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Force apache webserver to listen on all addresses except one ip address

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: November 2, 2006]

Few days back I wrote about how to force OpenSSH (sshd) to listen on selected multiple IP address only. Kritika sends me following question:

I would like to bind port 80 on 3 of 5 IP address. By default Apache using all port 80. How do I force apache webserver to listen on all addresses except one ip address?

Just like OpenSSH's ListenAddress directive, apache has Listen directive. When Apache starts, it binds to some port and address on the local machine and waits for incoming requests. By default, it listens to all addresses on the machine. However, it needs to be told to listen on specific ports, or to listen on only selected addresses, or a combination. This is often combined with the Virtual Host feature which determines how Apache responds to different IP addresses, hostnames and ports.

The Listen directive tells the server to accept incoming requests only on the specified port or address-and-port combinations. If only a port number is specified in the Listen directive, the server listens to the given port on all interfaces. If an IP address is given as well as a port, the server will listen on the given port and interface. Multiple Listen directives may be used to specify a number of addresses and ports to listen on. The server will respond to requests from any of the listed addresses and ports.

In short open your httpd.conf file :
# vi httpd.conf

Setup Listen directive as follows:
Listen 202.5.1.1:80 Listen 202.5.1.2:80 Listen 202.5.1.3:80

Save and close the file. Restart the apache:
# /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Verify that apache listing to three IP address only:
# netstat -tulpn | grep :80

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