HomeDoor 2.0 User's Guide
Troubleshooting
This chapter covers some common questions about problems with HomeDoor.
Troubleshooting: Browser-Independent Redirection
As a general troubleshooting hint, many problems with browser-independent
redirection are due to incorrect configuration of domain names. To rule
out DNS problems, try accessing your virtual servers using hard-coded addresses
(URLs of the form http://10.0.0.1). If hard-coded addresses work correctly,
the problem is with domain name configuration. Consult with your network
administrator.
When accessed through a browser, the home page for the entire Web server
is being displayed, not the home page for the particular virtual server
desired.
- The domain name system entry for the URLs involved may be pointing
to the actual Web server rather than to addresses managed by HomeDoor.
If browser-independent redirection is to be used, each DNS entry must point
to an address managed by HomeDoor.
The "location" of the home pages managed by HomeDoor, as displayed
in the browser, begins with the "real" server's domain name, not
the home page's.
I implemented the above workaround, but the "location" field
is still incorrect in some cases.
- The Web server itself may be changing the display through a second
redirect, giving the Web browser the real URL. Many CGIs issue redirects,
and the Web server itself might issue redirects if an error is encountered
(for instance a URL specifying a folder is missing a trailing slash). See
the URLs Not Ending With
a "/" section of the HomeDoor
Reference.
No page is displayed at all when a virtual server is accessed.
- There may not be a domain name system entry corresponding to the requested
URL. Consult with your network administrator.
- There may not be a domain name system entry corresponding to the URL
to which HomeDoor is redirecting (for instance the www2 entry used as an
alias to your "real" Web server).
- Be sure you have restarted the Macintosh on which HomeDoor is running
after you install the HomeDoor extension.
- Watch the extension icons at startup to be sure the HomeDoor extension
has actually loaded.
- Using HomeDoor Admin's Redirection Preferences, be sure redirection
is active.
- HomeDoor may not be configured to manage the address indicated by the
domain name system entry corresponding to the requested URL.
- Be sure that HomeDoor's address range is valid for the network to which
HomeDoor is connected, and that no HomeDoor address with a configured URL
conflicts with another device on that network. Ping HomeDoor at the desired
address to make sure it is accessible. Addresses ending in zero or 255
are often not valid IP addresses.
- If HomeDoor is running on a machine with more than one Ethernet port,
be sure the network is connected to the first Ethernet port HomeDoor will
find (usually the built-in Ethernet). See Multiple
Ethernet Ports in the HomeDoor
Reference.
An error message on the Web browser indicates that the desired file could
not be found.
- Check the URLs entered in the Redirection window of HomeDoor Admin
to be sure they are valid (actually try to access the entered URL from
a Web browser).
- If the requested URL contains anything other than a Web server address
(that is, if it also contains a file or directory name) be sure the associated
URL in the Redirection window of HomeDoor Admin specifies a directory name
(that is, be sure it ends with a slash). Be sure the requested file actually
exists in the correct directory on the actual Web server.
- Look at the log on your Web server to see the name of the page that
is actually being accessed.
A home page can be accessed from your local network, but is not accessible
through the Internet.
- Be sure that the domain associated with this home page has been officially
registered, as indicated in Registering
Domain Names appendix. Additionally, it may take up to a week after
registration (and DNS configuration) for the domain to be accessible throughout
the Internet.
After moving the HomeDoor extension to another Mac, home pages no longer
come up.
- TCP/IP protocols often cache the mapping between physical machines
and IP addresses. Devices on your network (such as your router or other
Macs) may be remembering the physical address of the Mac that the extension
was running on previously. Either reboot all your devices or wait for a
few hours before trying again.
When accessing a virtual server, the browser goes into a "redirection
loop," continuously looking up and then trying to contact the same
host.
- You have probably configured HomeDoor in such a way so as to cause
the loop. For a particular HomeDoor address in HomeDoor Admin's Redirection
window, you have entered a URL which points back to that HomeDoor address,
or to another HomeDoor address (which in turn points back to the original).
HomeDoor's redirection addresses should always point to "real"
Web servers. In particular, if you are redirecting to an alias to your
"real" Web server (for instance one of the www2 form), be sure
the DNS is configured to have that alias point to the "real"
Web server and not back to a HomeDoor address.
The HomeDoor extension will not load at start up, displaying a red "X"
through the HomeDoor icon.
- Check the HomeDoor log to determine more details about the problem.
- There may be no Ethernet port in the Mac.
- An error may have occurred trying to open the Ethernet driver. Perhaps
the Ethernet is either unterminated or not connected at all.
- Be sure neither Open Transport versions prior to 1.1 nor the Apple
IP Gateway are installed on the machine.
