unable to connect to Red Hat grading server through VMware bridged in windows 7

jbishop · 10-11-2011, 04:01 PM

I'm running a Lenovo Z570 intel core i5 with Windows 7. Whenever I try to connect to the Read Hat grading server, I get this message below. I can connect to the red hat website and I do have internet from inside VMware. I just can't connect to this grading server. I also opened the ssh port in windows firewall. I even temporarily disabled the firewall in the router, though I did enable the DMZ. My instructor thinks it must be the router, which is a SMC8014WG-TWC (Time Warner cable modem gateway). I'd really appreciate any help. This has been going on for too long now!!

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>500 Internal Server Error</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Internal Server Error</h1>
<p>The server encountered an internal error or
misconfiguration and was unable to complete
your request.</p>
<p>Please contact the server administrator,
ctjames@waketech.edu and inform them of the time the error occurred,
and anything you might have done that may have
caused the error.</p>
<p>More information about this error may be available
in the server error log.</p>
<hr>
<address>Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at rha-server Port 80</address>
</body></html>

paulsm4 · 10-13-2011, 01:25 AM

1. The problem almost certainly has nothing to do with whether or not you've got a "Lenovo Z570 intel core i5" or whether or not your router happens to be a "SMC8014WG-TWC (Time Warner cable modem gateway)".

2. At first blush, it might seem to be a networking problem, and turning off the firewall certainly wasn't a bad idea (at least for troubleshooting).

.... BUT ....

3. The fact that you're getting an "500 Internal Server Error" almost certainly means that your ARE connecting to the server... and the actual problem is SOFTWARE. There's a problem communicating with whatever application happens to be running on this "Red Hat Grading Server".

4. So what exactly IS this "Red Hat Grading Server"?
Are you able to connect to it under ANY circumstances, from ANY PC?
Who's running this server?
Can you contact "ctjames@waketech.edu" and ask him to check the logs for any application errors?

"500 Internal Server Error" is an extremely generic error. But you almost certainly need to troubleshoot from the server side, not your client.

jbishop · 10-13-2011, 11:27 PM

Thank you Paul for responding to my post. I have to admit that I wasn't sure whether or not I should've posted the kind of hardware and software I'm using, and I'msure it made me look like an idiot but that was my first post and I guess I wanted to be informative.

As to your 1st question, the red hat grading server is at academy.redhat.com

RHA030: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Computing Essentials
Class: NOS 120 Spring 2011

The online version is a duplicate of the paper version with the exception of the online exercises, which get graded automatically, according to the exercise and the command window in CentOS, which is hosted by VMware, which in turn is hosted by Windows 7.

The answer to your 2nd and 3rd is yes and Red Hat controls the server from school. I had class today and my instructor was able to set my laptop to reach the server from the campus grounds. She used the /sbin/ifconfig, then used that address to connect. She told me to use those commands when I got home and enter the address into my router. Does that sound like sound advice?