I think this is the fourth place in which I have placed a call for help, and all the answers I get are links to web pages to read. I just don't have the time to read, I'm in between a few projects and I can't dedicate the time to do much reading and I believe you can't either, so here goes my question: I need to setup a web server for our department. I installed Fedora Core 5 and chose to install the software as a server. I also included PHP and MySQL. I have already tested that PHP is running, along with Apache. I did this by creating a simple php info page and naming it index. So far so good, but now where do I go to allow all the users in my department to see the web pages? I have already configured the httpd.config file to Allow All. The computer is connected to the network and the ehternet card obtains its IP address automatically via DHCP. I used ifconfig to get the IP address from the machine, I typed the address on another machine along with the port (80) and I get the "Cannot find server" error page. I've been trying to figure this out for the past two weeks and I've very frustrated. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks!

One more piece of information, I just came to my local computer and was able to ping the IP address of the linux server successfully.

I won't hound you on this one, but you have to read to learn

Other than that, theres a couple things regarding your problem that I would like to clearify.

I am going to go under the assumption you are on the same subnet, but I have to ask, is this computer on the same subnet as the computers trying to access it ?

When you tested with the sample index.php, what did you type in the browser URL to view it ?

Is there by chance some firewall rules set that could be blocking access from other workstations. I asked this cause I know what that Fedora installation defaults to, and this is something I am suspecting.

For the sake of trying it, look at what rules are presently there by typing :
If there is results, and If you see something there that you suspect is causing the problem or if you just want to do this as part of troubleshooting, you can type :
This will flush the firewall rules on this box that were set.

And see if you can get on. If you can then there was a firewall rule blocking your access obviously.

Get back to me with the original two answers if the firewall is not the problem.

I knew I had this one coming... I am actually taking time to read the Fedora 5 Bible from Christopher Negus and a cool online networking manual that focuses on linux. Since I will be adminesting the server, there is no way I can get out of this, I just wanted to get started and load some of the web pages I have created over the last couple of months... Anyways... To view the phpinfo page I typed localhost in the web browser (I'm using Mozilla FireFox). When I type iptables -F in a terminal session nothing comes up, it goes right back to the prompt. If I type iptables -L I get the following:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
RH-Firewall-1-INPUT all -- anywhere anywhere

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
RH-Firewall-1-INPUT all -- anywhere anywhere

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain RH-Firewall-1-INPUT (2 references)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT icmp -- anywhere anywhere icmp any
ACCEPT ipv6-crypt-- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT ipv6-auth-- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT udp -- anywhere 224.0.0.251 udp dpt:mdns
ACCEPT udp -- anywhere anywhere udp dpt:ipp
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:ipp
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:ssh
REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

From the looks of it, it seems that the server is rejecting all. Am I on the right track? Thank you for responding so soon!

It worked! You are the greatest! I went back to my local machine, typed in the IP address and the phpinfo window came up! Now, since I'll be posting non-sensitive information, how can i set this up so it's the default?

sorry I think you lacked information, or I missed something, so my question to you is, what do you want to setup so that "what" is default ?

.... and judging by what your saying, is it when you flushed the iptable rules (iptables -F) that this started working ?

Exactly. I followed your instructions and I was able to view the page in another machine when I typed in the server's IP address. I think I didn't think about my last question long enough, since the tables were already flushed, I don't have to do this again unless I restart the server. I guess that before making any other questions I should read more articles and get acquainted with Linux. Well, one last question, by chance do you participate in other forums?

no I'm stricly here at LQ.org when it comes to linux based forums.