Bypassing a hardware firewall/router with a Macintosh computer...

[Ichinisan]

A client called me to figure out why her boss could not connect remotely to her Macintosh computer. I put her computer into DMZ with the Linksys VoIP router because I would not be able to test whether port-forwarding works or not. I then called the cable ISP and agreed to the additional $7 monthly charge to bypass their imposed firewall (via mapped IP address) and provided the MAC address of the Linksys router. I took about 40 mins before the reported IP address changed on www.whatismyip.com

I wrote it down for the lady and explained to her that the IP address is like an "Internet phone number", and that her boss would need to have the number to be able to connect with her computer. I also told her that I had no way to test their connection software without another Macintosh computer, so I instructed her to leave the computer on overnight. I wrote down the IP address and tried to ping it from my WinXP machine when I got home. It does not respond to ping requests, "100% loss"

I typed the IP into a web browser and it comes up with a default Apache Web Server page. Should I assume that this is coming from her computer? Is it possible that the ISP has an unconfigured web server on one of their routers?

 

[InlineFive]

If you are not aware of having an apache webserver on your network then I'm guessing that your ISP is blocking more ports then you know. This is really common with residential internet services. But a lot of ISPs will remove all port blocking and filtering with business service.

 

[Ichinisan]

A quick Google search revealed that Mac OSX does include Apache web server, but I still have no way to tell if the page is coming from her computer. I really suspect that it is coming from one of the ISP's unconfigured routers.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Why would a router be running Apache?

nmap her. See if it's Mac OS X.