Node main.js freezes on custom deployment

After I followed the instructions for a custom deployment from here https://guide.meteor.com/deployment.html I do:

MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/myapp ROOT_URL=http://123.123.123.123 node main.js

and I get no ouput, it just freezes.

ROOT_URL can’t be the host machine’s IP?

Are you sure it’s not working? I don’t think there will be any output of your app unless you do some console logging. Try to add PORT=80 and see if the site works.