Hi guys -

Need some help / suggestions.

I'm trying to punch through a firewall to a Filemaker Server at a clients, who has a DSL modem, a static IP, and an internet gateway software to route internet internally on his network.

According to Filemaker Article 104289, you assign Port 5003 to the server, and allow both UDP and TCP traffic to it.

But according to Filemaker Article 106727, this is not possible since Filemaker server cannot utilize Network Address Translation or Proxy type addresses.

The only real solution I can see is to put the server computer on its on own real world IP, not firewalled, which is a bit outrageous to my customer.

Has anyone else run Filemaker 5 server behind a firewall? If so, can you let me know what configuration you have had success with?

Feel free to email me privately if you wish.

Thanks in advance!

Ignore article #106727 - it does not apply to your sitiation. "Punching a hole" in the firewall is only half of the solution to your problem.

I suspect that you have not configured your NAT to "forward" the incoming WAN packets on Port 5003 to the appropriate computer within the LAN. In your case, this would be the FMP server.

Here is what takes place, when your NAT is properly configured:

Firewall receives a WAN (internet) packet on Port 5003.

Firewall allows the packet to pass through the firewall.

Firewall forwards the packet to computer 192.168.x.x (your FMP server).

Hope this helps! If you have problems, email me with your router type, and perhaps I can assist.

One more thing - I hope your firewall and NAT are an integrated unit. If you are trying to use a separate firewall and NAT hardware or software this can get very complicated. Integrated units go for about $100 now, and can handle the traffic of most small-to-midsized organizations. Contact me if you need help with this.