I have a question concerning the process for an http request. I need to know the transactions between a web server and a web browser to bring the home page. I am trying to troubleshoot a problem and I have to prove to the keepers of our network that it is not my web server.
here is the problem. This is all internal and not on the Internet Web Server (WS) Running Big Brother Professional (RHEL 5, apache), SELinux disabled, no firewall rules on the server. Client PC (Firefox, MSIE, SSH) I can connect from Client to Web Server using ssh without a problem. I can connect to the Big Brother Professional Home Page via lynx by ssh'ing to the Server and firing off lynx. If I walk down to the console and log into the graphical desktop, run firfox and then I can bring up the Big Brother Professional home page. So I know the Server is accepting connections at least locally. When I try from the GUI on the Web Server I use the Fully qualified name for the link not the IP address or local host. The same thing when I do it with lynx from the ssh screen. Now if I try to do this from a client PC I get the message that MSIE is waiting for the host and then after about 20 seconds I get the Internet Explorer can't display the page. I setup iptraf to see what goes on and the minute I make the request I see a message in iptraf saying "Host unreachable" Now on the network side. These machines are on the same switch. same network but are routed to the main router for the network. That router hijacks all port 80 traffic and directs it to our web filter, well I assume that but not sure if you can hijack http traffic. I changed the listening port of the Web process to 8081 and then retested and got the same results. All of this started to happen when the network was moved from one web filter to another so I point to the last move. Not sure why a flaky nic card would deny http traffic only and allow everything else as Big Brother listens on port 1984, ssh is on 22, email works as well. So after such a long story I would like to know the actual mechanics of a web request. Like client makes a call to web server. Web server then finishes the connection. I know there are a bunch of ACKs and stuff in there but I need to see where this is broken. I am about to change the NIC card if this brings a blind alley. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post. John J. Boris, Sr. JEN-A-SyS Administrator Archdiocese of Philadelphia "Remember! That light at the end of the tunnel Just might be the headlight of an oncoming train!" _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list Tech@lists.lopsa.org https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
