Network Utility Says Port 80 is Open But Is It

[teohyc]

I'm having some problems hosting a website on my Mac 10.5.2 via Web Sharing.

Some of my friends are able to load the page, some are unable.

I opened Network Utility and did a port scan. It said port 80 is open.

When I do a port scan with online port scanners, they said that my port 80 is closed. I've been 100% timeout on port 80 scanning. I'm able to ping my server. Ran telnet on Terminal and it was able to load but I suspect it was able because it was on LAN.

My Mac is connected directly to a cable modem with a static IP address.

What else could I have been missing?

 

[Makosuke]

Assuming your internet plan is a residential one, it's quite possible your ISP is blocking port 80. Not all do, but it's not uncommon. That's why internally your Mac would be showing an open port, but externally it looks blocked.

The workaround to this would be to change the port that your Mac's Apache is listening to to an unblocked one (you'll have to check what exactly that would be), and use a dynamic DNS service that offers port redirects, such that requests to the default port 80 are redirected to another open port on your end (or just add the :[portnumber] to the IP address people enter to get to it).

Alternately, your ISP may offer a "pro" or "business" plan that allows you to run what they consider a server and leaves port 80 open. Usually more expensive, but sometimes not outrageously so.