OSX Lion, open a local port so people on my network can access it

Question

I'm running django's simple HTTP server (using python manage.py runserver). It's currently running on port 8000.

How can I open a port on my macbook and allow network traffic to visit my host on port 8000?

Solution 1

System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall > Advanced.

Add a new entry with the +. Since you're running an executable, you can search for python, or you could add an entry using the port via command-line and ipfw.

More info here: https://serverfault.com/a/105736/3914

Solution 2

python manage.py runserver

The above command will permit access by localhost only. If you want to permit access by other network devices you must serve on 0.0.0.0:

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

For those running from PyCharm, you set the Host field to 0.0.0.0 in the Run Configuration.

Once I did this, I got the OS X firewall popup asking: Do you want the application “Python.app” to accept incoming network connections.

Then you can access via mac-name.local:8000 or via the Mac's ip address.

Incidentally, I'm running Python 3.4, built and installed by MacPorts on OS X El Capitan 10.11.2.

Comments

[Admin]

If it's running on port 8000, the port is already open. What are you asking? Perhaps you'll need an exclusion in your firewall for that port, but it's not clear from your question.

[n0pe]

The port is open to me locally, but is most likely being blocked by my computer's firewall. I need to open it.