Internal Yes, External NO!

[GriffIT34]

I need some troubleshooting Idea's. I can see my site from inside my network. But not from outside the router. (DI-624) Now I did set up port forwarding (or virtual server) as dlink describes it. Any idea's why it doesn't work. I'm using an arbitrary port 8079? instead of 80. And again this works from inside the router. So I assume the router is the problem but I just don't know what I''m missing

[John A]

I'm using an arbitrary port 8079? instead of 80.

I think you should only use port 80 for http. If that doesn't solve the problem, make sure you have the firewall letting through all inbound and outbound packets on port 80 from both LAN and WAN.

[GriffIT34]

Actually the port isn't the problem. It's a port ive used that works on another router. I have't changed a thing on the box. Now according to the router's firewall traffic is allowed thru my internal address with that port, but for some reason my pages aren't display?????

[John A]

Are you sure that your ISP isn't blocking port 80 (serving)? Some ISPs do this to prevent their customers from setting up webservers on a package that doesn't have "public server" in its contract.

One way to test: Open up the MS-DOS Prompt, and try to use telnet to make a connection to the server (this would be on a computer outside your LAN). telnet 192.168.0.1 80 replacing "192.168.0.1" with the external IP address of your server.
If it says something like "connection refused", and you're sure there's nothing on your end that's blocking it, then your ISP probably blocks servers over port 80. If it connects, well, then something must be going right.

[GriffIT34]

Im pretty sure its not blocked, telnet only gets "connection failed" not refused. I also connected my server directly to the modem, skipping the router and I was able to get the pages on the net.

So, i've narrowed it down to the router. I'm pretty sure.

[GriffIT34]

UPDATE:

I've tried d-link's tech support, and I swapped out the router for a linksys. Still didn't work and I tried linksys tech support. Both were useless. I've contacted my isp to see if they are blocking my in someway, though I don't think so in that I can set up the server directly to the modem and get my web pages by IP. But with the router I can't and i've followed the port forwarding instructions to a T

Any Idea's will be appreciated.

[John A]

So if it's the router, why don't you try some other port forwarding "experiments"? Such as, trying other ports, forwarding the other way (ie., forwarding from LAN to WAN on some weird port). Forwarding the ICMP (port that Ping uses) to the server is another good test.

Lastly, could you post a screenshot of your router's port forwarding configuration? It may aid is finding the solution.

[GriffIT34]

The ports i've tried were the were
80, then 8079, 8078, 7002, 7001.
Now 8079 had worked for http server with the same ISP, and same box.
But i moved and in that time my router failed and I bought and new one.
Same co, different model. And in thinking that was faulty just went out last night a bought a new router. NO luck. I'll follow this up with some screen shots later when i get home.

[John A]

Another thing to try is the Demillitarized Zone. This is an option on the router which allows one computer to be completely exposed to the Internet; it's as if the computer were actually connected directly to the modem, even though it's really running through the router. Now if that doesn't work, something is really wrong...

[GriffIT34]

I don't know how, but setting a static address was the problem(even thoug i thought you were supposed too) Statically the ip doesn't show up in the routing table of either d-link or linksys routers. I reset the server to pull dynamically, then port forward the ip address that was given by DHCP and presto changeo I can access my pages from outside the network.

I still have a few glitches to work out but at least I over came that hurdle, hope this helps someone else. Now I need to set the DHCP to never expire.

[John A]

I don't know how, but setting a static address was the problem(even thoug i thought you were supposed too) Statically the ip doesn't show up in the routing table of either d-link or linksys routers. I reset the server to pull dynamically, then port forward the ip address that was given by DHCP and presto changeo I can access my pages from outside the network.

I still have a few glitches to work out but at least I over came that hurdle, hope this helps someone else. Now I need to set the DHCP to never expire.

That would make sense. (I should have thought of that myself.) The way to do this now, is go into the DHCP settings of your router. Find "Static DHCP", which will allow you to enter a MAC address and an IP address you want associated with it. Then everytime a DHCP renew is done, it will be as if your server has a static IP address.

[GriffIT34]

Thanks, i had an idea of how, but wasn't totally sure. Now to get the virtual hosts up an running and I can get 2 or 3 sites out of one box.