Why can't I connect to a server through the public IP?

You are unable to access your bare metal server through its public IP

If you can't connect to a server through the public IP, it might be caused by one of the following reasons.

• The traffic is blocked by your firewall or gateway (such as Vyatta, AT&T, Juniper, Fortigate).
• The network configuration was reset (Applies to only Windows).
• The traffic is blocked by the operating system firewall

Use one of the following options:

• Traffic is blocked by your firewall or gateway.

  Your firewall might be blocking public traffic. For more information, see Allowing SSH and pinging to a public subnet. You can test if the firewall is blocking traffic by running a traceroute from your workstation to the bare metal server’s public IP. Notice if the traceroute stops at a particular IP. If that is the IP of a firewall or gateway you are using, then most likely, that is what is blocking access and you can contact your firewall administrator for guidance.

  You can also temporarily bypass the firewall to determine whether traffic is now reaching the public IP of your server.

• Traffic is blocked by the operating system firewall.

  • Windows

    The Windows firewall might be blocking access to the public IP. As a quick test, you can connect to the server through the IPMI remote console or the private IP and disable the Windows firewall. Then, try again to access the server through the public IP.

    If you are able to access the server through the public IP after you disable the Windows firewall, you need to review your firewall rules and make any appropriate changes.

  • Linux

    One or more of the iptables entries might be blocking access to the public IP and you can temporarily disable iptables as a test. You can connect to your server through the remote console or the private IP and disable iptables by using the following commands.

    • # /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables stop
    • # /etc/rc.d/init.d/ip6tables stop
    • # chkconfig iptables off or
    • # chkconfig ip6tables off

    If you can't access the server through the public IP after you disable iptables, you need to review your iptables rules and make any appropriate changes.

• Network configuration was reset (applies to only Windows).

  On rare occasions, Windows or application updates can reset the network configuration from fixed IPs to DHCP. Which can easily be checked by logging on to the bare metal server through the remote console.

  1. Log in to the IBM Cloud Console and click Start
  2. Search for Network Connections.
  3. Right-click on the relevant adapter and select Properties.
  4. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.
  5. Verify that Obtain an IP address automatically is not selected.
  6. If Obtain an IP address automatically is selected, then select Use the following IP address. Enter the correct IP address, subnet mask, and gateway. You can find this information in the server information in your IBM Cloud® portal.

If none of the previous suggestions fix the issue, contact IBM Cloud® Support and providing as much detail as possible from the troubleshooting that you performed.