Could not reach node.js from outside

Question

I searched everywhere for the answer to this question, but I was out of luck.

I installed node.js on my server. I created a standard Hello World example, for example:

var http = require('http'); http.createServer(function (request, response) { response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'}); response.end('Hello World\n'); }).listen(8080, "0.0.0.0"); console.log('Server running at http://0.0.0.0:8080/'); 

After running the script on the server:

 node app.js 

I can connect to port 808 and see the Hello World message, but when I try to connect to port 8080, my server externally receives the error "I can not connect to the server." I also tried this in my listening function:

 etc.. }).listen(8080, "204.xxx.xxx.xxx"); 

(with my real external IP address) and no luck.

I tried to accept connections on 8080 by adding this to iptables:

 iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8080 -j ACCEPT 

but still hit the wall. When I run netstat, I get:

 tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:8080 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN - tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN - tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN - tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:443 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN - tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN - 

which, it seems to me, tells me that port 8080 is listening for connections.

So - what am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

You are most likely behind Network Address Translation (NAT).

If you use a regular home Internet connection and you have a gateway router, you can use several devices using a home Internet connection (connected via Ethernet or Wi-Fi), no?

But you only have one IP address.

To do this, the router allows you to connect out , but does not allow you to start any connections from the outside (simplification for relevance - read if you need more information).

You will need to look at the port forwarding setting - you want the external port 8080 to forward your computer the internal IP address.