No port forwarding

[pritsey]

Hi all,

I've been using a Netgear MR314 router for a while now, no probs. However, I'm wanting to run a basic Apache server from home. Server all set up and working, so good news right? Well sort of.....

Problem is that my router doesn't appear to want to forward the connection. I've forwarded ports 21 to 80 and 2000 to 2010. I've forwarded them onto the computer running Apache but it won't work.

Whenever I type in my WAN IP address I get directed to my router login page, as if I'd typed 192.168.0.1 instead of my Apache server. I know that the server is working as I can view it in the LAN, just not the WAN.

Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope......

[malfunction]

Hi all,

I've been using a Netgear MR314 router for a while now, no probs. However, I'm wanting to run a basic Apache server from home. Server all set up and working, so good news right? Well sort of.....

Problem is that my router doesn't appear to want to forward the connection. I've forwarded ports 21 to 80 and 2000 to 2010. I've forwarded them onto the computer running Apache but it won't work.

Whenever I type in my WAN IP address I get directed to my router login page, as if I'd typed 192.168.0.1 instead of my Apache server. I know that the server is working as I can view it in the LAN, just not the WAN.

Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope......

You mean if you type the WAN IP address (i.e. your public IP address) from the LAN you get the router or if you type it from the 'WAN' (internet) you get the router?

You can USUALLY specify that:

1) The router doesn't server it's config pages on the public side (much safer unless you know you need to be able to configure it from outside)

and

2) The port on which the router config responds (which isn't usually the default port either so that it's slightly harder to find and doesn't clash with a port forward to a web server on the default HTTP port)

Failing that you could always forward a port other than port 80 on the WAN IP to port 80 on the LAN IP (your webserver's private AKA internal IP that is)

Why are you forwarding ports 2000 up to 2010? I presume you will be using FTP (port 21) too - but unless you want to only be able to accept passive FTP clients you'll need to open up port 20 too (IIRC). If you aren't using / setting up an FTP server then don't let either in.

Talking of which (letting things in) you may find that even though you've set up port forwarding you need to explicity open up those ports on the router too otherwise the router will drop the traffic before considering it for forwarding onto the LAN...

[Paul Adams]

Whenever I type in my WAN IP address I get directed to my router login page, as if I'd typed 192.168.0.1 instead of my Apache server. I know that the server is working as I can view it in the LAN, just not the WAN.

It'll be your router performing NAT from your client, so it thinks you are trying to talk to it, ignoring port forwarding from clients on your LAN.

From the outside you should find the port forwarding works flawlessly - to get your server internally using the right name you will need to put an entry in the HOSTS file on each client, pointing to the private IP address.

To verify first that your site is accessible from the outside, use something like The Cloak as a proxy to check it can get to your default page.

Once you've checked the port forwarding is working from the outside, if you need help with the HOSTS file then drop me a PM.

[pritsey]

Opened up 2000 - 2010 as I read it on another forum...was willing to try anything! In fact I even tried to use a DMZ to get it to work and it still wouldn't.

What I meant by WAN IP, was if I entered my public IP address into a web browser, you would expect the router to forward the port request on to the machine running the server. Instead it goes through to the router log on page.

[malfunction]

Opened up 2000 - 2010 as I read it on another forum...was willing to try anything! In fact I even tried to use a DMZ to get it to work and it still wouldn't.

What I meant by WAN IP, was if I entered my public IP address into a web browser, you would expect the router to forward the port request on to the machine running the server. Instead it goes through to the router log on page.

As Paul Adams says though - from outside your LAN the port forwarding may well work but from inside the LAN the router may think you are addressing it directly. Def' check if you can move the router config to another port and disable it to outside access if you don't need it though.

Even if you know what you're doing it always helps loads if you can borrow 5 minutes of someone's time from outside of your LAN (infact if you PM me your external IP address I can try and connect from here if you like - though I'm only going to be around for another 5 mins or so)

[pritsey]

Ah, ok. So you reckon it'll all be peachy from somewhere else, but if trying from within my LAN it looks like poop.....gotcha! Wouldv'r PM'd you malfunction, but looks like I may have missed you.

I'll try via my SPV and see if that will let me......

[Jonny M]

To do what you want, the router needs to support loopback, which most home ones don't.

[pritsey]

Update ....... it works! Thanks for your help guys. Thought I was going nuts! Typed my WAN IP address into my SPV E200 and saw the Apache test page.

Hurah!