FM Unlimited Access Problem - Firewall Issue?

[danabase]

I have a web forms system which I created at home, and now want to host live from work. At home, I have a DSL line and just needed to plug my computer in and use my static IP in order to let people access the page.

Now that I have moved the system to work, we can only get to it using the internal IP (192...), but not from outside. We have FMP set to use port 591 and have given that port a place on the firewall, but it looks like we have done this incorrectly. Are there certain steps to follow to be sure we are configuring the IP and port correctly? We are using sonicwall and are supposed to be LIVE by Tuesday!

Any help would be AMAZING!!

[Steve T.]

Howdy, d! The difference is static vs. dynamic IPs. At work, your whole network is using 1 IP address and then your router is handing out local IP's (192.168.x.x) so you have to give your router's external IP address out and then use PORT FORWARDING to forward all :591 or :80 or whatever traffic to your local machine's 192.168.x.x. Not all routers do port forwarding, but I think most do today. Many also have admin control via a web browser where you can do all that. Check your router's documentation.

Static IP's are really the way to go, though. You saw how easy it was w/static IPs.

--ST

[kfutter]

Actually, not all routers have a DHCP server, either. In many cases, LAN machines will still use static IPs (particularly for managed networks or VLANS), rather than rely on DHCP. We used to handle FM connections through URL rewriting at the gateway level, where an incoming URL call (eg http://mysite.com:591/) would be translated to an internal network address, with the target machine listening on port 591. Any kind of port forwarding/port filtering/url rewriting really relies on a static target address though, so if you're running your local machines off DHCP it won't work reliably.

Cheers,

Kevin

[Steve T.]

Yes, Kevin's right.. sorry if I confused anyone. d, if you can, you should set your router to exclude dynamic IP assignment for the server, i.e. set your router to hand out 192.168.1.10 thru 192.168.1.100 or so and then use something like 192.168.1.5 for your server and then use port forwarding for web traffic to that IP. 192.168.x.x is a special IP address range used for local internal networks only; kinda like the "localhost" IP 127.* thing. Thanx, Kevin!

--ST