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Reply to topic   Topic: Empty pages with No-IP domain name
Author
jdbukowski



Joined: 30 Jan 2023
Posts: 2
Location: USA, Philadelphia

PostPosted: Sat 04 Feb '23 6:16    Post subject: Empty pages with No-IP domain name Reply with quote

I haven't posted this in Networking because No-IP says it's a configuration error on my part.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to troubleshoot the following problem.

Setup: Apache v.2.4.54 on Raspberry Pi 2+ running Raspbian "bullseye" (latest version) in my home LAN. Domain name from No-IP.com.

Problem:
I am in the process of setting up my apache server but it mostly fails to serve HTTP requests when using a domain name.
I think I have a basic configuration problem, but I have not been able to solve it. The problem may be related to the port configuration required to get around blocked ISP ports. I am using No-IP.com for a domain name, and I am forwarding port 80 to 8080 for my No-IP DNS configuration, and listening to 8080 in apache.
The apache DocumentRoot uses the default of /var/www/html. That directory contains the apache sample page index.html and a test page testpage.html.

My problem is that a request for a page using my IP works, but using the domain name fails, except for the root.
From my home LAN or from the internet I get the same results:
http://24.xx.xx.xx:8080/index.html # succeeds
http://24.xx.xx.xx:8080/testpage.html # succeeds
http://example.ddns.net # serves index.html, shows 24.xx.xx.xx:8080 in address bar
http://example.ddns.net/index.html # serves empty page
http://example.ddns.net/testpage.html # serves empty page

My ISP blocks incoming ports 80 and 443, so I have configured apache's ports.conf to also listen on ports 8080 and 8443:
Code:
Listen 80
Listen 8080

<IfModule ssl_module>
        Listen 443
        Listen 8443 https
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_gnutls.c>
        Listen 443
        Listen 8443 https
</IfModule>

I also added *:8080 to the default VirtualHost declaration in /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf.
My router is configured to use a static LAN IP (192.168.0.xx) for the Pi, and to forward ports 8080 and 8443 to that IP.

No-IP setup:
My ISP uses dynamic IP for my home line, so I have made an account on No-IP with a host name (example.ddns.net, not the real name) and I am running their DUC software on a Windows machine to periodically update No-IP with my router's dynamic IP (24.xx.xx.xx). My ISP is not using CG-NAT.
Because my apache webserver is listening to HTTP on port 8080 I have configured the No-IP account to use port 80 redirect to 8080.

Additional information:

I don't know if the failures are due to a configuration issue in apache or a problem with No-IP. Looking at the access.log, I think I sometimes see a 408 timeout associated with the empty pages, so maybe the request is being dropped by the client for some reason.

In case it was necessary, I made a Virtual Host .conf file (example.ddns.net.conf) and enabled it:
Code:
<VirtualHost *:80 *:8080>
  ServerName example.ddns.net
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html
</VirtualHost>

However, from the testing so far I don't think apache is even receiving the host name in a HOST header, so I don't think this helps anything.
The apache error.log noted that it couldn't determine the server's FQDN from 127.0.0.1, so I made a local .conf file and enabled it, with the entry
Code:
ServerName example.ddns.net:80
ServerName example.ddns.net:8080
but this didn't help and pages still are empty.

I consulted No-IP and they believe the problem is on my end. I don't know enough on how to diagnose the problem so I would appreciate any suggestions for troubleshooting.
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James Blond
Moderator


Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 7288
Location: Germany, Next to Hamburg

PostPosted: Tue 07 Feb '23 11:12    Post subject: Reply with quote

Once you add a VirtualHost the "default host" from httpd.conf no longer works. You have to add a default VirtualHost as a catch-all host.

example:
Code:

<VirtualHost _default_:80>
# ...
</VirtualHost>


You can check your host config via httpd -S

Code:

C:\Apache24\bin\httpd -S
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jdbukowski



Joined: 30 Jan 2023
Posts: 2
Location: USA, Philadelphia

PostPosted: Thu 16 Feb '23 5:28    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for the help.

I ran 'apachectl -S' and it provided the following output:
Code:
VirtualHost configuration:
*:8080                 is a NameVirtualHost
         default server example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 8080 namevhost example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 8080 namevhost example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.ddns.net.conf:1)
*:80                   is a NameVirtualHost
         default server example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 80 namevhost example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 80 namevhost example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.ddns.net.conf:1)
ServerRoot: "/etc/apache2"
Main DocumentRoot: "/var/www/html"
Main ErrorLog: "/var/log/apache2/error.log"
Mutex watchdog-callback: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-stapling-refresh: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-stapling: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-cache: using_defaults
Mutex default: dir="/var/run/apache2/" mechanism=default
PidFile: "/var/run/apache2/apache2.pid"
Define: DUMP_VHOSTS
Define: DUMP_RUN_CFG
User: name="www-data" id=33 not_used
Group: name="www-data" id=33 not_used

With No-IP I believe that requests to the webserver are arriving with the IP in the HOST: header instead of the domain name, and I suspected the presence of the FQDN in every virtual server was a problem, so I then rolled back the change I had made to add the servername.conf file (to define the FQDN). apache2ctl -S then gives:
Code:
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
VirtualHost configuration:
*:8080                 is a NameVirtualHost
         default server 127.0.1.1 (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 8080 namevhost 127.0.1.1 (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 8080 namevhost example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.ddns.net.conf:1)
*:80                   is a NameVirtualHost
         default server 127.0.1.1 (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 80 namevhost 127.0.1.1 (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
         port 80 namevhost example.ddns.net (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.ddns.net.conf:1)
ServerRoot: "/etc/apache2"
Main DocumentRoot: "/var/www/html"
Main ErrorLog: "/var/log/apache2/error.log"
Mutex watchdog-callback: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-stapling-refresh: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-stapling: using_defaults
Mutex ssl-cache: using_defaults
Mutex default: dir="/var/run/apache2/" mechanism=default
PidFile: "/var/run/apache2/apache2.pid"
Define: DUMP_VHOSTS
Define: DUMP_RUN_CFG
User: name="www-data" id=33 not_used
Group: name="www-data" id=33 not_used

The requests using the domain name then worked (with No-IP redirecting them to the WAN IP of 24.*.*.*).
Reading up on apache configuration, the documentation seems to suggest that the first virtual host I defined should work as default since it has a wildcard IP. So I reenabled the servername.conf file and the server still works. I'm not sure why requests failed before, but I think everything is ok now.

Thanks again for your help!
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