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boy8cookie · May 11, 2007, 10:59 PM

The company I work for has recently aquired 2 new intel xserves, to replace the one g5 xserve we previously used. I've been put in charge of creating a web data base to hold client information. The database is built with SQL and PHP. Anyway, the database works fine, locally on the server. I'm able to access it at http://localhost or, http://169.254.100.100 which is the static IP I configured for it. I've enabled the web service in Server Admin, I've added the site in the configuration portion of the web service, so it should work...however, I am unable to access the site from any other computer connected to the same network. The attempt just times out, and I can't, for the life of me, figure out why.

I'm not a server guy, I'm a web guy, but I'm quite adept at using Macs, and I'm not afraid to venture into terminal. I've been prodding around for the past 2 days, yet I can't get this to work.

Tomchu · May 12, 2007, 01:05 AM

Here are two possibilities:

1. The computers you're trying to access the site from aren't on the same network (and by the same "network" I mean that their IP addresses aren't on the same block).

2. Security/firewall settings prevent access to that particular service from a remote system.

What happens when you ping 169.254.100.100 in a Terminal window on one of the other computers? Do you get a response?

boy8cookie · May 12, 2007, 01:34 AM

They are on the same network as far as I can tell, I'm able to see them through the Finder's Network and share files that way. I'll check the firewall when I go to work tomorrow to see if I'm blocking the port... thanks.

ghporter · May 12, 2007, 07:12 AM

The "same block" of IP addresses is called a "subnet," and here's how it works. You have a setting called a "subnet mask" that probably looks like "255.255.255.0". That means that your subnet is everything that matches the first THREE parts of the IP. If it were "255.255.0.0", your subnet would have to match the first two parts.

If your local network is 169.254.100.X, then you are on the same network. Check with your other machines to make sure you haven't missed a digit or something.

boy8cookie · May 12, 2007, 04:40 PM

The firewall was the problem, but that subnet information was useful as well. Each machine (there are 6 Quad G5s, 4 MacPros, and a few dual G5s) is using two network ports. The newer machines (Quads and MacPros) have two gigabit ethernet ports built in, the older ones have an extra ethernet card installed.

Plugged into the #1 port on each machine is our companies main network, which provides internet access, the IPs are provided, and I believe they are static.

Plugged into the #2 port is our local network, which is currently being set up. The machines are connected to eachother and our xserves through a switch. When set to DHCP, the 2nd port will not aquire an IP address... so I went to each machine and manually set an IP corresponding to their position on the switch:

169.254.100.101 for the machine plugged into port 1 on the switch
169.254.100.102 for the machine plugged into port 2 on the switch etc...

After doing this for each machine, and enabling "all ports" on the firewall I was able to connect to the site I created, however a new problem arose. This probably belongs in another forum but upon restart of the server, the MySQL socket resets? and I have to change the path with the mysqladmin --socket=/path/to/socket command every time... not that big of an issue, but a perma-fix would be nice.

I really appreciate all the help.