- Be sure there is no extension accessing TCP/IP services before the
HomeDoor extension loads.
- You may be using an expired copy of the HomeDoor extension. Beta and
evaluation versions of the extension are set up to expire after a certain
date.
- Your HomeDoor extension file may be corrupted. Try replacing it, either
with a backup or with the original as distributed (you may then need to
reconfigure redirection).
No HomeDoor icon is displayed at start up.
- Be sure the HomeDoor extension is in the extensions folder in the system
folder, and that it has not been disabled through use of the Extensions
Manager control panel.
- If you are using host field mapping and have not installed the extension,
no icon will be displayed at startup.
Only the first few addresses configured into HomeDoor seem to work correctly.
- You are probably using an evaluation version of HomeDoor, which only
supports two virtual servers through redirection, or a bundled or Lite
version of HomeDoor which also supports only a limited number of virtual
servers. Contact Open Door Networks to obtain a fully functional version.
TCP/IP services do not seem to work on the Macintosh on which the HomeDoor
extension is running.
- Check the Mac's TCP/IP address using the MacTCP or TCP/IP control panel,
and, if that address is within the range assigned to HomeDoor, be sure
that there is no entry in the URL field associated with it.
TCP/IP services do not work on another device on the network whose IP
address is within HomeDoor's range.
- Be sure that there is no entry in the HomeDoor URL field associated
with the IP address for that device. HomeDoor takes over all addresses
within its range for which URLs have been entered.
HomeDoor Admin claims HomeDoor is not in the extensions folder.
- If you have renamed the HomeDoor extension or disabled it with the
extension manager, HomeDoor Admin will not be able to find it.
HomeDoor's status could not be set to "Active" in HomeDoor
Admin's Redirection Preferences dialog.
- HomeDoor did not load at startup.
- An old version of HomeDoor loaded at startup. Check the version number
of the HomeDoor extension in the extensions folder in your system folder.
The version must be at least 1.2.
- The HomeDoor extension has been moved from the extension folder.
HomeDoor's logging could not be set to "On" in HomeDoor Admin's
Redirection Preferences dialog.
- HomeDoor did not load at startup.
- An old version of HomeDoor loaded at startup.
- The log file could not be opened or created, possibly due to another
application having the log file open or the startup disk being full.
- The HomeDoor extension has been moved from the extension folder.
The HomeDoor log file cannot be read by another application.
- The application probably can not read the log file because the HomeDoor
extension has it opened. Temporarily disable logging using HomeDoor Admin's
Redirection Preferences dialog, read and then close the log file, and then
re-enable logging.
A change made with HomeDoor Admin has not taken effect
- Be sure you hit the "Save" button in HomeDoor Admin's Redirection
window.
Troubleshooting: Host Field Mapping
Some accesses to the "real" server through new browsers don't
work
- The "host not found in host list" error option might be set
to return an error page, and an alias to the "real" server (or
the "real" server's IP address) might not be in the list.
- Another plug-in could be interfering with HomeDoor. To verify this,
disable other plug-ins and see if the problem persists.
Some accesses to the "real" server through old browsers don't
work
- If you have specified that unsupported-browser errors be mapped to
a special error page, you need to also check the "for home pages only"
option in order for accesses to your "real" server (and virtual
servers) to work. See the Error
Configuration section of HomeDoor
Admin.
A virtual Web server is not working at all
- Be sure the domain name is registered with InterNIC, and the actual
server name is correctly set up in the DNS.
- Be sure the "pathname to insert" (in HomeDoor Admin) for
that server is correct.
- Check the "real" server's log for errors.
- Another plug-in could be interfering with HomeDoor. To verify this,
disable other plug-ins and see if the problem persists.
No virtual Web servers are working
- Be sure the plug-in is in the plug-ins folder.
- Be sure the plug-in loaded successfully.
- The surest way to do this is to stop and restart WebSTAR and watch
for errors.
- You could also look back through the server's log for errors.
Another plug-in that used to work has stopped working.
- The HomeDoor plug-in could be interfering with the other plug-in. To
verify this, quit WebSTAR, remove the HomeDoor plug-in from the plug-ins
folder and restart WebSTAR. If the other plug-in starts working correctly,
there is interaction between HomeDoor and the other plug-in. To try to
sort out the exact problem, keep in mind what happens when WebSTAR gets
a request:
- WebSTAR passes the request to all filter plug-ins, in an indeterminate
order
- WebSTAR processes the request
- WebSTAR passes the request to non-filter plug-ins.
A change made with HomeDoor Admin has not taken effect
- Be sure you hit the "Save" button in HomeDoor Admin's Host
Field Mapping window.
- Be sure you have waited at least 10 seconds.
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