Author Topic: Help with weatherlink and apache  (Read 3873 times)

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Offline chief-david

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Help with weatherlink and apache
« on: May 28, 2009, 10:47:04 PM »
HI.

I have my station at home and I was able to network my school computer to my home network.

I can host two pages on my own site.  reynoldshome.dyndns.org

It is running with apache.
I am missing something easy


How do I get weatherlink to load to my htdocs on my home computer/server?

I know I need a screen shot of the internet settings and network path.


ps-Have I thanked everyone lately for their help and fun on this forum?

dr
« Last Edit: May 28, 2009, 10:53:05 PM by chief-david »



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Offline dalecoy

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2009, 10:34:11 AM »
HI.

I have my station at home and I was able to network my school computer to my home network.

I can host two pages on my own site.  reynoldshome.dyndns.org

It is running with apache.
I am missing something easy


How do I get weatherlink to load to my htdocs on my home computer/server?

I know I need a screen shot of the internet settings and network path.


ps-Have I thanked everyone lately for their help and fun on this forum?

dr

Hi.  Neat website - and interesting that I live in Kansas City, and have three grandkids involved in dance.  Anyhow:

I'm not sure I understand your configuration.  I think you want to display data from your weather station (located at home) on your website (reynoldshome.dyndns.org).  If that's the case, then:

What weatherlink ("regular" WeatherLink or WeatherLink IP?).  And on what computer is WeatherLink running?  Where is that computer? 

What is the "relationship" of the computer running WeatherLink, to the computer running your website?  Is that (website) computer the one running Apache?

And what is the significance of "network my school computer to my home network"?

I'm sure that's all clear to you, and some of my questions will turn out to have obvious answers - but I wanted to try to get a lot of answers, rather than just ask one question at a time.



Offline chief-david

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2009, 11:09:09 AM »
Go Chiefs (so glad herm is gone!)

I want to display the weather info on my home website.

I have a computer running Weatherlink 5.8.3.. It is my school computer that is collecting data from the last few years.

There is a home computer that has my family website.  It is a server that runs apache- it has a file that says htdocs.  Those are the files you see of my kids.

All computers are linked by my modem and can see each other with the windows network wizard.

On WL, when I use the internet settings, it sees the server and htdocs, but will not load to that file.

WL gives a code like:   \\\SERVER\htdocs\


It may be a sharing issue, but should be something simple.

I can drop images from another computer to htdocs with ms publisher.


I hope to get this done this weekend



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Offline dalecoy

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2009, 01:07:16 PM »
OK, thanks.  I understand that you want the school computer that is running WeatherLink, to put data on your home computer for display via your website.

I suspect that this may be a "protection" issue. 

First, what does the WeatherLink log file say about the transfer?

Secondly, are you able to use some other program to transfer files from the school computer to your home computer?  I know you said "  I can drop images from another computer to htdocs with ms publisher." - but is that from the school computer? 

I presume there's some account info (username and password) associated with that transfer.  Did you set that up in WeatherLink?

WeatherLink uses FTP to transfer the files.  Can you use some other FTP program on your school computer, to put files on your home server?

One last thing - htdocs is a "folder", not a file.  And it might be better (just to keep things straight) for you to establish a "sub-folder" on your server for the weather data.   \\\SERVER\htdocs\weather, or something like that. 

Offline chief-david

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2009, 09:51:37 PM »
At school, we were able to send all pics to a server site.  The administrator used a virtual server and ip address to make the site.

At home, I am not that advanced

so
Here are my pics- I hope they show up
here is the path I am trying to use to post my the weather site to my server using apache

file:\\\\\SERVER\C:\Program files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\weather\

2 different computers
« Last Edit: May 29, 2009, 10:03:07 PM by chief-david »



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Offline dalecoy

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2009, 10:32:47 PM »
Well, I can't see all of the log entries because they run off of the page on both sides.  

But - let me repeat what I already asked:


WeatherLink uses FTP to transfer the files.  Can you use some other FTP program on your school computer, to put files on your home server?


In my opinion, FTP is the best alternative.  And I'm fairly sure that Apache has an FTP server capability.  But you won't be using the file path that you show to do an FTP transfer.  Information should be in the Apache documentation.

Alternatively, can you "mount" your server drive on the Weather computer, so that it LOOKS like a local drive?  If so, I think you might be able to use that as the "Local Path".  Otherwise, I don't think you can successfully use a remote path like you're trying to do (although I have never tried it, so maybe you can).

In any case (FTP or direct transfer), I don't believe the "PATH" is going to start out as file:\\\\.....

I presume you're using some documentation like http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/app_notes/apnote_26.pdf

That has some good sections on testing and troubleshooting.  The first step is to configure it to use a "local drive" that actually exists on the school computer, and make sure it's doing the right thing (maybe you've already done that).  

« Last Edit: May 29, 2009, 10:35:34 PM by dalecoy »

Offline chief-david

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2009, 09:20:55 AM »
Weatherlink can see the htdocs on the server.

It just can't send it there.



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Offline up10ad N9RJH

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2009, 10:06:27 AM »
If you were sending it via http i would think it was an Apache rights issue, but seeing that you are uisng the networking within Windows I will bet that it is just a Windows sharing issue.

Check your properties for your destination folder (weather) and allow modify rights to the other system.  This may be harder than you think since there probably isn't a specific username for that system and you may have to allow modify right for the USERS group.  As long as you don't let other systems connect it should be fine since Apache will still disallow web visitors from making modifications.
Rick (N9RJH)
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Offline dalecoy

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2009, 10:23:42 AM »
Weatherlink can see the htdocs on the server.

It just can't send it there.

Thanks for the info.  That's what I've been trying to isolate. 

Up10ad is, of course, absolutely right.  The "problem" is somewhere on the receiving end - either protections, or firewall, or whatever.

However, note that Up10ad said "As long as you don't let other systems connect...". 

In other words, if the school weather computer isn't connected to any network, and is locked up - and if you absolutely completely trust every other computer and person on your home network, then you are probably OK.

Otherwise, I would advise some password-protected connection method. 

Offline chief-david

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2009, 08:19:57 PM »
GOT IT!!!!!!!

I had a computer whiz come in.  We mapped the htdocs as a drive.

It worked right away.

Please check to see if the address below links into the site.  It is streamlined for the summer.
The learning section will come back in the fall.

If it does not link- please email me
« Last Edit: May 30, 2009, 08:24:16 PM by chief-david »



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Offline lddaly

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2009, 08:23:24 PM »
Looks good!

Offline dalecoy

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Re: Help with weatherlink and apache
« Reply #11 on: May 30, 2009, 09:09:45 PM »
GOT IT!!!!!!!

I had a computer whiz come in.  We mapped the htdocs as a drive.

It worked right away.


As I suggested - I figured that would do it.

The site looks good.  Glad we got it fixed (and confirmed that "local drive" won't work as a path).