How to access on different computers?

[Lean Gerard]

I have installed RB 5.0.4 on my local PC. I have installed RB using WSL. I have the website running on "localhost" on my web browser, I was hoping to connect the website that I have created to another PC I have, What is the best way to do this? I have tried using the IP address however it is not working, Please help.

[Christian Hammond]

Hi Lean,

To have a working shared install of Review Board (or any other web server software), you'll need to do a few things:

1. Have a stable IP address that others can access.

2. Make sure that IP address can route to your WSL. This will require proxying a port (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/networking). Also, make sure the firewall allows this port.

3. Set up a domain/subdomain in your network that can map to the IP. I'm assuming your company has a centralized DNS server somewhere for this? If you can't set up a domain, and must only use the IP, then you can specify the IP in place of the domain, but I'll assume you can get a domain going.

4. Configure the domain in Review Board (Admin UI -> General Settings) and in your sitedir/conf/settings_local.py in ALLOWED_HOSTS.

5. Configure Apache to serve up Review Board under your domain.

A lot of this is dependent on your company/organization's networking setup and policies, so I can only provide some broad guidance. But hopefully the link above helps with the inability to reach it by IP.

Christian

On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 5:47 AM Lean Gerard <leangerar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have installed RB 5.0.4 on my local PC. I have installed RB using WSL. I have the website running on "localhost" on my web browser, I was hoping to connect the website that I have created to another PC I have, What is the best way to do this? I have tried using the IP address however it is not working, Please help.

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[Lean Gerard]

Hi Christian,

So basically I am running my RB using WSL on my windows pc and I want to access this on google chrome on my Ubuntu PC and other Windows PC. Will this be possible? I have changed the setting_local.py by 'localhost','ip-address' and etc.

 I can access reviewboard on localhost and ip address on the pc it is installed in, but still not able to access it on other computers. I ahve also tried disabling the firewall on the ubuntu pc but still not able to reach the site.

Many thanks, 

Lean

[Christian Hammond]

Hi Lean,

It's possible, if they're on the same network. But this is a more general networking question, and not something Review Board-specific. Review Board itself isn't able to control whether it's available on your network, so there's not anything you can modify there to make this happen.

The biggest challenge, since you're hosting on WSL, is to make the Apache port (80 or 443) accessible over your network. Normally, WSL is protected by both a firewall and by kind of being on its own private network. That's where step 2 in my instructions comes in. You'll need to follow Microsoft's instructions for making ports 80 and 443 available on your network (aka "adding a route"). At that point, other computers should be able to access it using your Windows PC's IP address.

The firewall changes also need to be made on the Windows PC. Those dictate what ports other computers are allowed to access.

WSL makes this a bit more complicated. If you were installing on Ubuntu itself, you might have an easier time. But it's doable.

Christian

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/reviewboard/c6ae91a3-3659-427d-b94a-2be38f8f83abn%40googlegroups.com.