Apache accepts request from the server itself, but not from other computers

Question

I installed Apache on a Debian 13 VPS (using the usual apt-get). On previous experiences, it's an easy setup:

• Install the server: sudo apt-get install apache2:
• Start the server: sudo systemctl start apache2

Now you are ready to access your public page. On another computer, open this on web browser:

https://<your public IP>/index.html

and you'll see Apache's default page. But this time it doesn't work:

This site can’t be reached xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx took too long to respond. 

If I run this command on my VPS:

$ curl -v http://<your_public_IP> 

Then it dumps Apache's index.html.

So what's wrong?

Some relevant parts:

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf

ServerRoot "/etc/apache2" # # The accept serialization lock file MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL DISK. # #Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default # # The directory where shm and other runtime files will be stored. # DefaultRuntimeDir ${APACHE_RUN_DIR} # # PidFile: The file in which the server should record its process # identification number when it starts. # This needs to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars # PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE} # # Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out. # Timeout 300 # # KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than # one request per connection). Set to "Off" to deactivate. # KeepAlive On # # MaxKeepAliveRequests: The maximum number of requests to allow # during a persistent connection. Set to 0 to allow an unlimited amount. # We recommend you leave this number high, for maximum performance. # MaxKeepAliveRequests 100 # # KeepAliveTimeout: Number of seconds to wait for the next request from the # same client on the same connection. # KeepAliveTimeout 5 # These need to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars User ${APACHE_RUN_USER} Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP} # # HostnameLookups: Log the names of clients or just their IP addresses # e.g., www.apache.org (on) or 204.62.129.132 (off). # The default is off because it'd be overall better for the net if people # had to knowingly turn this feature on, since enabling it means that # each client request will result in AT LEAST one lookup request to the # nameserver. # HostnameLookups Off # ErrorLog: The location of the error log file. # If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost> # container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be # logged here. If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost> # container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here. # ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log # # LogLevel: Control the severity of messages logged to the error_log. # Available values: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn, # error, crit, alert, emerg. # It is also possible to configure the log level for particular modules, e.g. # "LogLevel info ssl:warn" # LogLevel warn # Include module configuration: IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.load IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.conf # Include list of ports to listen on Include ports.conf # Sets the default security model of the Apache2 HTTPD server. It does # not allow access to the root filesystem outside of /usr/share and /var/www. # The former is used by web applications packaged in Debian, # the latter may be used for local directories served by the web server. If # your system is serving content from a sub-directory in /srv you must allow # access here, or in any related virtual host. <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all denied </Directory> <Directory /usr/share> AllowOverride None Require all granted </Directory> <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted </Directory> #<Directory /srv/> # Options Indexes FollowSymLinks # AllowOverride None # Require all granted #</Directory> # AccessFileName: The name of the file to look for in each directory # for additional configuration directives. See also the AllowOverride # directive. # AccessFileName .htaccess # # The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being # viewed by Web clients. # <FilesMatch "^\.ht"> Require all denied </FilesMatch> # # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with # a CustomLog directive. # # These deviate from the Common Log Format definitions in that they use %O # (the actual bytes sent including headers) instead of %b (the size of the # requested file), because the latter makes it impossible to detect partial # requests. # # Note that the use of %{X-Forwarded-For}i instead of %h is not recommended. # Use mod_remoteip instead. # LogFormat "%v:%p %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" vhost_combined LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O" common LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent # Include of directories ignores editors' and dpkg's backup files, # see README.Debian for details. # Include generic snippets of statements IncludeOptional conf-enabled/*.conf # Include the virtual host configurations: IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf 

/etc/apache2/ports.conf

# If you just change the port or add more ports here, you will likely also # have to change the VirtualHost statement in # /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf Listen 8079 <IfModule ssl_module> Listen 443 </IfModule> <IfModule mod_gnutls.c> Listen 443 </IfModule> 

/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

<VirtualHost *:8079> # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless. # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly. #ServerName www.example.com ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/html # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn, # error, crit, alert, emerg. # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular # modules, e.g. #LogLevel info ssl:warn ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf". #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf </VirtualHost> 

Answer 1

If you implement network based access controls in the httpd itself, these don't prevent other computers from connecting - but result in an http error if the client is not permitted.

As HBrujin pointed out, your webserver APPEARS to be configured to listen on port 8079, hence if curl -v http://<your_public_IP> it is not connecting directly to your webserver - either there is some proxy in front of it or some network translation (firewall).

This is either a firewall or routing issue.

You didn't tell us anything about where the VPS is (cloud/external hosting provider? Hypervisor on your LAN? VM/Container on your local machine?). We can only make random guesses as to what is going on here. If this is on a hosted platform then its likely you may have to explicitly enable remote access in the admin interface for your hosting.