Linux (RH 8) web config question

[critter42]

I am setting up a server to do some web development on.

It's Red Hat 8.

Everything seems okay - when I'm logged in as root, I can bring up Mozilla, go to http://localhost/, and get the Apache start page.

However, when I log in as any of my users, I get "The connection was refused when attempting to contact localhost" trying to bring up localhost.

I have swat for smbd installed, and if I go to http://localhost:901/, it asks me for the root user/pass - I enter it and it brings up swat just fine, no matter what user I'm logged in as.

Where do I find out what users are authorized to access web services?

Ours is 99.9% Windows shop - this linux box is being set up for work with a client - I'm the only one here who's had ANY experience with Linux before. Any help is greatly appreciated.

For the future (so I can post this type question to a more appropriate forum), if anyone knows of a GOOD linux newbie forum I would be more than happy to redirect these type posts there :).

critter42

[Inoshiro]

First thing to do is look in the logs to see why Apache turned those users away. You should have a more detailed error message in the error log. I think it's /var/log/apache/error.log by default.

[mnemosyne]

My So says:


Try localhost:80 instead of just localhost, or 127.0.0.1. This is just a different way to accss it....

Try looking at the access.log as well as error.log for apache. Try restarting Apache with /etc/rc.d/init.d/apache (this might not be quite right...).

Check the apache config file - I don't remember where it is in RedHat but its called httpd.conf - see if there's weird settings in there. The apache website should have documentation on the config settings.

Short of being there myself and messing around with the computer, that's all I can say. Sorry.


Sort of scattered info, but maybe some of it might help. The Apache user mailing list might be a good source for questions/FAQ or the RedHat webpages might have a forum.

Good luck!

[Bill H.]

It sounds like you're asking about non-root users logged into the linux box. and for that I don't know. (Although I'm not sure why you care about different local users accessing a web page.)

But, on the off-chance that you're really asking about non-users of this box, i.e. users on other machines, you should check the built-in firewall settings. The simplist way to do that is to type "setup" as root, choose "firewall configuration", choose "customize", and make sure "www (http)" is checked. If you want this web server to offer https as well, type in "443" in the "Other ports" line, then Ok your way out.

[critter42]

sorry for the late reply all - on vacation for a couple of days.

Actually, I was referring to non-root users logging into the machine. One of these users is going to be developing web pages on this system, and needs to be able to see the pages after she finishes them to make sure everything is displayed correctly, but I definitely don't want to give that person root access (this machine is a completely isolated machine, and there's nothing on this machine but Linux - no data yet - so there's no problem from a security standpoint, but it's just unnatural for me to give anyone root access to anything :) ).

I'll check the logs when I get back to work. I don't recall seeing anything weird there, but it's been a couple of days, so I'll check 'em again to refresh my memory.