Geeklog Forums

Computer's name is eMac.local. In config.php site_url is set as such. And mySQL hosted on localhost. right. Okay. This allows me to login on my server machine by browsing to http://eMac.local.

I want to login from both sides of the firewall/router I'm using for an always-on connection to the internet. I do not have a domain name associated with my ISP provided IP address. I do not want to go public with my IP address. But I do want to access my GL from other computers networked on both sides of my router.

When I use my IP address (provided by ISP, assigned to my router) for site_url I can't login to GL, even when that number is used in the browser. The home page is served, however. When I use eMac.local, I'm out of luck on other machines on the intranet side of my router (things don't work if I browse to the server's IP address and they don't seem to know who eMac.local is. Why not?).

Does any of this make sense to anyone? Have I mumbled gibberish?

Why can't I put my IP address (either one, as my router routes the one to the other) as host for MySQL and site_url? I imagine the answer lies somewhere in the bowels of *nix based OS X. Is this a virtualhosting thang? Do I need to change/add to the name of my machine in NetInfoManager? Or something? Or something else, easier, hopefully?

Apparently I'm enough of a noobieboobie to not be able to figure this out myself.

TIA for any help. Concise and complete instructions would make me giddy!

-i

oops. Maybe this should have been posted in a different forum. My apologies. Can someone move it? Or shall my blunder remain?

-i

Looks like the right place to me.

I think it hast to do with the host files. But when the Mac experts wake up, I'm sure they will answer.

Well, I'm glad to be in the right place.

I hope they don't sleep too long.

I'd like to ask a clarification question if I may. Am I correct in thinking that when Joe B. User access GL MySQL believes it is my_MySQL_user that is accessing my_MySQL_db? Regardless of who, what, where is loading my GL pages? In other words, no matter who loads my GL pages it is my_MySQL_user@localhost that is accessing the db?

Once again, TIA.

-i

".local" addresses are link-local, that is, they are valid only on a single subnet. They're part of the ZeroConf technology that Apple calls Rendezvous. Very useful for local networking but it won't work for your needs.

You will have to use some kind of externally-accessible address. Either you can register a domain name and have it pointed at your IP address, or you can use a service like DynDNS if you don't have a static IP address, or you can just use the raw address (which is hardly private since any host that needs to talk to your computer has to be able to look it up!)

Yes, thank you. That's what I've been discovering.




Right. I guess I didn't mean keep private my address. More I meant it's not something I'm going to advertise expecting many visitors, but I do want access from the internet side of my router.

For this reason I am more than happy to use the raw address (doesn't seem that messy to me, since I have it in my brain). However, when I set up config.php with site_url = my_ip_address my GL site doesn't seem to work, can't login. Is my_ip_address used, in any way, to identify/access my_MySQL_db?

Thanks for your reply.

-i

hmm.. okay- ya im not totally sure if i got exactly what youre saying..

do you mean when you say you "enter your IP address" are you saying your "192.xxx.xx.xx" address or your "outside address" if youre using your router address to try to access your site... youre sort of in the right direction....

im not sure if im totally right.. but i think what you wanna do is use port fowarding if your router supports it.
you do this by finding out what your INTERNAL ip address is.. ie 192.xx.xx.xxx. and port foward that address using TCP.. I THINK - i just woke up so if im not even makin sense sorry.

what that does is so that when a user from the internet accesses your site.. (your EXTERNAL IP ) then a user will be directed to YOUR computer, making your site visable on the outside world

once you have alraedy port fowarded... its time to find out what your external IP is. go to www.whatsmyipaddress.com and then go to dyndns.org to register for a dynamic or static name.. ( i have static). when youre setting up your preferences.. use that IP (the whatsmyipaddress.com) address when it asks you in the field. leave wildcard and mx off. pretty sure.

what this does is that instead of enterin numbers for your url.. its make it into a name.. so intead of 124.343.343.63.. it would be. yourname.dyndns.org

once this is done.. you should be able to see your site from the outside world..

when you want to see it from your network.. just enter your computers IP address if its a static one.

i think im forgettin something..
feel free to email me on this topic.. im kinda in a rush right now so i know i wasnt really detailed as much as you wanted it to be..
but then again, im not sure if this is even an answer to your question.

Daren

btw its deiri87@mac.com

Yes. I may email you but I'll respond here first then if there's time today...

I work (a lot) during the weekend so haven't been able to respond until today.

I have port forwarding on and working at my router. I can access the site from internet side *and* from intranet side using my static IP address.

The problem is that I can't seem to login (when I set GL config.php site_url to use my static IP).

My main question is in regards to the geeklog config.php file. It seems that I have three choices for the site_url setting: "localhost", "209.x.x.x" (my static ISP provided IP Address) or "192.x.x.x" (my static personal router provided intranet IP address). Maybe there's a fourth choice: "emac.local". I don't think I want to use "localhost" or "emac.local" because whatever I put in site_url seems to be the url that is prefixed to all the site navigation.

It seems like my external IP "209.x.x.x" in site_url should work. That's the address to my router, which forwards port 80 to my GL server. And indeedy it allows me to read the homepage, navigate to other of my GL pages, etc.

But I can't login.

Is this a cookie issue? A disconnect between site_url and db_host settings in config.php?

Why can't it work with my static ip number set in site_url? Does it *have to be* a domain *name*? That would seem a bit silly. Do I have to match the cookie_domain to my site_url? Why would I have to do that if I don't have to do that with "localhost" or "emac.local"?

TIA, as always.

-i

I am trying to use my static IP ("outside address"). This address is assigned to my router. My router is forwarding port 80 to my GL server which, of course, is configured with a "192.168.x.x" address.

I have put my static IP ("outside address") into site_url in config.php. Then, when I type that address into the location bar of my browser I can successfully navigate to that my GL homepage. And also to others of my GL site.

But I can't log in.

-i

Okay. New info that might mean a cookie issue? I have come over to a different computer (not the GL server machine) on my private network and have successfully logged in using a different type of browser (IE instead of Safari).

I'll have to try it again from somewhere outside my private network next chance I get. Maybe stop in at the library today. (I don't want to go to my workplace on my day off!)

I read somewhere about a website that can mirror back to me what my internal site looks like to the "outside" world. Anyone know the URL to that site? I can't remember where I read about it.

-i

To hell with it. If there's anyone with any spare time that wants to see if they can log in at my GL site they're welcome to try. I set up a Tester account so you don't have to register your own account. The password is on the homepage.

This is crazy. Must be a cookies thing. I went back to the server machine and used a different browser there. I could log in!! I deleted all the cookies in Safari and emptied the cache. Still couldn't log in with Safari. pffft. Any Mac OS X users out there know what's up with that?

Another wacky thing is that I have a guest user over at that machine, I run over here and go to the site and it says Guest Users: 1. Shouldn't it identify each machine as a guest user? Or not, because all the computers on my private network are seen as the same (i.e. they all come in with the same IP address). Okay. That must be it. Not so wacky, I guess.

onward, ho!

-i