I have just been obliged to change my setup to a different internet provider.  FMS 16 running on OS 10.13.3.  I am not an expert on configuring internet service setups, but having been trying to reproduce what existed on my previous provider.  I am now in the strange position where Filemaker client and Webdirect work correctly from computers outside my local network via a DNS address.  On the local network Filemaker client only works via the local address on FMS.  The DNS address fails to connect.  As for Webdirect it also fails to connect on the local network.  I can't get my head around what could be impeding the connection locally but not from outside the network.  Here's a little summary of what i have tried to implement to get this up and running.  I realise that some of the things I have done are superfluous.  But as i said I am no expert.

I have

• reserved my DNS address as a "IP address reservation" using the MAC address of the computer on which FMS resides.
• designated my DNS address as the "Dynamic DNS"
• turned NAT on
• used Port Mapping to open TCP and UDP ports including ports 16000, 16001, 5003, 80, 81, 443, 389
• designated the local IP of the compute on which FMS resides as "DMZ"
• turned the firewall off.
• designated TCP and UDP ports including ports 16000, 16001, 16020, 16020, 5003, 389 as "special application"

So would anyone have an idea what I need to do to make Webdirect and Filemaker client work on the local network using my DNS address?  And possibly let me know what of the above is superfluous.

 

 

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by dysong3

Furthermore, I did a port scan locally and from outside the local network.  What's weird and what I can't figure out is that the ports that are open are not the same.  The shorter list of open ports is what's open locally.

Your local and external ports are hardly ever the same. The local ports are managed by your server. The external ports are managed by your internet router.

On your router you can redirect ports to different internal servers. Ie, you can have a different server act as your webserver, while filemaker resides on a completely different machine again. From external you access these machines via the same ip address but on a different port. On the router you specify which port is redirected (forwarded) to which internal machine.

Without knowing too much about the network, I would say you are trying to access your filemaker server with an external ip address when using dns. Try an nslookup and see what ipaddress is returned. Or maybe your external dns has the old ip address still listed and that needs changing.

Thanks for you reply.  nslookup gives my correct ip address.  So there are no problems there.  I did a port scan of localhost a got the results posted below.  When you say

Quote

 you are trying to access your filemaker server with an external ip address when using dns

that is precisely what I want to do.  I need to be able to test WebDirect on my own computer so that I know it's working for different users.

I have posted below the results I get when I do a port scan for localhost.  It seems to me that the necessary ports are open both externally and internally.  So why isn't it working?