Connecting to Apache Web Server through a VPN

[mattevansnz]

Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
I'm remotely connecting to a VPN, the companies website is stored on the VPN also.
I can connect to the VPN and then see the files fine through SSH.

I am unable to view the website from a browser? I have a feeling it is because the VPN is stopping it?
Is there something I need to do, to view the website in the browser, from an external computer (lets say mine - seen I am off site)? If I try to connect to the internal IP (while connected to the VPN) - I get nothing.

If I was to point the domain name at this VPN, would public be able to view the site?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Noway2]

The first step would be to ensure that the port is open to the world, or at least the network that you wish to have access the website. The default website port is 80, with 443 used for secure connections. You can also try accessing the website from various intranet points, or even the server itself (via localhost and the fqnd).

Once you are sure that this port isn't fire walled, The second step would be to access the system running the web server and make sure that it is listening on port 80. Use the command "netstat" to do this, which works both under *nix and Windows.

 

[mattevansnz]

Thanks so much for your help.

I almost have it going now - so close!

One last issue. The website can be seen from outside of the network (public can view), but it I am to try view the site within the network - nothing shows?

What is the story here?

Thanks in advance - your help is much appreciated!

Matt.

 

[Noway2]

It sounds like an IP address/dns problem. Since you can see the website from outside the network, it obviously has a public IP (non private LAN range) address and is properly DNS registered. This is good.

Now, from within the network, you most likely have a LAN IP address. In order to access it internally, you will need to make sure that the server also maps to a local IP address and that the LAN DNS is capable of resolving it by the intra-net name.

This may be easy or complex depending on the physical setup. For example, I have my web server behind a router that performs NAT from the public IP address to the local one. This way the server is accessible both locally from within the network and from without. From within the network, though, I use a different name, that my LAN DNS resolves. Since the public

http://www names

do not resolve locally, they are passed through the router/gateway, and come back to it via the public IP.

Depending on the needs of the site, it may be easier to either setup a duplicate, mirrored, intranet page, either on a another server or use a router to map to a different port on the server to handle internal requests.