Newbie Web setup problem

connection refused

[jeff3]

I'm trying to setup a Web server at home and having difficulties reaching it from the outside. I always get connection refused.

Here's my setup,
-Apache listening on port 8123 (default & vhost)
-Host assigned a static ip address relative to router
-dynamic public ip address
-router ip addresses: 192.168.x.x & 207.x.x.x
-router virtual server opened port 8123

On this side of the router, using a different box on the same network, I can browse to the static ip address 192.168.x.x.

When I tried to browse from the outside using 207.x.x.x, I always get a connection refused error.

'nslookup' confirms the server address matches that shown on the router admin page.

What I have tried so far: turned off firewall at the host, turned off firewall at the router, put the host on DMZ, tried different ports for Apache to boot from, all failed to rectify the problem.

I used windump to watch network traffic on port 8123. When browsing from this side of router, I can see packets S, ack, P & F passing thru. But when I browsed using the public address, I see nothing at all.

I even turned off the host and tried browse to it using the public address. I expected time-out but I still see connection refused. It seems something up-streaming is actively refusing the connection.

What am I doing wrong? It does not look like it is a router problem but I cannot be certain, being a newbie. Is this a ISP problem? ISP told me they blocked the common ports such as 80, 25, 110 etc. Could they possibly be blocking all other ports as well? How do I find out?

[tolachi]

My experience is that the answer to connection refused is often found in your apache error logs. Have you looked in them yet? What do they say?

[jeff3]

Yes, I looked at the apache logs as well. Nothing shown up.

[jeff3]

Just a note, when I browse to a non-standard port such as 8123, I always explicitly add ":8123" to the ip address or domain name.

ISP is blocking 80 but that's another problem for another day.

[mack]

Are you able to ping the ip address on that port?

Mack.

[jeff3]

I tried telnet to the host and port but the connection still failed.

I tried to isolate the problem by plugging the ADSL cable straight into the host. DHCP enabled the host so it gets a new public IP address. Registered the new public IP address with my DNS server and waited. Lo'n behold, it works using mysite.com:xx! So the problem seems to be with the router. It is an old timer SMC7004VBR. Any idea of what the problem might be? I did open the port on the router and power cycle it. What else did I not have done?

[mack]

You might want to try upgrading the router firmware, if it's available.

Sometimes router problems are difficult to locate. I had a problem with one of my routers, ended up restoring it to factory defaults and setting it up from scratch. low'n behold problem gone.

Definatly does sound router related.

Mack.

[jeff3]

Kudos to SMC technical support. They sent me a firmware upgrade in one business day. That fixes the problem. Now I can really get onto designing my first web site!