Issues accessing Moodle from external IP

Issues accessing Moodle from external IP

by Victoria K -
Number of replies: 2

Hello,

I have moodle version 3.3 installed on a Linux red hat server. Using my local IP and the permissions settings mentioned for dedicated server in this article https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Security_recommendations, I am able to use the application successfully. 

Although when I go to try and access the moodle using my external ip address I am not able to access the folder. It does not pop up a permission error, it really just times out. I originally started with permission 755 for the moodle directory, with apache being the owner and group. I have also tried setting root as owner with apache as group with permissions 750. Both of these settings work off my local ip, but time out externally. 

My index page works externally, and I also set up a test folder with a test index.php & index.html with the exact same permissions as my moodle folder, and it displays just fine. 

I'm kind of beating my head against the wall with this one; I'm not sure if it's a Moodle issue, network or if there's something incorrectly set up on my server. Any advice that can be given or more ideas to try would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Victoria K

Re: Issues accessing Moodle from external IP

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Initial Moodle installs best done with fully qualified domain names (FQDN) from the get go - IMHO.   Sounds like initial installation done with private IP first and now attempting to access from outside and inside.

Got a FQDN for the server?

What's in config.php?  IP or FQDN?

Server might have a firewall that is allowing only certain blocks of IP addresses to access.

Config of web service itself could also come into play.

When you are testing access to the server by outside IP are in actually on a computer that's inside the LAN/WAN?   If so your traffic is looping the networks boundary firewall ... traffic initiated from inside a private net hits gateway for outside internet and then has to re-enter the private network.   Some boundary firewalls might see that is 'funny business'.

Check web service error and access and error logs.

'spirit of sharing', Ken


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Issues accessing Moodle from external IP

by Victoria K -

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the advice. The FQDN is still being set up, but I was able to access the site externally after modifying the IP in the config.php. After reading through some other posts here on the forum I know that this isn't a permanent solution and plan to swap the wwwroot over to the FQDN once it's set up. 

Thanks for you help, you were able to point me in the right direction on this one. Much appreciated! smile

Average of ratings: -