[Tfug] Strange problem on my phpbb forum

[Jeffry Johnston]

Hi,

On my web server box, I recently set up a phpbb forum for my wife and her
friends, but it is having trouble.  When they try to log in, it
redirects them to http://192.168.1.3/phpbb/index.php, obviously not
right!... and so they cannot log in reliably (one user reported being
able to hit their browser back arrow to get in).  Unfortunately,
there are a lot of things going on here which complicate the issue.
I'll try to give all the details.  I appreciate any help and
suggestions!  If you need more details in a certain area, please ask.

Software versions:
* Debian Linux stable (Etch)
* Linux, 2.6.18-4-686
* apache2, 2.2.3-4
* phpbb2, 2.0.21-6
* Other apps running on the server without this 192.168.1.3 problem:
Moin Moin (wiki), DokuWiki

DNS, IP, ports, etc:
* Internal IP: 192.168.1.3, apache2 listening on port 980
* External IP: dynamic (Cox cable)
* External DNS: calamari.reverse-dns.net, a freedns.afraid.org dynamic
dns domain.
* My actual domain name: kidsquid.com
* Subdomain: http://momshangout.kidsquid.com/ stealth redirects to
http://calamari.reverse-dns.net:980/phpbb

Router:
* Linksys BEFW11S4 V4, 192.168.1.1
* Setup: Network Address Server Settings (DHCP): Static DNS 1:
192.168.1.2, Static DNS 2: 192.168.1.3, Static DNS 3: 192.168.1.4
note: one weirdness here is that I have to specify my server IP above,
if I don't then it isn't accessible from outside.. which doesn't make
much sense to me.  But it causes headabches because when I connect a
machine and have it use DHCP, then it thinks my DNS addresses are
those above, which aren't correct.  This is my strongest suspicion of
a problem at this point, but I don't know how to fix it.
* Applications & Gaming: Application: APACHE2, Start: 980, End: 980,
Protocol: Both (TCP and UDP), IP Address: 192.168.1.3, Enable: Yes

I searched my phpbb installation for the following (grep -Ri {keyword}
/usr/share/phpbb2/*), with no hits:
localhost, kidsquid, reverse-dns, 192.168.1.3

/etc/apache2/ports.conf:
Listen 80
Listen 980

/etc/apache2/httpd.conf:
ServerName calamari.reverse-dns.net:980
UseCanonicalName On

/etc/apache2/sites-available/default:
NameVirtualHost *
<VirtualHost *>
       ServerAdmin webmaster at localhost
       ServerName calamari.reverse-dns.net:980
       UseCanonicalName On

       DocumentRoot /var/www/public_html/
       <Directory />
               Options FollowSymLinks
               AllowOverride None
       </Directory>
       <Directory /var/www/public_html/>
               Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
               AllowOverride None
               Order allow,deny                allow from all
               # This directive allows us to have apache2's default start page
               # in /apache2-default/, but still have / go to the
right place
               # RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/
       </Directory>

       ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /var/www/cgi-bin/
       <Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
               AllowOverride None
               Options ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
               Order allow,deny
               Allow from all
       </Directory>

       ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log

       # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
       # alert, emerg.
       LogLevel warn

       CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
       ServerSignature On

   Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
   <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
       Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
       AllowOverride None
       Order deny,allow
       Deny from all
       Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
   </Directory>

   Alias /phpbb /usr/share/phpbb2/site
   <Directory /usr/share/phpbb2/site>
       Options FollowSymLinks
       AllowOverride Limit
       #Deny from all
       #Allow from 127.0.0.1 192.168.1.4
       Allow from all
   </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

/etc/phpbb2/apache.conf:
# Note: order matters
Alias /phpbb/images/avatars /var/lib/phpbb2/avatars
Alias /phpbb /usr/share/phpbb2/site

<Directory /usr/share/phpbb2/site/>
       <IfModule mod_php4.c>
               php_flag register_globals off
       </IfModule>
       <IfModule mod_php5.c>
               php_flag register_globals off
       </IfModule>

       Options -Indexes +FollowSymlinks

       DirectoryIndex index.php

       AllowOverride None
       order allow,deny
       allow from all
</Directory>

# For a second board on the same server (see README.multiboard for details):
#
#Alias /second_board/images/avatars /var/lib/phpbb2/board2_avatars <<< create!
#Alias /second_board /usr/share/phpbb2/site
#<Location /second_board>
#       php_value auto_prepend_file /etc/phpbb2/alternative_config.php
#</Location>

# For virtual host:
#<VirtualHost *>
#       # For using an alternative database (for multiple boards for example)
#       php_value auto_prepend_file /etc/phpbb2/virtualhost_config.php
#
#       ServerName forum.example.com
#       DocumentRoot /usr/share/phpbb2/site
#       # You may need to workaround the global /images/ alias in your apache
#       # configuration, your mileage may vary
#       Alias /images/avatars /var/lib/phpbb2/avatars
#       Alias /images /usr/share/phpbb2/site/images
#</VirtualHost>

/etc/phpbb2/config.php:
<?php
// Database configuration file for phpbb2. This file is automatically
// generated by phpbb2-conf-mysql

/*
Please use `dpkg-reconfigure phpbb2-conf-mysql' if you want to modify
these variables, or deinstall phpbb2-conf-mysql altogether.

Only this way phpbb2-conf-mysql can upgrade your table definitions
when needed.
*/

$dbms         = "mysql";

$dbhost       = "localhost";
$dbname       = "phpbb2";
$dbuser       = "phpbb2";
$dbpasswd     = "...censored ;)...";

$table_prefix = "phpbb_";

define('PHPBB_INSTALLED', true);

Thanks a lot for any help!
Jeff