apache 2.2 url to user home subfolder issue

Question

I have an Ubuntu12 server running Apache 2.2.22. I setup a simple html page which worked fine. But what I really want to do is serve files that are in a Users folder. I have tried Alias and symlink but neither worked and all I get is connection timed out.

ServerName sitexyz.abc DocumentRoot /home/bill/folder AllowOverride All ...

If I change the file above (DocumentRoot and Directory settings) to look at /var/www/html the basic index.html there is served fine.

Ignoring ssl, password authentication etc I can't seem to get the basic serving of files right. What should I check or t'shoot first?

Thanks

Answer 1

Check the permissions of the user Apache is running as. It most likely does not have read permissions on other users' home directories.

Answer 2

This worked for me. I must admit I don't know what every line means. I hope someone else finds it useful.

    DocumentRoot /var/www/html
    <Directory /var/www/html/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride None
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    Alias /folder/ "/home/bill/folder/"
    <Directory "/home/bill/folder/">
            Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride None
    </Directory>