CFMX and Intranets

[chencho]

Hi everyone, Newbie here! I'm trying (with no success) to build a database to
share with fellow colleagues over at our Intranet at work. I chose CFMX as the
means to channel this information and make it "public" since I've been hearing
great reviews about the product. I may be mistaken, but I thought CFMX's main
task was to turn my PC into a Server so that I could share certain info over a
network. I have been using Ben Forta's MM CFMX Web Application Kit to get me
started and nowhere do I find the info necessary to accomplish this, unless
there's something I'm missing which I probably am!

I tested the basic examples and I tried to access them through another PC
wired to my Intranet. The URL I typed in looked something like this: [url]http://(my[/url]
IP here):8500/ows/bday1.cfm I was hoping I could enter the site but I got a
FILE NOT FOUND response. The CF Admin is on and everything is rolling on my
local PC, so how come I can't view those files on another PC wired to my
network? Please help!!

[chencho]

Hi everyone, Newbie here! I'm trying (with no success) to build a database to
share with fellow colleagues over at our Intranet at work. I chose CFMX as the
means to channel this information and make it "public" since I've been hearing
great reviews about the product. I may be mistaken, but I thought CFMX's main
task was to turn my PC into a Server so that I could share certain info over a
network. I have been using Ben Forta's MM CFMX Web Application Kit to get me
started and nowhere do I find the info necessary to accomplish this, unless
there's something I'm missing which I probably am!

I tested the basic examples and I tried to access them through another PC
wired to my Intranet. The URL I typed in looked something like this: [url]http://(my[/url]
IP here):8500/ows/bday1.cfm I was hoping I could enter the site but I got a
FILE NOT FOUND response. The CF Admin is on and everything is rolling on my
local PC, so how come I can't view those files on another PC wired to my
network? Please help!!

[chencho]

I forgot to add that I'm neither the administrator nor anyone involved with the maintenance of our Intranet. I'm just a regular Joe trying to reach out to my fellow workmates. Thanx I bunch!

[mpwoodward *TMM*]

On 2005-05-03 21:47:46 -0500, "chencho" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> said:

> Hi everyone, Newbie here! I'm trying (with no success) to build a
> database to share with fellow colleagues over at our Intranet at work.
> I chose CFMX as the means to channel this information and make it
> "public" since I've been hearing great reviews about the product. I may
> be mistaken, but I thought CFMX's main task was to turn my PC into a
> Server so that I could share certain info over a network. I have been
> using Ben Forta's MM CFMX Web Application Kit to get me started and
> nowhere do I find the info necessary to accomplish this, unless there's
> something I'm missing which I probably am!
> I tested the basic examples and I tried to access them through another
> PC wired to my Intranet. The URL I typed in looked something like this:
> [url]http://(my[/url] IP here):8500/ows/bday1.cfm I was hoping I could enter the
> site but I got a FILE NOT FOUND response. The CF Admin is on and
> everything is rolling on my local PC, so how come I can't view those
> files on another PC wired to my network? Please help!!

A few things to know ... first of all, if you have the developer
edition of CF it's intended for development purposes only, meaning it
can be used on your local machine and can also be hit by two external
IP addresses only. If you want to run a true application you'll need
to purchase a CF license.

Next thing--if you're running CF on port 8500 that's using CF's
built-in web server, which again is intended for development use only.
Typically on production applications CF will connect to a web server
such as IIS or Apache, and when a request comes into the web server for
a CF page, the web server will hand the processing of the CF off to the
CF server, which returns the end result back tot he web server.

As for the reason why your colleagues can't hit your box, it could be
due to the IP restrictions of CF, it could be your company's firewall
or the firewall on your computer is blocking external traffic to that
port, could be for any number of reasons. If you *can* hit the page
you're trying to hit via localhost when you're on your machine (i.e.
[url]http://127.0.01:8500/ows/bday1.cfm[/url]) but you *can't* hit it from another
machine, then my best guess would be that something not related to CF
is blocking traffic to that port. Either that or you've already
utilized the two external IP connections that the developer edition
allows and you're trying to use a third, but usually in that case you
don't get a file not found, you get an actual message about using the
CF developer edition.

I hope that at least gives you some ideas of things to check out--with
more information I'll try to help further.

Matt
--
Matt Woodward
[email]mpwoodward@gmail.com[/email]
Team Macromedia - ColdFusion

[Paul Whitham TMM]

Firstly it will depend upon whether you installed CF in standalone or
integrated with IIS as to whether you need to use the 8500 in the line. You
will need to test this on your machine to determine if this is the case.
Then you would need to determine whether your network connections allow for
sharing between machines on the network assuming that CF is not installed on
an existing network server.

However before you go too far unless you have purchased a standard version
of CF Server then you will hit a problem very quickly. The developers
edition will only allow connections from 2 IP addresses one of which is
reserved for 127.0.0.1 which is the IP of the machine that it is on.


--
Regards

Paul Whitham
Macromedia Certified Professional for Dreamweaver MX2004
Valleybiz Internet Design
[url]www.valleybiz.net[/url]

Team Macromedia Volunteer for Ultradev/Dreamweaver MX
[url]www.macromedia.com/support/forums/team_macromedia[/url]

"chencho" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:d59d4i$ndo$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> Hi everyone, Newbie here! I'm trying (with no success) to build a database

to

> share with fellow colleagues over at our Intranet at work. I chose CFMX as

the

> means to channel this information and make it "public" since I've been

hearing

> great reviews about the product. I may be mistaken, but I thought CFMX's

main

> task was to turn my PC into a Server so that I could share certain info

over a

> network. I have been using Ben Forta's MM CFMX Web Application Kit to get

me

> started and nowhere do I find the info necessary to accomplish this,

unless

> there's something I'm missing which I probably am!
>
> I tested the basic examples and I tried to access them through another PC
> wired to my Intranet. The URL I typed in looked something like this:

[url]http://(my[/url]

> IP here):8500/ows/bday1.cfm I was hoping I could enter the site but I got

a

> FILE NOT FOUND response. The CF Admin is on and everything is rolling on

my

> local PC, so how come I can't view those files on another PC wired to my
> network? Please help!!
>

[chencho]

ok, here it goes:
* As far as I'm concerned, I have the Professional version. I checked the
version settings and that's what it says.

* My CFMX version IS installed as stand-alone as I only had that option when I
installed it the first time. Should I download/install another piece of
software to make CFMX work the way I intend it to?

* File sharing-wise, I haven't come across any problems. I have accessed other
PCs from my PC and downloaded several files. Should I modify any special
setting on CF or on my PC to make my computer accessible to others?

Thanx again, I REALLY apreciate it!!

[mpwoodward *TMM*]

On 2005-05-04 13:58:24 -0500, "chencho" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> said:

> ok, here it goes:
> * As far as I'm concerned, I have the Professional version. I checked
> the version settings and that's what it says.

OK, if you have the professional version (aka Standard) you can have as
many connections as your machine can handle, but bear in mind if you're
just running it on XP there is an upper limit as to what the non-server
Windows OS will handle.

> * My CFMX version IS installed as stand-alone as I only had that
> option when I installed it the first time. Should I download/install
> another piece of software to make CFMX work the way I intend it to?

Are you running IIS on XP? If so, you can run the web server connector
after the install, or if you haven't done much with it yet you could
uninstall and reinstall. You can also use CF with Apache on Windows if
you prefer that over IIS. I only have J2EE installations of CF handy
so I can't point you to the web server connector off-hand, but I'll try
and find a machine with CF standard on it later and look.

> * File sharing-wise, I haven't come across any problems. I have
> accessed other PCs from my PC and downloaded several files. Should I
> modify any special setting on CF or on my PC to make my computer
> accessible to others?

Well, everything uses a different port so file sharing doesn't
necessarily have anything to do with people being able to hit port 8500
on your machine. As I said in the previous post if you CAN hit
localhost:8500 and CAN'T hit your_ip_address:8500 then something
(firewall on your machine, firewalls in the network somewhere, etc etc)
is blocking that. If you connect to a web server (IIS or Apache for
example) then CF will run over port 80 and that might simplify things.

> Thanx again, I REALLY apreciate it!!

No problem--I'll try and find where the web server connector is on CF
Standard and post again on that, but in the mean time if you search on
macromedia.com you might find a technote about it.

Matt
--
Matt Woodward
[email]mpwoodward@gmail.com[/email]
Team Macromedia - ColdFusion

[chencho]

****Are you running IIS on XP? If so, you can run the web server connector
after the install, or if you haven't done much with it yet you could
uninstall and reinstall. You can also use CF with Apache on Windows if
you prefer that over IIS. I only have J2EE installations of CF handy
so I can't point you to the web server connector off-hand, but I'll try
and find a machine with CF standard on it later and look.****

Actually I'm using two machines: the one I'm using right now is running
Windows 2000, my laptop at home runs on XP Home. I intend to share both on the
Intranet since that will give me more flexibility. I'm not sure, but I think XP
HOME has no IIS support, or does it? If not, is it a software I can download?

