Use external IP address inside my LAN?

[Muchacho]

I have a webserver on my LAN that runs a webpage that needs me to specify what the web address to function properly. On my old router I was able to set that address to the actual IP address and everything worked great. Since I got a new router (netgear MR814) I have been unable to access the server from inside my LAN using that external IP address. If I use the internal IP address the web pages do no work correctly, however it works fine from outside the LAN. To workaround this I have sorta tricked the web service into accepting a relative path to work (i.e. folder\pictures instead of http:\\128.xxx.xx.xx\folder\pictures) which then works fine from the external internet using the external IP address, as well as working from within my LAN using the internal IP.

The problem occurs when I attempt to print a photo from the webpage (it is a photo gallery using the web application gallery) on shutterfly. Shutterfly is unable to find the image when I attempt to pront something using their service. This used to work on my old router so I am assuming that the web application is unable to provide shutterfly with the correct IP address using my workaround. I was wondering if there is a way to set it up so that I can set the webapplication IP address to the external IP and be able to access the site within my LAN using that external IP address. I would greatly appreciate any help, and please let me know what other additional information my be helpful. Thanks, Mike

 

[ScottMac]

The problem is that when you use the external address, your PC sees it as an external address, and send it to the default gateway, which sends it out to the Internet.

Multiple address block co-residnet on the same segment is generally considered a Bad Thing in all but some conversion scenarios.

You could put a static route in your gateway route to reflect that specific address back to your LAN and server.

You could put the server "outside" the gateway router (caution: exposes the server to SEVERE security issues unless you have buttoned it up properly ... then it's still at some risk).

You could install an alias in your web server for both address blocks (internal, external), but that wouldn't cure the absolute references in your HTML / Page code. Better to edit the pages with relative references (as you sound like you started or done). For internal pages needing absolute references, you could try changing the IP address to 127.0.0.1 ("localhost") which is the loopback address to your system (the traffic never leaves your PC, it's "looped back" in the IP stack).

There's probably some other work-arounds ... these should give you a good start.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[Muchacho]

Thank you for the help. How exactly does one do this "You could put a static route in your gateway route to reflect that specific address back to your LAN and server"? I think that is what I am looking for- would that allow me to access my site internally using the external IP? On my router I have to specify Destination IP Address, IP Subnet Mask, and Gateway IP Address. Which address is which? I have not been able to get that to work. Thanks again for the help, Mike

 

[Muchacho]

Is there a way to do this on my LAN clients with the hosts file? The problem I am having is using an IP address as the site to be redirected i.e

Should look like this
128.0.0.0 whatever.com

Mine looks like this
128.0.0.0 194.12.x.x.x

Is there a way to get this to work?

 

[martind1]

you shoudl be able to forward port 80 to the web server no problem

as far as accessing the site from within the netowrk, just use the internal ip for the machien. http://192.168.1.2/whatever