How to make app.js run public

Question

Ok, I have searched for hours on this, nothing is working the way it should so I have to be doing something wrong. It works fine on localhost:port but I can't get it to work remotely.

Here is the app.js

var http = require('http');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();

app.set('view engine', 'jade');
app.set('views', './views');

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.render('index', {title: 'Welcome', message: 'Hello ExpressJS!'});
});

app.listen(3000);
console.log('Running Express...');

Here is my port fowarding configuration:

Name: HTTP
Service Type: TCP
External Starting Port: 80
External Ending Port: 80
Use the same port range for Internal Port: [Checked]
Internal IP Address: 192.168.1.11 (This is the pc I want to use)

DNS Configuration

Name: Blank Type: A TTL: 300 Target: My Ip Address
Name: WWW Type: A TTL: 300 Target: My Ip Address

If I use the www.mydomain.com I get nothing, If I use my IP address still nothing. I unchecked Use same internal port, from the port forwarding and entered 3000 but it didn't do anything either, kept causing errors.

How can I make my node js server public?

Answer 1

Your port forwarding only references port 80, but your server is on port 3000 so the port forwarding is never getting to your server process. You have several options to fix:

1. You can forward port 80 on your router IP to port 3000 on 192.168.1.11 and then you would access port 80 on your public IP address and the incoming port 80 traffic would be forwarded to port 3000 on your server.

2. You can forward port 3000 on your router IP to port 3000 on 192.168.1.11 and then you would access port 3000 on your public IP address and the incoming port 3000 traffic would be forwarded to port 3000 on your server.

3. You can forward port 80 on your router IP to port 80 on 192.168.1.11 and then you would access port 80 on your public IP address and you would change your server to run on port 80 and the incoming port 80 traffic would be forwarded to port 80 on your server.

First, worry about getting it working using your public IP address. Then, once that works, you can test/configure your DNS entry for that public IP address.

Other things to consider on Windows:

1. There may be other servers running already on some ports so you have to make sure you're not conflicting with existing port usage.

2. The Windows firewall protecting your local computer may need to be configured to allow the incoming connection to your server (or you can temporarily turn it off, not recommended to leave it off).