**If you connect to a web server (IIS or Apache for
example) then CF will run over port 80 and that might simplify things.**

Which web server would you recomend: IIS or Apache? I can assure you I don't
mean to launch state-of-the-art applications on CFMX or have great expectations
about becoming a CFMX guru, so whichever web server is easiest to learn and use
will be my pick! The reason I haven't given up on CFMX is that I'm simply
astonished about what I can accomplish with little coding and all the
flexibility it provides. It truly is an amazing piece of software and I don't
mean to give up on it just yet!

Oh, by the way! Would you recomend I gain more experience with CFMX as
standalone (keep studying at home) before trying to hook up to a network, or
would it be better to go for broke and start messing with that right away? Your
help is invaluable!

[mpwoodward *TMM*]

On 2005-05-04 14:55:40 -0500, "chencho" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> said:

> Actually I'm using two machines: the one I'm using right now is
> running Windows 2000, my laptop at home runs on XP Home. I intend to
> share both on the Intranet since that will give me more flexibility.

If you intend to run CF on both these machines and have them accessible
to other users, then of course you'll need a CF license for each
machine. Just pointing that out to avoid the issues with the developer
edition limitations coming into play.

I know you said you have the professional version of CF before. Is
this a trial that you downloaded from macromedia.com or did you
actually purchase a license? If you just downloaded it, then after 30
days it will revert to the developer edition if you don't purchase a
license.

> I'm not sure, but I think XP HOME has no IIS support, or does it? If
> not, is it a software I can download?

I'm pretty sure XP Home does not come with IIS--I'm not sure if you can
download it or not. You'd have to dig around on Microsoft's site, but
I kind of doubt you can download it and use it with Home.

>
> **If you connect to a web server (IIS or Apache for example) then CF
> will run over port 80 and that might simplify things.**
>
> Which web server would you recomend: IIS or Apache? I can assure you I
> don't mean to launch state-of-the-art applications on CFMX or have
> great expectations about becoming a CFMX guru, so whichever web server
> is easiest to learn and use will be my pick!

Easiest by far is IIS. I really like Apache as well but for newbies
it's far more difficult to administer.

> The reason I haven't given up on CFMX is that I'm simply astonished
> about what I can accomplish with little coding and all the flexibility
> it provides. It truly is an amazing piece of software and I don't mean
> to give up on it just yet!

Well, I can tell you from years of experience that CF really is very
easy to install and get running on a network, so if you have it running
on your machine at all you're 99% of the way there. I'm still a bit
suspicious there might be some port blocking going on somewhere based
on the behavior you've described.

> Oh, by the way! Would you recomend I gain more experience with CFMX as
> standalone (keep studying at home) before trying to hook up to a
> network, or would it be better to go for broke and start messing with
> that right away? Your help is invaluable!

Totally up to you--I suppose it really depends on how critical the
applications you're building are. Since you're new if it involves
things people will be using every day, or if there are security
concerns of any kind, probably better to make sure it's working well
before you make it available to other users.

Matt
--
Matt Woodward
[email]mpwoodward@gmail.com[/email]
Team Macromedia - ColdFusion

[cf_menace]

If you've installed the Developer Version, you can only access that from a
single IP address (the first one that connects). In order to allow connections
from other computers, you have to install a licensed version of CFMX Pro or
Enterprise.

[chencho]

Well, thanks for all your help! I checked with Microsoft and I need XP Pro
installed in order to work with IIS; no other solution is viable besides
upgrading to Pro. I think I'll go for a toughie and start using Apache since I
can't use IIS.

No, I don't mean to have both PCs available at the same time. What I meant was
that I could work at home, download the info into my PC at work and then use
that one as the 'server'.

I think I'll keep to the stand-alone version for a while until all this starts
making sense. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of it and I'll be able to contribute
to the forum. See you soon!

[mattw]

Note that the free download of CFMX is a 30-day trial version of the
Professional Edition. So unless you or someone who gave you CFMX paid
approximately $1000 for the Professional Edition, then 30 days after installing
it will revert to the Developer Edition and have the IP limitations mentioned
earlier.