# Windows users? - Can I run multiple clients of one client-rails-server?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 4, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181 "2009-08-04T15:19:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/1 "2009-08-04T15:19:59Z")

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I’m one of the unmentionable users that has been developing in Windows  
for the last 3 years. We all know that I can start a DOS script/server  
session on my machine and run the Rails application on my local  
browser.  
Is there a way that other Windows users could somehow ‘pipe’ onto this  
DOS session running and point THEIR browsers to it?  
Obviously, I’m exploring the ‘holy grail’ to see if we can run multi-  
user implementations in a Windows environment.  
Many thanks,  
David

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**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/2 "2009-08-04T16:00:22Z")

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On Aug 4, 2:18 pm, InventoryTrackers [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> I’m one of the unmentionable users that has been developing in Windows  
> for the last 3 years. We all know that I can start a DOS script/server  
> session on my machine and run the Rails application on my local  
> browser.  
> Is there a way that other Windows users could somehow ‘pipe’ onto this  
> DOS session running and point THEIR browsers to it?  
> Obviously, I’m exploring the ‘holy grail’ to see if we can run multi-  
> user implementations in a Windows environment.

Why would you need to do anything crazy at all - it’s still running a  
perfectly normal web server (it may be default bind to localhost but  
that’s just an option you pass to script/server)

Fred

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**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/3 "2009-08-04T19:59:49Z")

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Fred,  
Are you saying there’s a way to call ‘ruby script/server’ with some  
extension to make this server apparent to other users on a Windows  
network?  
I’ve never seen how one can call someone elses’ 127.0.0.1 from another  
machine.  
Are you aware of any articles or sources that might shed light on  
this?  
Thank you,  
David

On Aug 4, 7:57 am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/4 "2009-08-04T20:27:55Z")

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Hi David,

On Tue, 2009-08-04 at 10:58 -0700, InventoryTrackers wrote:

> Fred,  
> Are you saying there’s a way to call ‘ruby script/server’ with some  
> extension to make this server apparent to other users on a Windows  
> network?

You don’t need an extension.

> I’ve never seen how one can call someone elses’ 127.0.0.1 from another  
> machine.

As long as they know your machine’s IP address and you don’t have your  
ports blocked, they can access the app. Assuming your IP is  
XXX.XX.XXX.XX and you start mongrel on port 3000, anyone on your subnet  
can access your app by typing [http://XXX.XX.XXX.XX:3000](http://XXX.XX.XXX.XX:3000) into their  
browser address bar.

HTH,  
Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/5 "2009-08-04T22:10:58Z")

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Fred,  
That is so cool…thank you.  
I can see that a Windows shop could run a Rails application without  
having to expose themselves to the scary word LINUX.  
I guess the ALPHA user who is running the server on his Windows  
machine would run a “ipconfig” to get his IP address and then just  
tack on the :3000?  
Thanks,  
David

On Aug 4, 12:28 pm, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/6 "2009-08-04T20:28:30Z")

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On Aug 4, 6:58 pm, InventoryTrackers [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> Fred,  
> Are you saying there’s a way to call ‘ruby script/server’ with some  
> extension to make this server apparent to other users on a Windows  
> network?  
> I’ve never seen how one can call someone elses’ 127.0.0.1 from another  
> machine.

Well it won’t be magically visible. You just need to know their ip  
address and stick [http://something:3000](http://something:3000) into a browser (like i said  
you might need to make it bind to 0.0.0.0 first)

Fred

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/7 "2009-08-04T22:26:47Z")

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Hi,

I’ve been running a RoR app for more than a year in a Windows server.  
Until now the only thing needed was to run ‘ruby script\server’ on a  
DOS session.

The users, around 45, connect from a LAN and few others, around 10, by  
VPN access.

The server name is resolved by NetBIOS for local users and by hosts  
files on remote users. So the only thing they need is the name or  
address of the server.

On Aug 4, 8:18 am, InventoryTrackers [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/59ef9b/32.png) [@InventoryTrackers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/InventoryTrackers)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/windows-users-can-i-run-multiple-clients-of-one-client-rails-server/173181/8 "2009-08-05T00:56:02Z")

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InventoryTrackers wrote:

> Fred,  
> That is so cool…thank you.  
> I can see that a Windows shop could run a Rails application without  
> having to expose themselves to the scary word LINUX.

Yes, but why would you want to? Linux is a much better server OS than  
Windows.

> I guess the ALPHA user who is running the server on his Windows  
> machine would run a “ipconfig” to get his IP address and then just  
> tack on the :3000?

Theoretically. But don’t do that. Set up a real dev server. Generally  
speaking, no one developer on the team should be hosting a public server  
instance on his own box. If you’re doing this to help share code, well,  
that’s what version control is for.

> Thanks,  
> David

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid
