As subject, I've more than one of my device using my home WiFi network.

I started a simple web server on my Linux laptop (python3 -m http.server), but pointing web browser at it from a Chromebook just waits forever. Later I also found that I'm unable to ssh into my laptop from the Chromebook either, although there's an SSH server listening on the laptop.

The Chromebook and laptop can ping each other using their 192.168.1.x addresses. But it seems that they're not able to access each other.

Where shall I start to figure/fix this?

Thanks in advance.

To be clear, the linux laptop can http to itself using its 192.168.1.x address, and you can ssh from the box to itself using ssh 192.168.1.x, and both machines can ping the 192.168.1.x interface for that box? Have you checked the listeners on that box? Is there a firewall running on that box?

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Linux laptop can both HTTP and SSH to itself. And both machines can ping to its self 192.168.1.x address.

My Linux laptop doesn't have any firewall installed. Chromebook is vanilla except in developer mode, although I'm not sure, I dare guess that it doesn't have any firewall installed.

My Android phone also connects to the same network, but can't HTTP to the laptop either.

Check any firewalls that may be active on the affected hosts. It is also possible that wireless/client isolation is set on the AP router. That might prevent connected hosts from having visibility of each other's services.

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Never knew about this client isolation thing, but sounds like that might be. I coudln't find any relevant settings on the router, so will contact Vodafone UK. I'll post once I've an update.


Thanks.

Some routers don't allow wifi clients to interact?? I saw one like that. No way to enable it.

Sounds like a VERY good reason for running your own router, instead of the one supplied by the ISP.

I had a back and forth between Vodafone UK, and they swear their router isn't at fault here.

To test whether my devices are at fault here, I got a Linksys wireless router, had it reset to factory settings, and turned it on. This router has has no internet connection - just standalone WiFi. I then had all wireless security and firewall disabled. This has a DHCP server running, so all my devices (Laptop, Chromebook, and Android phone) could connect to the WiFi right away - they all got IP addresses like 192.168.1.*. To clarify, the ISP-provided router is not involved at all; this was a freshly rolled-out WiFi hosted by the Linksys router.

It had me dumbfounded that none of my device were still able to see each other! They however were able to ping.

All of them can access the router admin portal http://192.168.1.1.

Neither Chromebook (via crosh > ssh) nor Android (via Terminus application) could SSH into my laptop. The laptop does run an SSH server at port 22.

To further rule out any foul play, I launched Linux user space on Chromebook via crouton, and tried ssh - still the same story.

As another test, I started a python3 web server on the laptop: python3 -m http.server --bind 192.168.1.107 80

(192.168.1.107 was my laptop's IP).

Not surprisingly, the laptop was able to access itself using http://192.168.1.107:8000. But none of the other devices could.

At this point, my brain starts to hurt. For all I know, this ought to work out of the box. Please could someone suggest what might be going wrong here? I'm happy to share any details you need.

Thanks in advance.

Can you confirm that client isolation is disabled in the Linksys router?

Also, check that your server (laptop) firewall is not active.

Perform an nmap scan of the laptop's IP address from the Chromebook (or Android) host...

* You may need to install the application in these devices first.

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Ugh, this is embarrassing: it was the firewall indeed. I didn't know it was there. Gufw came installed by default on Linux Mint.

After all this hair pulling, it's deflating to realize I missed something so simple.

Worse, looking back at this thread, wpeckham hinted at this earlier. I don't know how missed it - perhaps a typo on the search menu. Such a shame.

Thanks for your help. I've now have some beating up myself to do.

Yes, a couple of us had already suggested it.

Anyway, always good to read of a successful outcome, and I’m sure that you learned from it. It happens to us all, so don’t beat yourself up for being human. Learning often involves making mistakes.