Dear Linux Users,
I installed a software program called Galaxy on my server.
I started up the Galaxy server process.
When I open FIrefox on the server and type in the following into the address bar the program starts successfully.
http://<ip address>:8080
However, when I open up Firefox on my PC and type in the exact same address, i get the following error
"The connection has timed out The server at <ip address> is taking too long to respond"
I contacted the Galaxy people and they said there is nothing wrong with their software, it is a server issue.
From my PC, I can ping the server and I can access my webpage.
I'm sure it is something simple.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Which webpage? Is this running on the same server?

Alex Brinister

Yes, my webpage is on the same server as the Galaxy software and I can access the webpage from any PC.
Here is the webpage: http://shenlab.sols.unlv.edu/shenlab/

I can only run the Galaxy software when I am in the server room and logged directly onto the server.

Sounds like a firewall issue.
Can you try

I can't believe I didn't ask this earlier, but what distro are you running? Posting the output of "/etc/*release*", as chrism suggested, would help in that.

Are you running even running a firewall?

Alex Brinister

I did a "cat /etc/*release*" and below is the output

Fedora release 13 (Goddard)
Fedora release 13 (Goddard)
Fedora release 13 (Goddard)
cpe:/o:/fedoraproject:fedora:13

I did a "ls *release*" and there were 4 files
fedora-release
redhat-release
system-release
system-release-cpe


I type "sudo iptables -nvL" and below is the output (I apologize for typos, I manually typed the output)

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes)
pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination
447K 129M ACCEPT all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
44 2878 ACCEPT icmp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0
309 18540 ACCEPT all -- lo * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0
0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW tcp dpt:21
24 1292 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW tcp dpt:22
1107 61900 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW tcp dpt:80
380K 50M REJECT all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes)
pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination
0 0 REJECT all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes)
pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination

I hope this helps

Have you looked here? Your setup seems kinda similar...

Alex Brinister

I issued the following command to add an entry into the IP tables.
sudo /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8080 -j ACCEPT


Now when I issue the command "sudo iptables -nvL" the following line appears:

0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:8080

I restarted the Galaxy process and I am still getting the same errors when I try accessing Galaxy from my PC.

What happens when you disable iptables completely? Does Galaxy work?

Alex Brinister

WHOOOOT!!!!
Now we are getting somewhere.
I entered the following commands to turn off the firewall
$ sudo /etc/init.d/iptables save
$ sudo /etc/init.d/iptables stop

Then voila!!! I can access the server from my PC.

Then when I entered the following command to turn the firewall back on
$ sudo /etc/init.d/iptables start

the shirt hit the fan and I got the "Connection has timed out" error.

So how do I set the firewall to allow access to the server?

I found that here.

Alex Brinister

The firewall rules are stored in /etc/sysconfig/iptables.
You should back that up, then edit it.
The problem I think you have is that you used -A = append to the input chain, but this rule
would precede it and its REJECTing all(!) protocols.

Actually, I prefer to use the fail secure method of setting the INPUT chain Policy of DROP instead; that way any pkt not specifically matched by a rule is DROPped.

See these links http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...Using_iptables
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-...-examples.html
http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...-iptables.html

PS: F13 is well out of date; currently F17 is the go

That's a good call, chrism, especially since the command I gave him put an already existing rule into his iptables policy .

Alex Brinister

Yeah, trying to Append/Insert rules is do-able, but frankly a PITA.
Much easier/clearer to edit the real file; just need to be careful.