IIS Web Server Accessed With Port-Forwarding

[vegetableman 0]

I'm quite new at this, so I'm sorry if I'm asking dumb questions...

 

So, I'm trying to set up an IIS web server behind my LinkSys router. I set the IP address of the server to a static number (192.168.1.10) so it doesn't get messed up by the DHCP I've got running from the router to the other 5 computers on the router.

 

I've set up port range forwarding to forward all requests at port 81-83 to the internal IP of the server.

 

In the IIS controls on the server I've set the website's TCP port to 82. It works, because typing http://localhost/ on the server doesn't get anything, but http://localhost:82/ works perfectly.

 

BUT I can't access that website from outside the server. As far as I understand, I should, with these setting, be able to access my website by typing my router's IP address:82. But it doesn't work. What am I missing?

 

The thing is that I can access my router itself by typing in ipaddress:8080, so it's not like the IP is wrong. The settings on the port forwarding are pretty clear as well, so I assume my problem lies in my lack of understanding how exactly to set up my IIS web server...

 

Any help would be graciously appreciated...

 

David

[Wicked101 0]

Its been a long time since I touched and IIS, but, if you set up your IIS server behind the router why do you use the router's IP to access your website, use the IP of the IIS server, localhost you only use while on the IIS itself.

[vegetableman 0]

I know that localhost is only on the IIS server itself...I just threw that in there to show that the server is running fine as far as I can tell.

 

I thought that I needed to use the IP of the router and use the port number forwarding to send the signal to the server THROUGH the router.

 

The server's IP address is internal to the router, so from outside the router that IP address is something else.

 

Am I way off here? Keep in mind I'm not making an internal server...I want to host a web page...

[Wicked101 0]

I would rathe put the server on the router as the router is already firewalled, unless you firewalled your IIs server as well. Only when the server is on the router together with the rest of your PC's then you need to use port forwarding. To port forwarding allows your server to connect "directly" to the outside world with the routers external IP and and then the outside world would connect to the external IP of your router and your router derects that traffic directly to the IP of the server, so, you need to forward the ports on the router using the IP of the server.

 

The externel IP of your router is not the same as the internal IP, to find your external IP go on this website

http://www.whatismyip.com/

or you can see it on my signature at the bottom of any of my posts.

 

BUT, remember, I might have the cat by the tail here, it might be better to wait for someone to second or correct me, like I said, its been a long time since I touched any form of servers, but routers, WLAN routers and desktops I'm still very much attached to at this stage.

 

Good luck, I hope this helps or that someone could give you some better advice than me, there is a LOT of very talented people on this forum.

Wicked

[ross_aveling 0]

I'm assuming that your LinkSys has a built in modem here.

 

Many ADSL/Cable modem Routers do not support what is called NAT loopback. Most routers will only forward port requests [to a PC behind the router] if the request originates from the WAN IP of the modem (ie, from over the Internet). NAT loopback gets around this and forwards requests from machines on the local LAN as well.

 

If your LinkSys doesn't support loopback you can check by accessing your web server from outside your LAN, if it works then you'll know. Plus a non-loopback router will usually display it's web interface when you reference it (by WAN IP or domain name) from inside your LAN.

 

If this is case for you, you should reference your web server using it's LAN IP (ie, 192.168.0.1:82). If you have a public domain name forwarded to your WAN IP, you could either modify your HOSTS file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) on each LAN machine to include the required mapping, ie;

 

192.168.0.1 mydomain.com

192.168.0.2 myzone.mydomain.com

 

or otherwise, run your own DNS server (this is how I got round it with my Netgear ADSL router).

 

Hopefully I'm on the right track, if not ignore me .

[vegetableman 0]

SOLUTION!

 

It was the damned XP Firewall that automatically blocked access! I just put in an exception and it worked BEAUTIFULLY. WOW that's nice.

 

Thanks for all your help!

David

[Edited by vegetableman on 2005-02-18 22:26:28]