title: New server worked for a few hours, but now connections time out
body: <p>I used this guide to set up Apache2 and PHP5: <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-apache-mysql-php-lamp-stack-on-ubuntu" rel="nofollow">link</a>.</p>
  
  <p>I set up a simple PHP script, debugged some permissions issues, got everything working. A few hours later, it stopped working. I could no longer access my script over the web.</p>
  
  <p>When I open a browser on my PC and point to the server's IP address (I am not using a domain, this server is just for serving one PHP script), the connection times out. I followed several steps from this guide: <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-troubleshoot-common-site-issues-on-a-linux-server" rel="nofollow">link</a>.</p>
  
  <p>Here's what I've tried so far:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Confirmed that apache is running</li>
  <li>Confifmed that port 80 is open</li>
  <li>Confirmed that html/php pages are at the proper directory</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Other than installing Ubuntu, Apache, and PHP, all I have done is change a few permissions. So, since I'm fairly new to Ubuntu, I assume that's where the problem must be. Here's how the permissions are set in my html directory:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ pwd
  /var/www/html
  $ cd /var/www
  $ ls -l
  total 4
  drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May  3 12:07 html
  $ cd html
  $ ls -l
  total 20
  -rw-r-Sr-- 1 www-data root       379 May  3 12:30 dataentry.php
  -rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data  1383 May  3 13:03 datalog.csv
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root     root     11510 May  3 10:40 index.html
  $ 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Note I'm not using index.html - I just go directly to my script - so I'm assuming it doesn't matter what permissions are set for index.html.</p>
  
  <p>I also checked my apache error log, and these are the last few entries from AFTER the last time I could connect:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[Tue May 03 13:20:33.630151 2016] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 16374] AH00169: caught SIGTERM, shutting down
  [Tue May 03 13:20:34.710242 2016] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 17929] AH00163: Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.5.9-1ubuntu4.16 configured -- resuming normal oper$
  [Tue May 03 13:20:34.710284 2016] [core:notice] [pid 17929] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/apache2'
  [Thu May 05 14:59:03.584613 2016] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 17929] AH00169: caught SIGTERM, shutting down
  [Thu May 05 14:59:04.664584 2016] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 26724] AH00163: Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.5.9-1ubuntu4.16 configured -- resuming normal oper$
  [Thu May 05 14:59:04.664628 2016] [core:notice] [pid 26724] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/apache2'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Does anything here stand out? What are some other trouble-shooting steps I can take?</p>
  
  <p>Disclosure: I originally posted this over on server fault but got no response after a few days.</p>