially set it up, therefore all items mentioned here are a non-issue
- then it quit functioning without any intervention by yourself; the only "auto-intervention" would be by your dynamic DNS provider as, if I am not mistaken, that is their function; to update a dynamic IP so that it appears "static" to the "outside"

This is where I would be concentrating my efforts. Additionally, how can you call your dynamic IP (assuming you have determined it's current value) when you are running a service like no-ip? Again, I am not up on these sorts of things, but it does seem this is where the issue lies.

Cheers!
Lyle

[GGandhi]

Re: Server not serving pages

hello

another look at this:
first eliminate dynamic DNS provider. don't just settle for canyouseeme.org findings.
save all the files republish all the files and data.
check from your computer and browser type in the address in the browser bar with :8080 and see if it works. if it does alpha five is working
then from another computer do the same, if works well then port forwarding and firewall are okay. if not then port forwarding and/or firewall needs to be fixed.
then from the other computer reach your WAS using DNS service - if that does not work then you know where lies the problem

[Rida Alhasan]

Server ALREADY serving pages!!!

. My server is now serving pages, but the forum editor does not allow me to format my reply which is a bit long so I'll just send it as soon as the editor allows me. Regards, Felix .

[Rida Alhasan]

Server SERVING pages!!!

Lyle,
I also suspected the dynamic DNS provider to be the guilty party since they had an outage ... with the mail service. Anyway after extensive testing/fooling around, I got it working again: the problem was in my router. It is a relatively old model (six years is just old or qualifies for prehistoric?). This router is the entry point to a LAN with several PCs and is in charge of distributing packets coming from the Internet to the corresponding PC, which I guess is a rather usual setup. However, for reasons unknown to me, it seemed unable to send requests from the Internet to the Alpha Five Server in my PC.

Among the myriad options in my router was Assign the public IP address of a connection to a device. I gave it a try and assigned the public IP to the PC that has the Alpha Five Server and the problem was fixed! (After assigning the public IP to the PC with the server I had to execute ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew in a command prompt).

Since I am not knowlegeable in networks, one thing that threw/throws me out of track was that using www.canyouseeme.org the service was visible from the Internet, but when requesting the index.html page, the request would time out with the page not being served. I still ignore the reason. When requesting the index.html page from inside the LAN, it was served. So I started suspecting the router.

Answering your question: How can you call your dynamic IP (assuming you have determined it's current value) when you are running a service like no-ip? Well, what I do is not use the service = bypass No-IP.com: I open a tab in my browser and type in the navigation bar my IP (since it is dynamic I first have to find out what it is: there are several websites that provide you with it, or alternatively, look in the router) plus the port. For example, say my IP is 101.102.103.104 and the port is 8080. I have to type 101.102.103.104:8080/index.html .


Gowindan,
What I did was quite similar to what you suggested. Thank you for the ideas.


A little apology: I had stated that the first day it worked and the next day it didn't, with me changing nothing. So, as Lyle pointed out, then the obvious "baddy" seemed to be No-IP. But I forgot to mention that the first day the router misbehaved and I had to reset it to factory defaults and then reconfigure the router. Since I reconfigured (I think) the router with the same values it had previously, I did not even mention the event. In fact, I even forgot about it. My only - lame - excuse was that plenty of other things happened that day ... "selective memory".




Thank you all for the time and effort of your assistance.
Best regards,
Felix
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[madtowng]

Re: Server not serving pages

Felix,

It appears that you have a dynamic public ip address.
Dynamic IP address make it possible for most people to get onto the internet.
When they log off, that IP address becomes available for someone else to use.

With that said, this is the reason most companies pay for a static ip address, or
use a service such as no-ip.com.

Typically, you would use some kind of domain name (www.felixservices.com).
Lets assume that www.felixservices.com has a dynamic address of 101.102.103.104 .
You (and your users) can access your application by going to www.felixservices.com.
This works fine, until your ISP changes your dynamic address to 101.102.103.110.

Now people trying to get to www.felixservices.com will not get the page they expect.
If you use a service such as no-ip.com, it monitors your dynamic address, and updates
the internet to let everyone know your address has changed to 101.102.103.110. This may
take several minutes, but is likely to be more efficient that you trying to do it on your own.

[Rida Alhasan]

Server SERVING pages !!!

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Hi Gregg,
Yes, I do have a dynamic IP address. And yes, your explanation is 100% correct. That's why I'm using No-IP.com, so that users from the web can type the same address (say) www.felixservices.com and reach my site even when the ISP changes my IP address from (say) 101.102.103.104 to 105.106.107.108.

Regards,
Felix
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