Home Web Server - Behind NAT/Router

[Brian]

I have a Web Server Setup at home and it is visible to the WWW, but for domain names to resolve they resolve to my static IP address, but because I am behind my "Netgear Gateway/Router" NAT, the domain names don't resolve to the server because to my PC the server has a different IP address to the static IP address.

How do I solve this problem??

does swiftdsl have a proxy server that I can use so that I can look at my server from the outside?

I believe that this method can be dangerous, imagine me transferring data to the server via external proxy $$$$$ I'm not that silly, but I've heard stories.

[Support]

"How do I solve this problem??"

You can use port forwarding if your modem/router has the port forwarding function. Or set your modem/router as a bridge, connect it directly to the web server and let web server to dial the connection. Or purchase some additional static IP addresses which you can assign to your web server.

For more information on port forwarding please check the following thread.
http://forum.swiftdsl.com.au/showthread.php?s=&threadid=214

"does swiftdsl have a proxy server that I can use so that I can look at my server from the outside?"

No.

[Brian]

Yep Port forwarding is a feature my router has and that's why I got it. It adds security.

But Port forwarding only forwards incomming traffic from the Net. It doesn't forward internal traffic.

Having the web server do the login would defeat the security of the gateway/router.


"No" - Is that an Official statement??

[Sadin]

Well I'm not sure how your network is setup behind your gateway, but suppose that your web server lies on network address: 192.168.1.10 which gets natted to your swiftel static IP of a.b.c.d. Then on your Netgear you setup port forwarding for port 80 to be forwarded to "192.168.1.10" on port 80.

This way when someone from outside tries to resolve your domain name "www.xyz.com.au" they will resolve to your static IP of a.b.c.d. Then they will try to access that address on port 80. Because you've set this up to forward to 192.168.1.10, any packet that matches port 80 will get sent to your www server. Therefore the end user doesn't even know you have NAT and doesn't even know what your internal address is, since your Netgear hides it.

Now if I get you correctly, what you want is that if you on your internal network try to access "www.xyz.com.au", you want it to go to 192.168.1.10 and not a.b.c.d. To do this you need to edit your hosts file on each PC you have at home. In there you need to put something like:
192.168.1.10 www.xyz.com.au

There is another way to get around this, but it is quite complex and it involves setting up your own DNS. I'm not sure but your Netgear may be able to do this for you.

Hope this helps.